Annual G2 Survey: Despite Economic Headwinds, Businesses Are Increasing Software and Services Spend
About half of global software buyers plan to spend more in 2023 and 2024, most citing economic uncertainty for the increase, finds G2’s 2023 Software Buyer Behavior Report
G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, published its 2023 Software Buyer Behavior Report, revealing the latest insights and trends based on survey responses from over 1,700 global B2B software decision makers.
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“Despite the doom and gloom we’ve heard around tech markets and budgets, it’s heartening to see a positive outlook from global software buyers”
The following reflects three of the top trends observed in G2’s 2023 Software Buyer Behavior Report:
- Despite an uncertain economic environment, buyers predict increased software and technology spend.
- 49% of buyers say spending will increase in 2023, while only 9% say it will decrease.
- 76% of those who say spending will increase say economic uncertainty was a factor in the change, compared to 80% of those who say spending will decrease.
- The outlook for software spend in 2024 is even brighter, as 55% say spending will increase, and just 6% say it will decrease.
- 75% of those who say spending will increase say economic uncertainty was a factor in the change, compared to 78% of those who say spending will decrease.
- 49% of buyers say spending will increase in 2023, while only 9% say it will decrease.
- Software buyers trust AI tech and prioritize its functionality in their software purchases.
- 81% of respondents say it is important or very important that the software they purchase moving forward has AI functionality – and only 4% say AI functionality is not important at all.
- 78% trust the accuracy and reliability of AI-powered solutions, and less than 2% say they don’t trust it at all.
- While security is important in the buying journey, the rush to adopt, implement, and drive fast ROI often interferes with proper security protocols.
- 54% say they have purchased software at work that wasn’t approved or vetted for security by their IT or InfoSec team, with 88% citing the reason as not having time because they needed to move quickly to deliver results.
- The focus on speed is clear as over half (52%) of typical software product contracts are six months or less and “receiving ROI within six months” remained the second most important consideration for software buying this year.
- 85% of software buyers consider a vendor’s history with breaches or security incidents when evaluating software solutions — up from 82% who said this in 2022.
- 97% involve a security stakeholder at some point during the software purchase process — however, 14% wait until implementation and 3% never do.
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“Despite the doom and gloom we’ve heard around tech markets and budgets, it’s heartening to see a positive outlook from global software buyers,” said Chris Voce, Vice President of Market Research at G2. “In our 2023 Software Buyer Behavior Report, we observed respondents investing in technology to drive efficiency, business value, and innovation – and AI is completely reshaping the software landscape. As buyers look for fast, easy solutions, it will be more important than ever for software vendors to think strategically about their ability to integrate with other tools, how they educate prospects along their journey, and can provide helpful, efficient training during implementation.”
Several trends observed in prior reports held strong in 2023, such as the role of software vendors changing as buyers continue to seek self-serve channels and sources they trust. Notably, software company salesperson was cited as the least influential source in purchasing processes at 1% – down from 3% in 2022 – ranking behind industry experts, professional colleagues / network, internal influencers, and online reviews from peers, among other sources. Additionally, 66% of respondents said salespeople at a software company are not generally involved in the research phase of the purchasing process — up from 63% who said this in 2022 and 60% in 2021.
