9 SaaS statistics IT leaders need to know in 2025

Most IT leaders are flying blind when it comes to their SaaS environments. With organizations spending an average of $5,607 per employee on SaaS apps, it’s difficult to get visibility into your organization’s spend, much less have an industry view that helps you understand how you stack up to your peers. 

Why are IT industry trends important?

It might feel like another day, another SaaS trend report, but trends help IT have strategic conversations with finance, procurement, and security. Whether you’re prepping for budget planning or hoping to apply it to vendor negotiations, coming prepared with the latest stats — and in-depth data of your own app usage — gives you a seat at the table. 

Proactively monitoring SaaS trends substantially reduces your organization’s risk. By anticipating shifts in the tech landscape, you’re better positioned to address security concerns, compliance requirements, and integration challenges before they evolve into serious issues.

Here are the top 9 IT SaaS statistics you need to know:

1. SaaS portfolios are shrinking

The average SaaS portfolio decreased to 342 apps, down from 374 the previous year. This trend is expected to continue in 2025 as companies move to consolidate SaaS offerings into more comprehensive suites — like Microsoft, Zoom, Lucid, and more — rather than maintaining numerous single-purpose apps.

This shift marks a real change in how businesses handle their software needs. While using fewer apps overall, it’s expected that teams will start using more features within these consolidated platforms (think: Grammarly’s acquisition of Coda). Companies often prefer suites with wider functionality because they reduce risk, simplify negotiations, and cut down on maintenance hassles.

While portfolios are expected to shrink, shadow IT will likely increase with the ongoing explosion of AI apps and features. As employees experiment with new AI tools, implementing a strong IT governance strategy is even more essential to avoid what’s now being referred to as shadow AI. 

Gaining visibility into your complete app ecosystem helps identify consolidation opportunities while proactively managing shadow IT concerns. IT leaders are increasingly using tools that uncover redundant applications, track how features are being used, and provide insights for making informed decisions about which apps to maintain, consolidate, or eliminate.

2. Global IT spending projected to increase

Worldwide IT spending is set to grow 9.3% in 2025, totalling $5.74 trillion and representing a significant increase in technology investments across organizations of all sizes, according to Gartner’s latest forecast. $1.7 trillion of that total is expected to come from software spend. 

For IT leaders, this increase means more resources to work with, but also higher expectations for ROI and strategic alignment with business objectives. With increased spend comes greater responsibility for effective management.

Proactive IT teams are now tracking costs, measuring usage, and implementing optimization strategies to maximize the value of their expanding budgets. This visibility helps leaders justify spend with concrete impact data and direct resources to high-priority initiatives.

3. Smart spending doesn’t always mean cutting costs

Despite a very tumultuous economy, an overwhelming 91% of tech leaders reported that they expect bigger budgets in 2025, according to Forrester research. With new emerging technologies and a greater focus on portfolio oversight, industry experts recommend focusing investments on data, governance, security, privacy, and strategic infrastructure.

The impulse to cut spend to save on costs is a common instinct. However, targeted SaaS investments can deliver exceptional ROI when purchased strategically. Visibility into the capabilities of your portfolio means knowing exactly what every dollar of SaaS spend enables for the company.

With comprehensive insights into your SaaS ecosystem, you can make evidence-based decisions about where to invest and where to cut. Taking a management-first approach to your SaaS portfolios allows you to utilize usage data to identify which apps deliver genuine value versus those you can cut. Just because the application is cheaper, doesn’t mean it’s the right fit. 

4. Generative AI is driving significant IT investment

Nearly two-thirds of organizations are using GenAI across multiple business units, according to insights from Gartner. As departments integrate AI into their workflows, budgets are shifting to support this adoption. A substantial portion of the projected global IT spend growth will come from investments in AI technologies and capabilities.

As AI features become integrated into more SaaS tools, tracking which applications in your portfolio offer AI capabilities, monitoring their usage, and measuring their impact becomes increasingly crucial. Monitoring duplicative features — especially as more SaaS companies develop their AI offerings — helps avoid redundant investments and identify opportunities to leverage features within your existing SaaS stack.

5. AI implementation should stay top of mind

In analyzing their own data, Anthropic found that usage of their AI is concentrated in software development and technical writing, with over one-third of occupations (36%) using AI in at least a quarter of their associated tasks. But don’t worry, the robots aren’t here to take your jobs — the majority of associated tasks pointed towards trends of augmentation, rather than automation. Meaning, I still have to write this article, but AI can help me do it. 

The time to implement your AI strategy was yesterday; the next best time is today. Organizations delaying their AI strategy will not stop AI from entering their org, it will just become unchecked shadow AI. The data shows that your employees are already using AI, whether or not you’re managing it. Unauthorized AI apps create major security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and data protection risks. 

To combat these risks, leading organizations are identifying AI capabilities across their portfolios, tracking adoption rates, and measuring productivity impacts to understand the current AI footprint and identify opportunities to thoughtfully expand AI usage.

6. SaaS companies are rapidly integrating AI capabilities

Over the past year, 38% of SaaS companies launched GenAI capabilities, and another 15% are testing GenAI applications ahead of planned launches, according to a study from Panintelligence. Currently, 67% of SaaS companies already offer AI within their products.

As AI features become standard across SaaS offerings, IT needs visibility and process to evaluate and disposition the new capabilities. This is essential for identifying shadow IT and reducing its risks, while also anticipating employee needs. 

Complete insights into your tech stack ensure all apps and AI features comply with governance policies. Regular monitoring alerts you to new AI capabilities from vendors and helps assess their security and compliance implications, managing risk while allowing teams to benefit from innovation.

7. AI startups dominated venture capital investments

AI startups grabbed a third of global VC dollars in 2024, with investment in AI and ML startups increasing more than 50% to $131.5 billion, according to Pitchbook data. The total capital raised in the U.S. venture capital market was nearly 30% higher year-on-year, largely driven by AI investments.

As you approach renewals and new SaaS purchases, factor in current industry trends and consider how analyzing your shadow IT is an excellent trend predictor. ChatGPT became the most used shadow IT tool in 2024, highlighting early employee demand for AI functionality. By reviewing adoption patterns of new AI tools, you can make informed decisions about which emerging technologies to officially support.

8. Employee training is critical for app adoption

The average half-life of skills is now less than five years, and in some tech fields, it’s as short as two and a half years, according to the Harvard Business Review. Meanwhile, 68% of workers recognize coming disruptions in their fields and are willing to reskill to remain competitively employed.

By identifying adoption gaps and underutilized apps, you can provide targeted training that helps employees build specialized expertise. This approach doesn’t just maximize SaaS investments — it helps team members develop sought-after skills that distinguish them professionally. Tracking usage patterns after training allows you to showcase measurable skill development, giving employees concrete achievements to highlight during performance reviews and on their resumes.

9. Shadow IT spend decreased with effective SaaS management

Using a SaaS Management Platform (SMP), teams were able to decrease shadow IT spend by an average of 35% year-over-year in 2024. But with the boom of AI — and without the correct tools to combat it — that number could rise again.

SaaS represents a more dynamic world for IT, and AI is only going to increase the variability and speed of organizational change. As soon as IT departments get visibility into shadow IT they’ll need to figure out a process to keep up with shadow AI.

Implementing tools and processes for continuous discovery of new applications and capabilities, automated compliance checks, and centralized management of approved software helps bring shadow IT into the light, no matter what form it takes in the future.

IT leaders who stay informed about these trends and implement robust management practices can transform challenges into advantages. Going forward, the most successful IT organizations will proactively consolidate portfolios while expanding feature usage, invest strategically rather than cutting indiscriminately, prioritize AI implementation, and empower teams with appropriate tools and training. 

Comprehensive SaaS management has become essential infrastructure for modern IT leadership, not just a nice-to-have. As both spending and complexity increase, effective SaaS management provides the insights needed for confident, data-driven technology investment decisions.