In the past 48 hours, the AI industry has seen significant developments across multiple fronts. Recent market movements show continued growth, with the global AI market projected to reach $184 billion in 2024, up from $142.3 billion in 2023. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 36.6% between 2024 and 2030, highlighting the rapid adoption of AI technologies.
In terms of recent deals and partnerships, Google has made headlines with the launch of its AI Mode, an experimental feature integrating Gemini 2.0 into Google Search. This development aims to enhance search capabilities with advanced reasoning and multimodal functionalities. The announcement led to immediate reactions in the cryptocurrency markets, particularly for AI-related tokens. SingularityNET (AGIX) saw its price surge by 8.2% within the first hour of the announcement, while Fetch.ai (FET) increased by 6.5%.
Emerging competitors continue to make waves in the industry. Figure, a startup backed by OpenAI, Nvidia, and Microsoft, is reportedly in talks to raise $1.5 billion in a Series C funding round. The company recently unveiled Helix AI, a vision, language, and movement model powering its humanoid robots. Meanwhile, cloud AI startup Lambda has raised $480 million to build a hyperscaler cloud for AI developers and end users.
New product launches are also shaping the industry landscape. Together.ai, which raised $305 million in a Series B round, is building an AI cloud for applications using open-source models and training custom models. The company announced an upcoming deployment of Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs in data centers.
On the regulatory front, governments worldwide are increasing their focus on AI development and implementation. China, for instance, unveiled plans in May 2023 to construct AI industrial hubs and tech platforms nationwide, aiming to bolster research and development efforts.
Consumer behavior continues to shift towards increased AI adoption. According to McKinsey's latest survey, 65% of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using generative AI, nearly double the percentage from the previous survey just ten months ago. This trend is particularly evident in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled since 2023.
Industry leaders are responding to current challenges by investing heavily in AI research and development. Companies like Meta are focusing on AI-powered smart glasses, with its Ray-Ban smart glasses reportedly doubling shipments during the first and second quarters of 2024.
Compared to previous reporting, the current state of the AI industry shows accelerated growth and adoption across various sectors. The integration of AI into everyday technologies and business processes continues to expand, with generative AI leading the charge in transforming industries and creating new opportunities for innovation and value creation.