Tech Spend Trends for 2024: SaaS Increases, Ads Fall, and OpenAI Acquisitions Soar 600%

Major changes are revealed by Emburse's 2024 Tech Spend Index: SaaS growth 2024, spending is up, ad budgets are slightly down, and AI investments—particularly in OpenAI's ChatGPT—have increased by 600%.

Today, Emburse Tech Spend Index, a leading provider of travel and expense solutions that support progressive enterprises, unveiled its first Tech Spend Index, which shows how much money mid-size to big businesses spend on top tech brands over the last 12 months.

To create the index, Emburse examined $30 billion in completed expenses from 6,300 businesses with 10.2 million employees, handling approximately $90 billion in cost and invoice interactions annually. Employees continue to use these tools to perform their tasks, even if the overall state of the economy may not appear to benefit consumers. They even pay for what they require out of pocket and submit their receipts for reimbursement.

Even though SaaS suppliers' revenue growth slowed in the first half of 2024, overall SaaS spending increased 7.7% in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023. The amount spent on these companies rose by 5% annually as a percentage of total expenses. Adobe, Atlassian, Intuit, HubSpot, Shopify, Salesforce, DocuSign, Autodesk, Zoom, and Block are among the most costly suppliers in this industry as they are essential for teamwork, dealmaking, and marketing. With expensed expenditure up 43.1% yearly, Shopify had the most rises, followed by Monday.com (23.6%) and DocuSign (20.6%).

More accurately reflecting broader economic challenges, overall Ad spend declined 2024 expenditure by 6% in Q2 2024 compared to the same quarter the year before. Ad expenditure, as a proportion of overall spending, has stayed constant, nevertheless, suggesting that despite budgetary constraints, businesses continue to place a high priority on marketing. Google, Meta, and LinkedIn are the three most costly ad networks. Spending on AI tools, especially ChatGPT from OpenAI purchases increases by 600% annually, highlighting the increasing use of generative AI to assist staff operations.