WE'RE NOT IN AN 'AI WINTER-BUT HERE'S HOW TO SURVIVE A COLD SNAP

OVER THE NEARLY three years since ChatGPT's launch in November 2022, generative AI has created a frenzy that has radiated like the midday summer sun—hot and unrelenting.

- BY SHARON GOLDMAN

And for the AI companies rocketing forth like heat-seeking missiles, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and xAI, the sun is still shining: The research firm Gartner forecasts worldwide AI spending will reach nearly $1.5 trillion in 2025 and surpass $2 trillion in 2026, fueled by integration into smartphones, PCs, and enterprise infrastructure. Elon Musk and other AI leaders continue to insist that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—an AI that can think and learn like a human, across many tasks—is on the horizon.

But on the ground, the temperature is dropping, and it's starting to feel like sweater weather. Among customers and in financial markets, skepticism is rising as some question whether the massive investment in AI will ever be justified by revenues. Startup funding is under sharper scrutiny for small and midsize firms; enterprise projects are stuck in “pilot purgatory”; corporate buyers are questioning return on investment for AI expenditures; and the rising cost of computing power has become a wall many would-be competitors can't climb.