2024 is a crucial year for generative ai to enter enterprises, with AI spending surging to $13.8 billion this year, nearly six times the $2.3 billion from last year. This clearly reflects that businesses are shifting from experimentation to execution, embedding AI at the core of their business strategies.

The surge in spending is backed by a widespread optimism among businesses, according to the latest survey from Menlo Ventures:

72% of decision-makers expect generative ai tools to be more widely adopted in the near future. From programmers to medical care providers, generative ai tools will become deeply integrated into the daily work of professionals.

Despite the optimistic outlook and increasing investments, many decision-makers are still figuring out what works for their businesses and what does not; over a third of respondents lack a clear vision for how to apply generative ai.

Programming is far ahead, with meeting minutes ranked fifth.

Menlo's survey summary shows that in terms of specific applications, programming, chatbots, enterprise search + retrieval, data extraction + transformation, and meeting minutes are the most widely used:

Programming: Code writing leads with a 51% adoption rate, with developers becoming among the earliest heavy users of ai. GitHub Copilot quickly reaching $0.3 billion in annual revenue validates this trend, while emerging tools like Codeium and Cursor are also growing rapidly. In addition to general coding assistants, businesses are also purchasing programming for specific tasks, such as Harness's AI DevOps engineers and QA assistants for pipeline generation and testing automation, as well as AI agents capable of performing more comprehensive software development, such as All Hands.

Chatbots: The support for chatbots has seen significant increases, with a 31% adoption rate among businesses. These applications provide reliable, round-the-clock, knowledge-based support for internal employees and external customers. Aisera, Decagon, and Sierra's agents interact directly with end customers, while Observe AI offers real-time guidance to contact center agents during calls.

Enterprise search + retrieval and data extraction + transformation (28% and 27% respectively): This reflects a strong demand for unlocking and utilizing the valuable knowledge spread across the organization's data silos. Solutions like Glean and Sana connect emails, instant messaging tools, and document storage to achieve unified semantic search across different systems, providing AI-driven knowledge management.

Meeting minutes: Ranked fifth in use cases (24% adoption rate), saving time and increasing productivity through automated note-taking and summarizing key points. Tools like Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai, and Sana can capture and summarize online meetings, while$Fathom (FTHM.US)$can distill key points from videos. Eleos Health applies this innovation in medical care, automating significant documentation work and integrating directly with electronic health record systems, allowing healthcare providers to focus on patient care.

It is noteworthy that current application patterns indicate a preference for integrating with human processes rather than full automation. However, there is now a shift toward more autonomous solutions, with early use cases of AI agents capable of independently managing complex end-to-end processes emerging across various industries.

The rise of vertical AI applications

Another major trend is the rise of vertical AI applications. The first wave of generative AI applications were horizontal solutions for text and image generation, but by 2024, more applications will target highly verticalized workflows in specific fields. The following vertical industries are leading in adoption:

• Medical care: Traditionally slow to adopt technology, the healthcare sector is now leading the adoption of generative AI with $0.5 billion in corporate spending. Environmental record tools like Abridge, Ambience, Heidi, and Eleos Health are becoming essential in doctors' offices, while automation solutions are emerging throughout the clinical lifecycle—from triage and receiving patients (like Notable) to coding (like SmarterDx, Codametrix) and revenue cycle management (like Adonis, Rivet*).

• Legal: The legal industry, which has historically resisted technology (with $0.35 billion in corporate AI spending), is now embracing generative AI, which is roughly divided into litigation and transactional law, along with many specialized subfields. Everlaw is rooted in litigation, focusing on legal holds, electronic evidence disclosure, and trial preparation, while Harvey and Spellbook advance AI in transactional law through contract review, legal research, and merger solutions. Specific practice areas also have targeted AI innovations: EvenUp focuses on injury law, Garden specializes in patents and intellectual property, Manifest is centered on immigration and employment law, while Eve is reshaping plaintiff case work from client intake to case resolution.

• Financial services: Financial services, characterized by complex data, strict regulation, and critical workflows, are ready for AI transformation with $0.1 billion in corporate AI spending. Startups like Numeric and Klarity are revolutionizing the accounting industry, while Arkifi and Rogo accelerate financial research through advanced data extraction. Arch is using AI to disrupt the back-office processes of RIAs and investment funds. Orby and Sema4 offer broader horizontal solutions starting from reconciliation and reporting, while Greenlite and Norm AI provide real-time compliance monitoring to keep pace with evolving regulations.

• Media and entertainment: From Hollywood screens to creators' smart phones, generative AI is reshaping the media and entertainment industry with $0.1 billion in corporate AI spending. Tools like Runway have become essential at the studio level, while applications like Captions and Descript empower independent creators. Platforms such as Black Forest Labs, Higgsfield, Ideogram, Midjourney, and Pika are pushing the boundaries of image and video creation for professionals.

Editor/ping