In 2025, generative AI technology has established itself as a strategic investment: Over 20% of US businesses are spending between $50,000 and $100,000, as evidenced in Tech.co’s new report.
In addition, 9% of AI-using businesses are spending far more, surpassing $500,000 annual expenditures on AI.
That’s a big shift from last year. Our 2024 report found that two-thirds (67%) of business leaders said AI tools were used to a “limited extent” or not at all in their workplaces. Today, however, businesses are going all-in on the technology, and citing plenty of benefits – along with a lot of risks.
Two Thirds of Businesses Spend $10,000 a Year on AI
The Tech.co team has found more than 20% of those polled worked at organizations spending between $50,000 and $100,000 on AI annually. This comes from our survey drawing on insights from 1,036 US-based senior executives and workplace managers of businesses with 10 or more employees.
If the threshold of financial commitment to the new technology is further lowered, the large majority of today’s businesses consider AI well worth the investment, too. More than two-thirds of businesses are spending $10,000 or more on AI yearly, our report found.
This just in! View the top business tech deals for 2026 👨💻
Finally, a not-insubstantial number of businesses are sinking even more funds into the tech. Nine percent of businesses are exceeding $500,000 spent annually on AI.
Just a year earlier, 34% of business leaders said AI tools were not used at all and another 33% reported limited AI use. That’s a total of over two thirds (67%) of organizations that were dragging their heels on AI use just 12 months ago. Now, about two thirds of organizations are investing at least $10,000 per year into it – a complete reversal of the trend.
Most Businesses Are Happy With the Results
How’s the return on all this AI investment? Most businesses (76%) are satisfied or even thrilled with their AI tools in 2025.
To get more specific, about one third of respondents (32%) said that the results aligned with their expectations, while 44% of them said that they had seen either “very high” or “high” returns.
One potential reason for that high ROI may be a reduction in certain roles, if the following expert from our report is any indication.
“There is indeed a correlation between a business’s deployment of AI and the redundancy of certain roles. Specifically, out of the businesses we surveyed that recently amped up their AI use in 2024, 14% admit that certain roles have become obsolete as a result. This is a 6% jump from last year.” –Tech.co Workplace Report, 2025
In contrast, a relatively small 17% of respondents said their businesses were unsatisfied with the results of their AI experience, with 11% saying returns were “low” and just 6% saying they were “very low.”
Still, AI Risks Shouldn’t Be Overlooked
Our report found some evidence that organizational policies haven’t been evolving fast enough to prepare for the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. For starters, 35% of our respondents say they work at businesses that do not “regulate how employees use AI chatbots” in any way.
Furthermore, even though 65% of businesses have instituted AI policies of some kind or another, the policy alone may be not be enough. Just 27% of respondents from Tech.co’s 2024 survey said they had an organizational safeguards limiting the type of information they could give to chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini.
While AI hallucinations and other errors are a top concern as well, the potential for data leaks should also be at the top of mind for any business leader.
After all, one of the most jaw-dropping statistics from our new report spells bad news for any operation’s cybersecurity efforts in 2025: A full 98% of senior US leaders will fail to correctly identify every indicator of a phishing email.
Our latest report is hot off the presses, featuring 46 pages of fascinating statistics and analysis of the most recent tech trends. You can download it for free here – no need to even part with your email address.
We cover all the current tech industry stances on topics including AI adoption, remote workers and their pushback against RTO mandates, the growing cross-industry interest in the 4-day week, as well as the biggest cybersecurity threats.
To get a jump on the tech business today, click below to check out our 2025 report.
