IDC

International Data Corporation is one of the world's largest technology market research firms, founded in 1964 in Framingham, Massachusetts. It employs over 1,100 analysts across 110+ countries, producing forecasts and market sizing data that corporations and governments use for investment and procurement decisions. Its revenue depends partly on the technology industry it covers, a structural tension common to analyst firms.

IDC projected that over 90% of global enterprises will face critical AI skills shortages by 2026, at a total economic cost of $5.5 trillion from delayed products, missed revenue and impaired competitiveness. The projection amplified ManpowerGroup's finding of a 3.2:1 demand-to-supply ratio for AI roles, framing skills shortage as the binding constraint on AI adoption.

The $5.5 trillion cost estimate reframes the AI/jobs debate: the economic risk is not mass unemployment but mass incompetence, where enterprises cannot deploy tools they have already purchased. ManpowerGroup's 1.6 million unfilled AI positions and IDC's trillion-dollar cost together suggest the labour market bottleneck is skills, not demand.