Gen AI adoption continues rapid pace, Bain report finds

Generative artificial intelligence has continued its quick pace of adoption, with 95% of US companies now using it, according to a recent Bain & Company report.

Adoption grew by 12% between surveys in October 2023 and December 2024, the strategy consultancy found. Meanwhile, the average number of use cases in production doubled from 2.5 in 2023 to 5 in 2024.

While software code development remained the top use case domain, IT saw the fastest growth. Other areas seeing high growth in adoption were knowledge worker effectiveness/efficiency and sales/sales ops.

The workforce also saw change, with firms now reporting that 160 employees on average are dedicating time to Gen AI, up 30% from 2023.

In line with growing adoption, more firms now have clear implementation roadmaps – with an increase of 18 points to 50%.

Widespread scaling of Gen AI has raised the inevitable concerns about security, talent gaps, and other areas. Data security and privacy concerns were the top-cited factor slowing adoption of Gen AI (44%), followed by a lack of in-house expertise (42%), and quality and accuracy concerns (39%).

Nonetheless, AI projects appear to be delivering desired results. More than 80% of respondents said use cases are meeting or exceeding expectations, while nearly 60% of those satisfied with Gen AI say it has improved business results.

Firms are allocating more money to Gen AI, with annual budgets increasing by approximately 100% from February 2024 to $10 million. Sixty percent of AI programs are expected to be funded via regular budget cycles.

Bain’s recommendation for companies looking to scale AI responsibly include securing leadership support, closing talent gaps, carefully assessing vendor ecosystems, and choosing systems that prioritize secure and accurate outputs.