Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins/Futurism. Source: Getty Images
After three years of unprecedented tech spending and relentless hype, demand for AI in the workplace appears to be waning rapidly.
Referring to recent US Census Bureau survey data, economist estimated According to the latest available data, the percentage of Americans who say they use AI to “produce goods and services” at large companies was a modest 11 percent in October. survey dateIt’s not that the figure is a bit bleak for a supposedly world-changing technology, but rather that it’s suddenly moving in the wrong direction: The financial publication notes that the percentage is actually Below Up from 12 percent in the earlier survey conducted two weeks ago.
Looking at the bigger picture doesn’t make it more beautiful. In March, the number of businesses with 100-249 employees reported No The usage of AI within the last two weeks was 74.1 percent. The survey results show a steady increase in “no” results over the past few months, reaching 81.4 percent according to the latest survey.
Meanwhile, for large corporations with more than 250 employees, “no” reports rose to 68.6 percent, up from the year’s low of 62.4 percent recorded in February.
This data is nothing if not a major threat to an industry Expected to spend 5 trillion dollars On AI infrastructure between now and 2030. To do this will require a huge increase in revenues from both business and personal AI use – the latter of which Has lagged behind.
Unfortunately for the tech industry, enterprise AI customers aren’t picking up the slack. Although various non-governmental surveys have been cited economist Despite their numbers varying wildly, they all seem to yield the same result: AI remains more of an experimental tool in the workplace than a serious driver of productivity.
An economist at Stanford who tracks the use of generative AI at work found that sky fall Month-to-Month Usage: Although 46 percent of respondents reported using the technology in June, that number had dropped to 37 percent by September. Another guess, by fintech firms ramp upfound that AI use in US corporations was expected to increase by about 40 percent as early as 2025, but has plateaued since then.
The results follow a disappointing summer for AI progress, with models like OpenAI’s GPT-5 Less than expected performance gains. Still, cracks in enterprise AI adoption were beginning to appear as early as December 2024, when EY Pulse Survey More than half of 500 senior executives felt they were “failing in their role” to support AI in their companies.
Instead, executives pointed to a lack of “AI fatigue” among the rank and file — which a year of AI horrors probably hasn’t helped.
With a $600 billion gap between AI revenues and AI spending, a huge amount is riding on what the technology can start bringing home.
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