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AI Adoption Surges as Businesses Seek Competitive Edge

Fraser Mills

Wednesday 30 October 2024, 10:17AM

By Fraser Mills

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Business adoption of Generative AI has nearly doubled in the past year, with 72% of companies now using the technology weekly, according to a new Wharton School report.

The report, "Growing Up: Navigating Gen AI's Early Years," reveals companies are moving beyond initial AI experiments to focus on proving return on investment and practical applications.

Nine in 10 businesses report that Generative AI enhances employee capabilities rather than replacing workers, signaling a shift in how companies view the technology's role in the workplace.

The technology has proven particularly valuable in areas like data analysis, brainstorming, and document creation.

Document writing leads as the most common application of Generative AI, with 64% of respondents using it for this purpose. Data analysis and analytics follows closely at 62%, while document/meeting summarisation ranks third at 59%.

There is agreement that Generative AI is impactful, but it’s yet to be perceived as “highly impactful” in most areas. IT is the exception, where a majority (58%) believe it is highly impactful.

Based on the survey Google, Perplexity, Copilot and OpenAI lead the market for commercial chatbot subscriptions. Survey respondents indicated that among individual users, Claude has the highest number of paid subscribers, while Perplexity dominates the free user segment.