In 2024, investment in the field of artificial intelligence is in full swing, and enterprises are enthusiastic about generative AI, but at the same time they face the challenge of how to use it effectively. A report from Menlo Ventures reveals the current situation: Although corporate investment in AI has reached $13.8 billion, many companies still lack a clear vision for the implementation of generative AI. Based on a survey of 600 IT decision-makers, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the current investment status, application scenarios and future trends of enterprises in the field of generative AI, and makes predictions about the market competition landscape and talent demand.
In 2024, corporate investment in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) will be close to US$14 billion, demonstrating strong market demand. However, many companies are still confused about how to effectively utilize generative AI (Gen AI), according to a survey by venture capital firm Menlo Ventures.
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“More than one-third of respondents said they do not have a clear vision for the implementation of generative AI,” Menlo Ventures partners Tim Tully and Joff Redfern and investor Derek Xiao noted in the report. The survey was conducted between September and October 2023, with a total of 600 IT decision-makers participating.
Despite the uncertainty, the report, "2024: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise," shows companies' optimism about AI. The author mentioned that "72% of decision makers expect generative AI tools to be more widely used in the near future." The report pointed out that in addition to AI chips from companies such as Nvidia, spending in 2024 will total $13.8 billion. This is an increase of more than six times from US$2.3 billion in 2023.
Among them, basic models (such as language models developed by Anthropic and OpenAI) have become the largest area of investment, with spending surging from US$1 billion in 2023 to US$6.8 billion. In terms of applications, investment increased eightfold to US$4.6 billion, covering three categories: vertical AI, departmental AI and horizontal AI.
The rapid growth of applications demonstrates that enterprises are leveraging these tools to optimize workflows across industries, driving broader innovation. The main application scenarios mentioned in the report include code generation (such as Microsoft's GitHub Co pilot), supporting chatbots, enterprise search, and automatically generating meeting summaries.
In terms of market competition, the author pointed out that Anthropic is gradually gaining market share, with its share of the enterprise market increasing from 12% to 24%, while OpenAI's market share dropped from 50% to 34%. This shows the increasing acceptance of emerging AI models among enterprises.
The report concludes with three predictions about the future: first, AI agents will "disrupt" the $400 billion enterprise software market; second, traditional software companies may face challenges from AI-native companies; third, as AI systems become more popular , there will be a large demand for data scientists and domain experts, leading to talent shortages and significant salary increases.
All in all, this report clearly depicts the investment boom and development trends of enterprise-level generative AI in 2024, and also points out the challenges and opportunities that enterprises face in the application implementation process. In the future, the AI field will continue to develop rapidly and profoundly change the way all industries operate.