Sure AI is hot, but is it an actual market or a platform piece?

Companies of all stripes have begun embracing generative AI as a way to increase productivity and possibly even replace some workers. But the base technology has been around for decades. Over the last five to 10 years, big enterprise software companies have been building AI into their platforms without the same level of screaming hype we are seeing at the moment.

The problem has always been placing AI. It hasn’t helped that there has been a tendency for the early adopters to personify and productize it, even if it wasn’t really a product. Salesforce called it Einstein; Adobe, Sensei; and IBM, Watson. But AI isn’t one thing you can nail down and call a product, per se. These companies aren’t necessarily selling AI like they would CRM or Photoshop or health records software. Instead they infused AI into different parts of the product line, making the products they sell potentially better.

Since generative AI hit the scene at the end of last year with the release of GPT-4, the hype machine has been out of control. Suddenly, AI was in front of everyone in a way it never had been before. But even with the higher profile, it’s not clear this is an actual market, and it’s even less clear how many companies are truly embracing it in spite of all the ballyhoo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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