Earth intelligence is moving from the realm of governments to the private sector and opening up a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for businesses.
New analysis from research firm Gartner said the leveraging of global data collected by satellites and sensors had historically been the remit of governments and the military.
Gartner analyst Bill Ray said by 2030 enterprises would spend more on Earth intelligence than those bodies combined.
Mr Ray said Earth intelligence would significantly impact every industry with annual revenue set to surpass $6.2 billion in that year for those that can leverage it.
He said the cumulative Earth intelligence direct revenue opportunity for technology product and service providers would reach nearly $30 billion between now and then.
“This revenue forecast for technology and service providers focuses on direct revenue from Earth intelligence data, analysis services and software applications.
“It does not take into account the wider range of Earth intelligence value drivers, which can include productivity improvements and cost avoidance.”
Mr Ray said Gartner defined Earth intelligence as the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to Earth observation data to deliver solutions specific to industries and business functions.
He said it encompassed gathering and providing Earth observation data, fit-for-purpose transforming it, and then using it to produce actionable insights with domain-specific AI models, tools and applications.
“The future of Earth intelligence will be won by the vendors that move quickly to develop technologies that make sense of the oceans of raw data they collect.
Mr Ray said the value of Earth intelligence data was only now being realised.
“For example, vendors are leveraging satellites to pinpoint fallen trees blocking railroad tracks in a storm, monitoring the temperature of every metal refinery to assess global production, counting vehicles to analyse traffic patterns and consumer trends, and tracking sea cargo to evaluate shipping activity.”
He said these unprecedented insights were delivering immense value, and new use cases were being discovered daily as the AI vendor race intensified with the ever expanding volume of available data.
“Currently, the raw data that fuels Earth intelligence is primarily collected and analysed by governments, but a shift is taking place.
“We predict enterprises will be spending more on Earth intelligence by 2030 than governments and military bodies combined, accounting for more than 50 percent of total Earth intelligence, up from less than 15 percent in 2024.”
