The shift in digital infrastructure toward faster and more local internet and AI systems is also having an impact on the technology products in the information technology (IT) and telecommunications (TC) segments. While both markets will still be going through a pronounced transition phase in 2026, the signs point to partially accelerated growth in 2027. While revenue from telecommunications devices for private customers will rise modestly by 1.20% in 2026 and achieve robust growth of 2.60% in 2027 compared with the previous year, corresponding to an overall increase of 3.80% over the two-year period, the IT sector will undergo a dynamic turnaround after a slight decline in 2026 (–0.80%). For 2027, we expect growth of 3.10% for IT consumer products, and thus an increase of 2.30% over the two-year period. This relatively synchronous upswing in IT and TC is based on a fundamental structural transformation of the market, in which modernized infrastructure is increasingly generating purchasing impulses for hardware acquisitions.

The central impetus comes from the breakthrough of “on-device AI,” which is leading away from cloud services and toward widespread hardware replacement. In the IT sector, this paradigm shift is accelerating the transition to AI-native PCs equipped with dedicated neural processing units (NPUs). These high-end systems are clearly driving up the IT industry’s revenue volume. An analogous phenomenon is supporting the TC segment: in 2027, smartphones will be shipped as standard with powerful on-device AI for latency-free real-time translations or complex, chip-integrated video and photo tools, specifically encouraging consumers to upgrade to new smartphones. In all likelihood, the topic of edge AI will have gone through a decisive phase of maturity by 2027. Local AI is establishing highly utility-oriented applications—such as intelligent energy-efficiency control for PCs, automatic image and sound personalization on mobile phones, or fully fledged on-device assistants on notebooks.