Generative AI (GenAI) is no longer a future concept — it’s here, and it’s reshaping how businesses operate. But while some companies are seizing the moment, others are struggling to keep up.
In our recent webinar, Conor Jensen, Global Field Chief Data Officer at Dataiku, and Oliver Chiu, Head of Product Marketing for Generative AI at Databricks, shared insights from our newly released, AI, Today, which captures the perspectives of 400 senior leaders on how GenAI is reshaping their organizations. Here's what we learned and what it means for you.
GenAI: The Ultimate Business Game-Changer
The big takeaway? GenAI is transforming the business landscape, fast. According to our survey, 84% of organizations plan to invest in GenAI this year, and 81% of those have budgets exceeding $200,000. These numbers show that companies are banking on GenAI to deliver productivity gains and a competitive edge.
GenAI isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about redefining how businesses operate. The companies that master GenAI now will be the ones leading their industries in the years to come.
A Third of Enterprises Have Dedicated
GenAI Budgets
In just two years, GenAI has gone from an emerging technology to a critical budget item for many organizations. Our survey reveals that 33% of companies have a dedicated GenAI budget for the next 12 months.
This rapid shift underscores one simple fact: GenAI has become an essential strategic investment. In total, 90% of respondents are investing in GenAI, whether through a dedicated budget or from other budgets, such as IT, data science, or analytics. This level of adoption is unprecedented and only going to continue to accelerate.
This is an amazing stack considering that two years ago, GenAi didn't even exist, or it wasn't a top of mind topic amongst our business or technical leaders…And so this really is a trend that I think is only going to go up as we move forward from here.
- Oliver Chiu, Head of Product Marketing for Generative AI at Databricks
Beyond Chatbots: Real-World Use Cases
for GenAI
While many companies begin their GenAI journey with chatbots, its potential extends far beyond that. As organizations gain confidence in GenAI, they are rapidly expanding its use across departments, driving measurable outcomes, and reshaping operations.
From automating complex workflows to optimizing decision-making, here are just a few examples of GenAI's impact:
- Financial Services: From improving risk management to fighting fraud and ensuring compliance
- Healthcare: Enhancing patient care, streamlining operations, and boosting provider performance
- Retail and Consumer Goods: Transforming customer experiences and optimizing supply chains
Companies are no longer experimenting with AI — they’re embedding it into the core of their operations.
Improved Understanding of Risks and Benefits
Our survey highlights a more balanced view of GenAI risks. 47% of companies view the risks as somewhat or totally justified, while 54% see them as somewhat or totally overblown. This marks a shift from previous years when organizations were either heavily concerned about risks or overly optimistic about GenAI’s potential.
Notably, what stands out is the decline in extremes: the percentage of organizations that viewed risks as "totally overblown" dropped from 10% to 4% in the last year, indicating a more mature understanding of GenAI's potential and limitations. This new outlook signals a healthier mindset — one where businesses view GenAI as a practical tool for driving meaningful change when applied thoughtfully to real-world use cases.
The needle is moving, and I think it's moving to a much healthier point.
- Oliver Chiu, Head of Product Marketing for Generative AI at Databricks
The ROI Challenge
For many companies, proving the return on investment (ROI) for AI technologies remains a challenge. Nearly 10% of organizations reported negative ROI for AI, with another 10% seeing little to no return — echoing familiar struggles from past AI adoption waves.
Less than a third of companies have frameworks in place to measure the ROI of their AI initiatives, making it difficult to justify continued investments. Without clear metrics, companies risk scaling back AI spending just as the technology is poised to deliver value.
GenAI, despite its promise, faces new challenges in adoption. Companies struggle with lack of internal resources, talent expertise, and policy restrictions that prevent full utilization of GenAI’s potential.
While cloud-based tools have eased infrastructure complexity, measuring ROI for AI and GenAI remains difficult. Companies are still searching for frameworks to measure success. Both Dataiku and Databricks are helping address these issues by offering value engineering services that enable organizations to track and maximize their GenAI investments.
Moving Forward: How to Ensure
GenAI Success
To succeed with GenAI, companies must prioritize data quality, governance, and scalability — key foundations that are more important than ever with the complexity of GenAI.
Dataiku’s LLM Mesh serves as the backbone for GenAI applications, reshaping how analytics and IT teams securely access models and services. It enables enterprises to build scalable, enterprise-grade applications while addressing cost management, compliance, and flexibility across various models and providers.
With the LLM Mesh, companies can track usage, manage security, and control costs through a centralized platform. This simplifies governance by allowing teams to monitor model usage and resource allocation while maintaining security and compliance.
Data use in general has many components and moving pieces, and GenAI has only amplified that. You really need to focus on using the fewest tools that can serve the most people, because that's how you're able to govern it effectively. That’s how you keep things secure, while also putting guardrails in place that allow people to move faster, rather than having to manage every use case individually.
- Conor Jensen, Global Field Chief Data Officer at Dataiku