Reasons to Invest in AI for Business Growth

Influencers hyping an AI bubble burst are cooked. It’s earnings season, and AI’s impact on revenue growth is being quantified for all to see. Atlassian’s AI platform grew 25X in just a year, helping the company increase subscription revenue by 30%. IBM reported $5 billion in generative AI bookings so far. AI demand helped increase its software segment growth by 10%. Palantir’s AI platform drove a 64% increase in US commercial revenue, and its stock is at an all-time high today. Spotify Wrapped (a SQL query and a dashboard) was one of its biggest user engagement drivers of 2024, helping it post its first annual profit and proving that business leaders can’t overlook innovations built on simple data products. ✅ Here are the biggest takeaways ✅ AI is much more powerful as a revenue driver than a cost saver. Business leaders must shift their focus to customer-facing AI products. Don’t go straight to AI because data and #analytics are significant revenue drivers. Build for the future, deliver incrementally, and get paid today. An aligned data and AI product roadmap is more critical than ever. Mid-tier tech companies have massive opportunities. AI isn’t just for the Magnificent 7 and Big Tech. #Data and AI teams should present opportunities that align with and amplify the current business model. Startups can leverage low-cost AI features and even data products to accelerate their path to profitability. AI isn’t just for large corporations. Business leaders at SMEs don’t need to wait on the sidelines. Satya Nadella said that #AI is a new input for growth, and the evidence supporting his thesis keeps growing.

Top 10 reasons why Investors like me are betting big on AI startups: 50% of my network is made up of CEOs and Founders. And every other day, I see posts about fundraising. Most of these startups are backed by AI. I kept wondering, Why AI? Why now? Here’s what I found 👇 10 solid reasons why AI startups are getting all the attention: → AI makes businesses smarter. It helps predict trends, cut costs, improve products, and make faster decisions using real data. → It turns unused data into valuable insights. Most companies sit on tons of data. AI helps turn that into information they can act on. → AI startups can grow faster without growing expenses. Once the AI system is built and trained, it can handle thousands or millions of users without needing a huge team. →  It personalizes products for every user. AI can recommend, suggest, and respond to customers in a way that feels personal, for millions of people at once. → AI is opening new industries. From AI health apps to AI marketing tools, entire business categories are being built around AI technology. → It’s quickly becoming a must-have, not a nice-to-have. Just like every business moved to the cloud, every business will need AI tools to stay competitive. → It helps startups move faster. AI tools speed up product development, testing, and customer feedback, helping startups improve and launch quickly. →  It makes businesses future-ready. AI learns and improves over time, which means your product keeps getting better without extra effort. → The more data you have, the stronger your AI gets. Startups using AI build a natural advantage over time because their system keeps learning from every customer. → Big companies are actively buying AI startups. Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are constantly looking to acquire AI talent, tools, and businesses. In short, AI is solving real problems, saving time, cutting costs, and creating new markets. If you’re building or investing in AI, you’re right where you need to be. I'm doing both.

AI’s ability to make tasks not just cheaper, but also faster, is underrated in its importance in creating business value. For the task of writing code, AI is a game-changer. It takes so much less effort — and is so much cheaper — to write software with AI assistance than without. But beyond reducing the cost of writing software, AI is shortening the time from idea to working prototype, and the ability to test ideas faster is changing how teams explore and invent. When you can test 20 ideas per month, it dramatically changes what you can do compared to testing 1 idea per month. This is a benefit that comes from AI-enabled speed rather than AI-enabled cost reduction. That AI-enabled automation can reduce costs is well understood. For example, providing automated customer service is cheaper than operating human-staffed call centers. Many businesses are more willing to invest in growth than just in cost savings; and, when a task becomes cheaper, some businesses will do a lot more of it, thus creating growth. But another recipe for growth is underrated: Making certain tasks much faster (whether or not they also become cheaper) can create significant new value. I see this pattern across more and more businesses. Consider the following scenarios: - If a lender can approve loans in minutes using AI, rather than days waiting for a human to review them, this creates more borrowing opportunities (and also lets the lender deploy its capital faster). Even if human-in-the-loop review is needed, using AI to get the most important information to the reviewer might speed things up. - If an academic institution gives homework feedback to students in minutes (via autograding) rather than days (via human grading), the rapid feedback facilitates better learning. - If an online seller can approve purchases faster, this can lead to more sales. For example, many platforms that accept online ad purchases have an approval process that can take hours or days; if approvals can be done faster, they can earn revenue faster. This also enables customers to test ideas faster. - If a company’s sales department can prioritize leads and respond to prospective customers in minutes or hours rather than days — closer to when the customers’ buying intent first led them to contact the company — sales representatives might close more deals. Likewise, a business that can respond more quickly to requests for proposals may win more deals. I’ve written previously about looking at the tasks a company does to explore where AI can help. Many teams already do this with an eye toward making tasks cheaper, either to save costs or to do those tasks many more times. If you’re doing this exercise, consider also whether AI can significantly speed up certain tasks. One place to examine is the sequence of tasks on the path to earning revenue. If some of the steps can be sped up, perhaps this can help revenue growth. [Edited for length; full text: https://lnkd.in/gBCc2FTn ]

Most AI solutions are sold with the wrong message. The common pitch? 👉 “Save time.” 👉 “Reduce costs.” While that’s true, it’s not what drives real business growth. The real value of AI agents isn’t just automation — it’s capacity. ⚡ Capacity to move faster ⚡ Capacity to test more ideas ⚡ Capacity to scale without burnout This shift changes everything: ✅ A dev team can test 20 prototypes instead of 1 ✅ A sales team can follow up with every lead instantly ✅ A marketing team can launch and iterate campaigns in hours, not weeks AI isn’t just about saving time. It’s about enabling businesses to do more — faster, smarter, and at scale. Instead of saying: 🗣 “This tool will save your team 10 hours a week.” Say: 🔥 “This tool will let your team handle 10x more — without burning out.” 🔥 “It gives you the speed to outpace the competition.” 🔥 “It makes experimentation effortless and scalable.” Most businesses aren’t dreaming about shaving off a few minutes. They’re dreaming about what becomes possible when they can move faster and do more. That’s the real promise of AI agents. Read more discussion here: https://lnkd.in/gJytR8ap

𝐌𝐢𝐝-𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞: 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 According to #IBM’s “5 Trends for 2025” report, leaders are now scaling innovation and empowering teams to unlock AI’s full potential. 🔹𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐀𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  👉AI is moving from experimentation to execution ▪46% of executives say their organizations are scaling AI this year, focusing on optimizing existing processes and systems. ▪44% are using AI for innovation, driving new opportunities and business models. ▪Only 6% of organizations are still in the experimentation phase, down sharply from 30% just a year ago.  👉AI is now a core driver of business transformation ▪85% of executives believe AI is enabling business model innovation. ▪89% say AI is driving product and service innovation. 🔹𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝  👉Empowering people at every level ▪Democratizing decision-making so teams can act quickly and effectively. ▪Providing robust tools, training, and support for employees to succeed with AI.  👉Fostering a culture of innovation ▪Leaders are redefining leadership by delegating more decisions as AI augments roles across the organization. ▪Teams are encouraged to rethink workflows and deploy AI agents in new ways to boost performance.  👉Strategic support for teams ▪Implementing strong security and governance as AI becomes more embedded in operations. ▪Leveraging data-driven decision support for smarter, faster choices. 🔹𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧  👉AI is now a business imperative ▪68% of CEOs say AI is changing core aspects of their business. ▪61% believe competitive advantage depends on having the most advanced generative AI. ▪64% of leaders see automation’s productivity gains as essential to staying competitive.   👉Bold investment and risk-taking ▪62% of leaders invest in new technologies before fully understanding their value, determined not to fall behind. ▪The winners are balancing experimentation with strategic, incremental innovation. 🔹𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠  👉Talent and skills ▪Rethinking talent strategies—people are the most important tech investment. ▪Focusing on targeted training, upskilling, and making AI proficiency a must-have.  👉Technology and data ▪Building integrated, enterprise-wide data architectures for cross-functional collaboration. ▪Using proprietary data to unlock the full value of generative AI. The organizations that will win are those where leaders empower their people, invest in skills, and foster a culture where AI-driven innovation thrives. 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞: https://lnkd.in/gRNGWqNQ #AI #DigitalTransformation #GenerativeAI #GenAI #Innovation  #ArtificialIntelligence #ML #ThoughtLeadership #NiteshRastogiInsights