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AI Adoption in 2024: The Plateau That Wasn't

After the explosive launch year of 2023, analysts widely predicted that 2024 would be the year of AI retrenchment — when the hype would deflate, investment would slow, and enterprise adoption would stall. The opposite happened. ChatGPT tripled its weekly users. Enterprise gen AI use more than doubled. VC funding nearly doubled. Every major lab shipped major releases. This page assembles the data that defines the year the AI growth curve refused to bend — drawn from McKinsey, the Federal Reserve, Pew Research, PitchBook, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, and primary company announcements.

5 visualizations 11 sources Last updated June 2026 Free to embed
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CONTEXT - WHAT 2024 WAS SUPPOSED TO BE

The widely-shared "AI hype will deflate" thesis (early 2024)

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Source: The skeptic case had three legs: consumer growth was slowing (ChatGPT's first 100M happened in 2 months, but the second took 9), enterprise ROI was unclear (Goldman Sachs's mid-year report), and investor sentiment was cooling (Fortune and others). The data that followed contradicted all three.
CHART 1 - CONSUMER GROWTH RE-ACCELERATES

ChatGPT weekly active users, late 2023 through early 2025

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Source: OpenAI public announcements; Andreessen Horowitz / Similarweb report via TechCrunch (March 2025). The mid-2024 acceleration coincides with the GPT-4o launch (May 2024), Advanced Voice Mode (July 2024), and o1 reasoning model (September 2024).
CHART 2 - ENTERPRISE GEN AI ADOPTION

Organizations regularly using gen AI in >=1 function

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CHART 3 - VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDING

Generative AI VC funding: 2023 vs 2024

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Source: PitchBook via TechCrunch (January 2025). Total VC investment in generative AI: 2023: $29.1B across 691 deals. 2024: $56B across 885 deals. 192% YoY growth in dollar terms.
CHART 4 - CONSUMER ADOPTION WIDENS

US adult ChatGPT use across demographics, 2023 vs 2024

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Source:  Pew Research Center, Feb-March 2024 and Feb-March 2025 surveys. "Used ChatGPT" measures lifetime use (ever tried). Sample sizes: ~10,000 and ~5,123 US adults respectively.
CHART 5 - A RECORD YEAR FOR AI MARKETS

Major AI milestones of 2024

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Source: Compiled by AI Behavior Index

About this data

This page focuses specifically on calendar year 2024 — the period from January 2024 through December 2024. Statistics are drawn from publicly available studies, primary company announcements, and contemporaneous analyst reports.

The "skeptic predictions" cited in the opening section represent a meaningful share of analyst sentiment in early- and mid-2024 — they were not fringe positions. Goldman Sachs's June 2024 report in particular was widely covered and represented the most-cited skeptic case of the year. Including them allows the reader to evaluate the gap between contemporaneous expectations and outcomes. Data is refreshed quarterly. If you run into any issues or have a study to suggest, contact us at research@aibehaviorindex.org.

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How the data works

Every statistic shown is sourced from a publicly available study, survey, or report. We aggregate, organize, and contextualize this data — but the underlying research is conducted by the cited sources. Click any source link to access the original methodology. If you run into any issues or have a study to suggest, contact us at research@aibehaviorindex.org.