The Wharton School recently published a study that found that generative artificial intelligence tools have seen increased mainstream daily usage across large United States-based companies.
The study — titled Accountable Acceleration: Gen AI Fast-Tracks Into the Enterprise — was announced in an Oct. 28 press release. It was issued by the Wharton Human-AI Research in collaboration with GBK Collective, an analytics consultancy, and assessed more than 800 business decision-makers at companies with annual revenues above $50 million.
The findings showed that 82% of enterprise leaders report weekly use — which represents an increase of 37% from 2023 — and that nearly half use generative AI daily. It also found that three in four enterprises reported positive returns on their existing AI investments and 72% said they now track productivity, profitability, or workflow metrics tied towards AI usage.
“As leaders across functional areas continue to increase investment in Gen AI, the overwhelming feedback is they are not only looking to use AI to boost employee productivity, which has become table stakes, but to integrate it effectively and responsibly into workflows to drive measurable ROI,” Stefano Puntoni, the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing and faculty co-director of WHAIR, said in the press release.
43% of surveyed leaders said employees may experience “skill atrophy” as routine tasks become increasingly mechanized. As companies rely on AI to help complete their work and generate ideas, employees also may lose practice in their abilities, the study added.
88% of leaders expect to increase AI spending in the next year, and 62% predict double-digit budget growth over the next two to five years, highlighting a broader national trend of rapid AI application. The Wharton study emphasized emerging risks in AI, even as companies adopt generative AI practices at an increasing rate.
Organizations are still navigating ways to manage and oversee AI deployment. Many companies have started centralizing major decisions around risk and data governance, but the daily work of actually implementing AI typically remains spread out across multiple departments.
The Wharton report concludes that generative AI is no longer confined to pilot programs and experiential usage — it is now involved in organizations daily.
