FROM THE FRONTIER
New data shows big companies are pumping the brakes on AI adoption
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AI adoption might be hitting a speed bump. New data from the Census Bureau reveals that AI usage among large companies (those with 250 employees or more) has fallen from 13.5% in June to 12% in August. It’s a small but significant reversal in what had been relatively steady upward growth in recent months.
MIT research backs this up. A recently published report, titled ‘State of AI in Business 2025’, found that only 5% of corporate AI pilots tend to deliver any meaningful gains in revenue. Budgets are often misallocated, with some of the best returns coming from back-office automation rather than sales and marketing tools.
The timing couldn’t be worse. According to investment analyst Harrison Kupperman, hyperscalers and AI companies need to bring in roughly $40B in additional revenue per year just to break even on data center depreciation. He estimates current AI revenue to be around $20B — nowhere near enough to foot the massive depreciation bills.
A tough road ahead: Investment firm Apollo’s chief economist Torsten Sløk warns that these trends spell trouble for AI companies that have pinned their valuations on the assumption that AI will integrate seamlessly across the entire economy. With LLMs still demonstrating unpredictable behavior and struggling to tackle real-world complexity in many use cases, investors are keeping a cautious eye on the road ahead.
via SuperHuman