State of Gen AI from ICONIQ Growth 2024

Today we’re talking AI — specifically the “State of Gen AI 2024” report from ICONIQ Growth. It’s shaping up to be quite the page-turner. If this were a live broadcast, I’d advise you to pull up a chair and take notes, because the future of business is here, and it’s got a whole lot of machine learning and data-crunching power under the hood.

First off, generative AI is not just some techie buzzword — it’s a top priority for the vast majority of CXOs. In fact, 89% of them ranked its adoption as highly important. That’s like 9 out of 10 executives saying, ‘Yes, please, I’ll take AI with a side of productivity gains.’ But — and there’s always a ‘but’ — we’re still in the early innings, folks. While 88% of enterprises have a generative AI budget, many of these dollars are rerouted from existing budgets. In other words, we’re not quite rolling out the AI money printer just yet, but hold tight — spending is expected to jump by 22% in 2025. So, if you think this is a passing fad, think again. Enterprises are setting the stage for bigger investments.

Now, who’s calling the shots in AI land? Unsurprisingly, it’s the CTOs. They’re the MVPs of AI, running the playbooks on these decisions, mainly because R&D budgets are footing the bill. So if you’re a startup hoping to crash this party, be warned: these enterprises are sticking with their current vendors. It’s…