A healthy chunk of corporate America has eagerly embraced AI, betting the tech will bring unrealizable productivity gains. But adoption may be leveling off, according to transaction data from fintech company Ramp.
Ramp’s AI Index, which estimates the U.S. business adoption rate of AI products by drawing on Ramp’s card and bill pay data, leveled off at 41% in May after close to 10 straight months of growth. As of May, 49% of large businesses had deployed AI in some form compared to 44% of medium-sized firms, and 37% of small companies, according to Ramp.
Ramp’s AI Index isn’t a perfect measure. It only looks at a sample of corporate spend data from around 30,000 companies. Moreover, because the index identifies AI products and services using merchant name and line-item details, it likely misses spend lumped into other cost centers.
But it’s certainly true that businesses are beginning to realize that there’s a limit to what today’s AI can do.
Last month, Klarna, which said it would work to replace hundreds of support agents with AI, was forced to hire some workers back after the company’s cuts led to “lower quality” customer service. According to S&P Global, the share of companies abandoning most of their generative AI pilot projects has risen to 42%, up from 17% last year.