36 Best Business Intelligence Software Statistics: 2024 Market Share & Data Analysis

We have more data now than ever, 175 zettabytes by 2025, all of which can be leveraged by business intelligence (BI). And as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt our traditional ways and ushers in the new normal, so too must companies act with fastidious care to understand market shifts that can happen overnight.

Organizations turn to business intelligence software to collect, consolidate, process, analyze, visualize and distribute business insights. In this article, we lay down key business intelligence software statistics that reflect how organizations worldwide use BI to their advantage, insights that are worth your salt to stay afloat in the coming years.

Business Intelligence Market Size Statistics

The business intelligence market is driven by other intertwined industry developments, particularly in the analytics, big data and AI markets. The United States is still the most lucrative market but China has the highest growth rate.

The combined market size of BI and analytics market worldwide stands at $15.94 billion in 2021. By 2024, it will reach $17.6 billion. (IDC, 2021)
Meanwhile, the BI software market size had revenues of $22.8 billion worldwide in 2021. This is expected to increase by 44% in 2026, with revenues expected to hit $32.856 billion. (Statista, 2021)
By country, the US had the biggest BI market revenues at $11.59 billion in 2021. Germany at $1.25 billion, Japan at $1.26 billion, the United Kingdom at $1.1 billion and China at $1.02 billion round up the top five. In terms of growth rate by 2026 among these countries, China registers the biggest leap at 97%, followed by the UK at 45%, the US at 40%, Germany at 39.8% and Japan at 32.86%. (Statista, 2021)

A notable trend is the gradual drop in the BI market growth rate starting in 2023, not because fewer companies will be using it, but the fact that other business solutions like ERP and CRM have started to roll out built-in BI functions.

The BI market will shrink slightly starting in 2023, from a growth rate of 7.8%. It will slide to 7.5% in 2024, 7.3% in 2025 and 6.8% in 2026. (Statista, 2021)
But we are seeing more BI spending per employee in the coming years: from $6.65 in 2021 to $7.16 in 2022, $7.66 n 2023, $8.17 in 2024, $8.7 in 2025 and $9.23 in 2026. (Statista, 2021)

Source: Statista, 2021

Business Intelligence Industry Statistics

While the business, financial and insurance sectors have mature BI integration already, other industries are just starting to consider BI. For example, airports and legal firms:

87% of airports worldwide are planning to explore BI in the next three years from 2020, the top among new technologies that they expect to try. Second to BI is biometric ID management with 83% of airports planning for it, followed by data exchange technology with 75%. The other top two new technologies are 5G communication network (75%) and interactive navigation (68%). (SITA, ACI, Savants, 2021)
As for the leading investment priorities of airports worldwide by 2023, BI comes at third with 87% share among airports. Cybersecurity tops the list with 94% share, while cloud services come in second with a 90% share. Other leading investment priorities of airports are in-house virtual and remote services (84%), passenger mobile services (84%) and staff mobile services (84%). (SITA, ACI, Savants, 2021)
43% of law firms worldwide find BI having a moderate impact in their field in 2021, the most in terms of BI’s impact in the legal industry. Meanwhile, 24% of them find BI to only have a minor impact and 11% saying there is no impact. 22%, however, consider BI to have a major impact on their operations. (Aderant, 2021)
Among the top commercial solutions adopted by professional services worldwide, BI was the least adopted in 2021. Only 53.40% have done so compared to 94.40% for CFM, 83.40% for CRM, 79% for PSA and 69.70% for HCM. (Service Performance Insight, Kimble, 2021)

Business Intelligence Vendor Statistics

Business intelligence software statistics point to vendors sorted among those that sell software, those that offer analytics services and those that provide the cloud platform. All verticals have their share of dominant players with a few of them offering all verticals.

SAS Institute rakes in the biggest BI analytics service market at 9.1%. It is followed by SAP (8.1%), Microsoft (8.0%), IBM (7.4%), Salesforce (6.4%), Oracle (6.2%) and Qlik (3.3%). Together, they constitute nearly half of the market with the rest divvying up the remaining 51.6% of the pie. (Statista, 2021)
Meanwhile, SAP SE topped all BI companies by revenue in 2020 with earnings of $30.16 billion. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is next with $21.16 billion and Sabre Corp. with $1.34 billion. Completing the top five are Informa Plc and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd. with $2.09 billion and $2.22 billion in revenues, respectively. (Statista, 2021)
Zeroing in on the business intelligence software statistics on market share by vendor in 2021, Mode had the biggest slice at 17.22%. Tableau comes second with 11.24% of the pie, followed by Microsoft SQL Server Reporting with 9.39%. SAP Crystal Reports’s share is at 8.6% while IBM Cognos Enterprise consoles itself with a 4.4% share. The rest comprise 49.15% of the total BI software market size. (Datanyze, 2021)
69% find Microsoft Azure as critical in terms of cloud BI provider preferences worldwide in 2021. It is followed by AWS at 55.5% and Google Cloud at 53.5%. Rounding up the top six are Oracle Cloud at 33.5%, Alibaba at 20.5% and IBM Cloud at 12.5%. (Statista, Dresner, Domo, 2021)
In social media analytics, Meltwater took the biggest market slice with 46.58%, followed by Netvibes with 19.53%. GetSocial is at third with 13.56% of the market. (Datanyze, 2021)

Business Intelligence User Adoption Statistics

BI is one of the more mature business systems in an organization’s tech stack. More employees are using it while more companies are planning to hire full-time IT skills to handle business intelligence.

BI is at fourth when it comes to where B2B technology buyers would have spent more in 2021, with 38% of the respondents saying so. Web & video conferencing topped the list with 64%, followed by online collaboration & project management and marketing with 53% and 41%, respectively. (TrustRadius, 2020)
Only 32% of respondents required online help in using BI software in 2021, the fourth among business applications. Topping this list is productivity software at 63%, software development tools at 57% and email & messaging apps at 41%. (CSA Research, 2021)
By extension, big data and AI adoption results in deeper business intelligence. In this context, driving innovation with data is the top reason for big data and AI adoption in the US in 2021 at 48.5% share. Other top reasons include driving innovation with data (48.5%), competing on data and analytics (41.2%), managing data as a business asset (39.3%) and having a well-articulated data strategy (30%). (NewVantage Partners, 2021)
Overall, BI is the third function software companies had in 2021 (33%). Healthcare data integration is at the top (45%) followed by natural language processing (36%). (Gradient Flow, 2021)
73% of CIOs are considering hiring full-time IT employees for analytics platforms in 2021, the second highest among CIO plans for full-time tech positions. Security operations tops the rankings at 74%, while business workflow automation (71%), integration (68%) and cloud platforms (68%) round up the top five. (Gartner, 2021)

Business Intelligence Benefits Statistics

BI is seen as a must-have to meet business goals across industries. But some industries give BI more weight than others.

We’ve seen more companies regarding BI as critical to their operations in 2021 compared to the previous years. In that year, 27.5% agree that BI is a critical business system vs. 20% in 2020. In 2019, the rate was 16.5% and in 2018 it was 18%. Conversely, organizations that believe BI is not important are down to 7.5% in 2021 and 2020 compared to 14% and 11.5% in 2019 and 2018, respectively. (Statista, 2021)
By industry, cloud BI as a critical system is most apparent in Technology (45.5%). Business Services (38%), Consumer Services (26.5%), Financial Services (24.5%) and Government (23.5%) complete the top five industries. (Dresner, Domo, 2021)
On the other hand, Healthcare and Manufacturing see cloud BI as not important the most with 16% and 12%, respectively. (Dresner, Domo, 2021)
Four technologies that impact on BI are among the top five considered by companies to be very important in helping companies meet their goals: SaaS at 38%, big data at 33%, AI at 18% and IoT at 16%. The other technology is robotic process automation at 17%. (Harvey Nash Group, 2021)

Source: Dresner; Domo, 2021

Business Intelligence Privacy and Security Issues Statistics

As more organizations utilize business intelligence to their advantage, they have to face new threats in the form of cyberattacks.

At 51.1% share, business intelligence was the second most stored sensitive data in the public cloud worldwide in 2021. It was only topped by employee records at 52.9%. The other most stored in the public cloud include finances and accounting with 50.2%, customer personal information with 42.2%, intellectual property with 39.9% and customer financial information with 29.1%. (SANS Institute, Orca Security, 2021)
Data breaches along with I.T. failure, cybercrime and their corresponding fines and penalties constituted the second leading risk to businesses worldwide in 2021, with a 40% share. The pandemic impact is tied at second place, while supply chain disruption and other business interruption top the risks with 41% share. (Allianz, 2021)

Business Intelligence and Big Data Analytics Statistics

AI and big data remain as the top technologies by investment and development, pushing the top business intelligence solutions towards better functions.

As AI and big data impact the next generation BI software, the type of investments being made in the two former technologies can also influence the future of BI software. In 2019, only an 8.3% share in investments went to defensive AI and big data (cost-savings, regulations, etc.), but this jumped to 17.3% in 2021. On the other hand, from a 91.7% share in 2019, offensive investments in AI and big data (innovation, transformation, competitive advantage, etc.) dipped to 82.7% share. (NewVantage Partners, 2021)
Transformation got the biggest slice among the biggest drivers of AI or big data investment in 2020, with a 53.7% share. This is followed by innovation (26.8%), competition (8.5%) and cost-savings (6.1%). (NewVantage Partners, 2021)
Share in the use of big data analytics for market research worldwide increased to 47% in 2020, after dipping to 44% from 45% in 2019 and 2018, respectively. (GreenBook, 2021)

Parallel Tech Developments that Impact BI Statistics

Hinged on big data analytics, AI, cloud computing and other new technologies, business intelligence is a cog on the wheel of the convergence between the physical and virtual worlds where we see digitized and networked machines, factories and industries reducing manufacturing costs and making possible mass personalization.

Predictive analytics is ranked as the most important manufacturing technology in the US and China. In Europe, predictive analytics placed fourth behind IoT and digital design, simulation and integration. (Statista, 2021)
Digitizing factories allows for deeper, wider-reaching BI and in terms of investment in digital factories, Western Europe leads the way at 61%. Far behind is North America at 16% and Eastern Europe at 5%. Asia and South America lag behind at 5% and 2%, respectively. (Statista, 2021)
Another key BI driver, network readiness optimizes information and communications. Sweden leads the pack with the most networked manufacturing industry with an index score of 82.75. It is closely followed by Denmark (82.19), Singapore (81.39), the Netherlands (81.37) and Switzerland (80.41). The US sits at the eighth place (78.91) while China is at 40th place (58.44). (Statista, 2021)
IoT, which connects smart devices, provides BI analysts with a rich source of data. In terms of IoT spending, field devices ranks first at 57%), then construction vehicles at 21.8% and robots at 11.7%. (Statista, 2021)
There were 11.6 billion IoT devices in 2021. By 2025, this number is expected to reach 21.5 billion devices. (Statista, 2021)
Business intelligence will be most impacted by these four technologies: IoT (72%), AI (68%), Cloud infrastructure (64%) and Big Data (54%). (Statista, 2021)
These four technologies will impact different regions at different degrees. Big data analytics impacts EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) the most at 78%, followed by the Americas at 62% and Asia-Pacific (APAC) at 60%. (Statista, 2021)
Cloud infrastructure, a key driver of business intelligence, also impacts EMEA the most at 84%, followed by the Americas (65%) and APAC (34%). (Statista, 2021)

Business Intelligence Fuels Your Company’s Growth

As developments in AI, big data analytics and IoT remain unabated, so do BI tools continue to improve, driven by other technologies to help you gain deeper market insights, operational efficiency and, overall, a competitive advantage. To ignore the impact of these BI statistics on your business is to risk your company’s future. We live in a data-driven business landscape where business intelligence fuels your company’s profitability and continuous growth—and your competitors’.

Key Insights

Market Growth and Size: The business intelligence (BI) market is robust and growing, with the BI software market size expected to increase from $22.8 billion in 2021 to $32.856 billion by 2026. The combined market for BI and analytics is also expanding, reaching $17.6 billion by 2024.
Regional Trends: The United States leads the BI market in revenue, followed by Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China. Notably, China is experiencing the highest growth rate among these countries.
Industry Adoption: BI adoption varies by industry, with the business, financial, and insurance sectors leading in mature BI integration. Newer sectors like airports and legal firms are beginning to explore BI technologies.
Vendor Market Shares: Major players in the BI analytics services market include SAS Institute, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, and Oracle. Mode and Tableau are significant players in the BI software market, with Mode holding the largest market share at 17.22%.
User Adoption and Benefits: BI is becoming more integral to business operations, with an increasing number of companies recognizing its critical role. In 2021, 27.5% of organizations viewed BI as critical, up from previous years.
Privacy and Security: BI systems often store sensitive data, making security a major concern. In 2021, business intelligence was the second most stored type of sensitive data in the public cloud, following employee records.
Technological Integration: BI is heavily influenced by advancements in AI, big data, cloud computing, and IoT. These technologies are driving the evolution of BI tools, enhancing their capabilities and expanding their applications.

FAQ

1. What is the current market size of the business intelligence (BI) software industry?

As of 2021, the global BI software market size is $22.8 billion. It is projected to reach $32.856 billion by 2026.

2. Which countries are leading in BI market revenue?

The United States leads in BI market revenue with $11.59 billion in 2021, followed by Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China.

3. How is BI adoption different across industries?

BI adoption is most mature in the business, financial, and insurance sectors. Other industries, such as airports and legal firms, are starting to explore and implement BI technologies.

4. Who are the major players in the BI analytics services market?

The major players include SAS Institute, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, and Oracle. These companies account for a significant portion of the market share in BI analytics services.

5. What are the main benefits of using BI tools?

BI tools help organizations collect, consolidate, process, analyze, visualize, and distribute business insights. They improve operational efficiency, provide deeper market insights, and give companies a competitive advantage.

6. What are the security concerns associated with BI?

BI systems often store sensitive data, such as employee records and financial information, making them targets for cyberattacks. Ensuring data privacy and security is a major concern for organizations using BI tools.

7. How do technologies like AI, big data, and IoT impact BI?

AI, big data, and IoT significantly enhance the capabilities of BI tools. They enable more sophisticated data analysis, predictive analytics, and real-time insights, driving innovation and operational efficiency in business intelligence.

8. What is the projected growth rate of the BI market?

While the BI market is expected to continue growing, the growth rate is projected to slightly decrease from 7.8% in 2023 to 6.8% by 2026. This is partly due to other business solutions incorporating built-in BI functions.

9. Why are organizations investing in BI despite a slight drop in growth rate?

Organizations invest in BI to stay competitive, drive innovation, and improve decision-making processes. The increasing importance of data-driven strategies in business operations makes BI a critical investment for long-term success.

10. What is the role of cloud computing in BI?

Cloud computing plays a crucial role in BI by providing scalable and flexible infrastructure for data storage, processing, and analysis. It enables organizations to access BI tools and insights from anywhere, enhancing collaboration and efficiency.

References:

Aderant. (2020). The 2020 Aderant Business of Law and Legal Technology Survey. https://www.aderant.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/BoL_2021-Final.pdf
Allianz. (2021). Allianz Risk Barometer 2021. https://www.agcs.allianz.com/content/dam/onemarketing/agcs/agcs/reports/Allianz-Risk-Barometer-2021-Presentation.pdf
CSA Research. (2021, December). Business applications for which respondents require help online worldwide in 2021. CSA-Research.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1279852/apps-which-require-online-help/
Datanyze. (2021, August). Leading Vendor’s Share of Business Intelligence (BI) Software Market Worldwide in 2021. Datanyze.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.datanyze.com/market-share
Gartner. (2021, March 31). Gartner Survey Reveals Over Half of CIOs Plan to Increase Full-Time Employees in IT to Accelerate Digital Initiatives in 2021. Gartner.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-03-31-gartner-survey-reveals-over-half-of-cios-plan-to-increase-full-time-employees-in-it-to-accelerate-digital-business-initiatives-in-2021
Gradient Flow (Ed.). (2021, February). 2021 AI in Healthcare Survey Report. Gradient Flow. https://gradientflow.com/2021aihealthsurvey/
GreenBook. (2020). GRIT Report: Green Book Research Industry Trends Report. New York AMA Communication Services Inc. https://marketing.greenbook.org/hubfs/GRIT/insights-pratice/grit_ipr_2020.pdf
Harvey Nash Group. (2021). Harvey Nash Group Technology & Talent Study 2021. https://assets.website-files.com/5da4969031ca1beeb3e008e0/605c56307ee2be18862e9456_HarveyNashGroupTT2021.pdf
IDC, Statista. (2021). Digital Transformation. Https://Www.Statista.Com/Study/74997/Dossier-Digital-Transformation/. Retrieved January 2022, from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X0ltNT9jFA9l8cUkZ_1p4jNjF7_vVWcV/view
Kimble. (2021, February). SPI 2021 Professional Services Maturity^TM Benchmark. Services Performance Insight, LLC. https://www.kimbleapps.com/resources/2021-professional-services-maturity-benchmark-download/
NewVantage Partners. (2021). Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2021: Executive Summary of Findings. https://c6abb8db-514c-4f5b-b5a1-fc710f1e464e.filesusr.com/ugd/e5361a_76709448ddc6490981f0cbea42d51508.pdf
Orca Security. (2021, August 26). Share of sensitive data stored in the public cloud worldwide in 2021, by category. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1259818/public-cloud-share-sensitive-data-worldwide/
SITA. (2020). Air Transport IT Insights 2020. SITA.Aero. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.sita.aero/resources/surveys-reports/air-transport-it-insights-2020/
Statista. (2021a). Business Intelligence Software. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/software/enterprise-software/business-intelligence-software/worldwide
Statista. (2021b, June). In-depth Report: Industry 4.0 2021. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/study/66974/in-depth-industry-40/
Statista. (2021c, June 30). Cloud business intelligence (BI) provider preferences worldwide as of 2021. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1012863/worldwide-cloud-business-intelligence-provider-preferences/
Statista. (2021d, June 30). Cloud business intelligence (BI) provider preferences worldwide as of 2021. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1012863/worldwide-cloud-business-intelligence-provider-preferences/
Statista. (2021e, June 30). Importance of cloud business intelligence (BI) worldwide from 2012 to 2021. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1012845/worldwide-cloud-business-intelligence-importance/
Statista. (2021f, November). Top 50 Companies: Business intelligence. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/study/105404/top-50-companies-business-intelligence/
TrustRadius. (2021). Enterprise software. Statista.Com. Retrieved January 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/study/20237/business-software-statista-dossier/

By Nestor Gilbert

Nestor Gilbert is a senior B2B and SaaS analyst and a core contributor at FinancesOnline for over 5 years. With his experience in software development and extensive knowledge of SaaS management, he writes mostly about emerging B2B technologies and their impact on the current business landscape. However, he also provides in-depth reviews on a wide range of software solutions to help businesses find suitable options for them. Through his work, he aims to help companies develop a more tech-forward approach to their operations and overcome their SaaS-related challenges.