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Revenue for cognitive and artificial intelligence systems will hit $12.5 billion in 2017, up 59.3 percent from a year ago, according to IDC. Through 2020, these AI systems will top $46 billion, up 54.4 percent on a compound annual growth rate.

The biggest portion of that spending in 2017 will go to cognitive applications. IDC projects 2017 spending of $4.5 billion for the year. Cognitive and AI software platforms with tools to organize, access and analyze data will see spending of $2.5 billion.

Meanwhile, services attached to rolling out cognitive and AI services will top $3.5 billion in 2017, said IDC, which also noted that $1.9 billion will be spent on hardware for these systems.

As for use cases, quality management and recommendations, diagnosis and treatment, customer service, security and fraud investigations will lead. Those use cases will account for half of all AI system spending in 2017. Between 2015 and 2020, public safety and emergency response and pharmaceutical research and discovery will grow at the fastest clip.

The U.S. will spend the most--nearly $9.7 billion--on AI in 2017 with EMEA No. 2. By 2020, Asia/Pacific will be No. 2, said IDC.

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