Reasoning
[GARTNER] Gartner has historically been more aggressive in publishing forecast revisions that reflect market consolidation trends and has greater visibility into enterprise software spending patterns through its advisory services. Forrester tends to publish broader market analyses less frequently revised, while Gartner's quarterly updates and Magic Quadrant revisions create more opportunities for them to publish a 2026 forecast revision incorporating AI-driven consolidation dynamics. The 8% threshold is plausible given current enterprise software growth rates (typically 10-12%), making this a realistic revision scenario that Gartner's data-driven approach would be more likely to capture and publish.Key uncertainty
Whether either firm will explicitly attribute software spend deceleration to "AI-driven consolidation" specifically versus other market factors, as this framing is more consultant-specific than how these firms typically present forecasts.