#2 AI budget spending skyrockets

☕🤖 Here’s the latest enterprise AI news and buzz:

INVESTMENT TRENDS

AI budgets go from experimental to essential as spending skyrockets

Enterprise AI spending has exploded beyond already high expectations, with companies planning an average 75% budget increase over the next year. One CIO captured the dramatic scale: "what I spent in 2023 I now spend in a week." This growth stems from discovering more internal use cases and expanding employee adoption, while customer-facing AI applications promise even more dramatic spending increases ahead.

The shift from experimental to essential is evident in budget allocation changes. Innovation budgets, which comprised 25% of AI spending last year, have plummeted to just 7% as enterprises move AI investments into permanent IT and business unit budgets. This transition signals that generative AI has graduated from pilot programs to core business operations, with one CTO noting that "more of our products are adding AI enablement," indicating this trend will only accelerate.

Read full analysis →

🚀 Be featured in an upcoming issue! Work with us

AGENTIC USE CASES

Software development & Customer Support emerge as the killer enterprise use cases — with others close behind 

Software development transforms with AI code generation Software development has emerged as the standout enterprise AI use case, driven by high-quality tools, dramatic model improvements, and undeniable ROI. One CTO at a high-growth SaaS company reported that nearly 90% of their code is now AI-generated through Cursor and Claude Code, up from just 10-15% twelve months ago with GitHub Copilot. This bleeding-edge adoption signals where the broader enterprise market is heading, with 26% of organizations now employing LLMs to streamline development through automated code generation.

Customer support automation reaches new heights Customer service leads enterprise AI deployment at 27% adoption, moving far beyond basic chatbots to sophisticated AI agents handling complex workflows. Modern systems can analyze billing issues, identify discrepancies, apply corrections, and notify customers automatically—transforming what once required multiple human touchpoints into seamless automated experiences. This shift reflects the maturation from experimental AI pilots to production systems delivering measurable business impact.

CONTACT CENTER AI

Klarna’s CEO just cloned himself and is now taking your calls — over an AI hotline

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has used an AI clone of himself to deliver earnings reports — twice. Now he's taking his digital doppelgänging to the next level with an AI-powered customer hotline where you can literally call and speak to a virtual version of the CEO. The "AI Sebastian" is trained on his real voice and experiences, ready to chat about product features, company vision, and Klarna's founding story. Want to complain directly to the boss? Just dial +14246675385 in the US.

But here's where it gets really wild: every conversation gets automatically transcribed and analyzed by AI, feeding insights directly to Klarna's product teams through a live innovation dashboard. The company claims feedback from today's calls could result in actual product changes as soon as tomorrow. While the AI Sebastian tries to keep conversations focused on Klarna feedback (even deflecting questions about Fortnite's AI Darth Vader), this represents a fascinating glimpse into the future of customer service – where talking to the CEO is just a phone call away, even if it's not actually him.

INSIDER PLAYBOOK

How Netflix Uses AI to Personalize Content Recommendations and Improve Digital Marketing

Netflix utilizes generative AI to create personalized content previews and thumbnails that are tailored to individual viewer preferences.

The brand's AI model analyzes user data, viewing habits, and past ratings to make visuals that highlight what would the viewer be most interested in. This demonstrates how AI is driving engagement and retention in entertainment.

USE CASE OF THE WEEK

Goldman Sachs just gave every employee an AI Assistant—and Wall Street will never be the same

Goldman Sachs rolled out its proprietary "GS AI Assistant" to all employees firmwide, marking the first generative AI tool to reach this scale at the investment banking giant. The natural language assistant offers specialized capabilities tailored for different departments including investment banking and wealth management, with thousands of employees already using it for document summarization, content drafting, and data analysis. CIO Marco Argenti called it "an important moment in our AI journey," positioning Goldman as a leader in enterprise AI adoption on Wall Street as the firm bets big on AI to boost productivity across all business units. Fox Business →