AI-based technologies face a growing disparity between their capacities and costs, raising concerns for potential widespread access.
Unleashing the AI Revolution: A Deep Dive into Mary Meeker's 2025 Report
Mary Meeker, the tech titan who once graced Kleiner Perkins, is back with force! Now at her own firm, Bond, she's diving headfirst into the world of artificial intelligence (AI). Her exhaustive yet indispensable reports, like the latest, 2025 Trends - Artificial Intelligence, are a must-read for anyone in the ad industry.
Although her reports are as lengthy as ever (340 slides in this case!), we've done the heavy lifting, boiling it down to six vital insights on the present and future of AI.
The AI boom is here, and it's exploding faster than you can say "Machine Learning"
Who would have thought that the AI chatbot, ChatGPT, would outgrow Google in less time than it took Google to mature? In just two years, it has racked up 365 billion annual searches, while Google took 11 years to reach the same level. Moreover, ChatGPT hit the 100 million user mark in a mere 0.2 years, leaving Facebook and Netflix far behind. The number of weekly active users also soared eightfold over the last 17 months, reaching an astounding 800 million.
Last year, 75% of CMOs were tinkering with or fully integrating AI into their operations, and developers are jumping on the bandwagon too, with over 7 million of them using Gemini in May 2025, a fivefold increase from May 2024.
Watch out for the costs, AI is cheap to use but pricey to train
While adoption of AI is soaring, there's a looming tension between capabilities and costs. Training costs have skyrocketed some 2,400 times over eight years, despite continuous growth. Conversely, inference costs—or the cost of running AI models—have plummeted by a stunning 99.7% between 2022 and 2024, thanks to monumental improvements in both hardware and algorithmic efficiency. This has created fierce competition among AI providers, bringing devastating consequences for those unable to monetize.
Scoff at the monetary woes, money-making opportunities are plentiful in AI-land
AI providers have a plethora of monetization options, such as consumer subscriptions, developer API fees, digital services, and ads. OpenAI, the powerhouse behind ChatGPT, bagged a whopping $3.7 billion in revenue between October 2022 and April 2025, with ChatGPT amassing a staggering 20 million paid subscribers in the same timeframe. As for advertisers, Google introduced sponsored ads to some AI overview responses in the past month, signaling a promising future for ad revenue.
Moreover, AI is a goldmine for both horizontal enterprises catering to multiple industries and specialist vendors focusing on specific niches. These vertical companies can embed AI tools trained on proprietary industry data and deploy domain-specific intelligence, revolutionizing the industry with minimal disruption to the customer buying journey.
Keep an eye on the competition, closed versus open-source battle looms
OpenAI's ChatGPT lords over the chatbot world with 5.1 billion site visits between May 2024 and April 2025. Nonetheless, closed models like ChatGPT face a challenge as open-source models rapidly close the gap. Open-source models like Llama 3 and DeepSeek are becoming increasingly popular with developers due to their competitive reasoning, coding, and multilingual abilities. They are also downloadable, fine-tuneable, and deployable on inexpensive hardware, making them an attractive solution for those seeking cost-efficiency.
China's AI is on the rise, giving the US a run for its money
DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, is climbing the ranks, competing with US models like ChatGPT. Chinese users are using local models at scale because of limited access to foreign chatbots, driving up their proficiency and innovation. Additionally, Chinese users have a more positive outlook on AI adoption, with 83% envisioning more opportunities than drawbacks in 2024—a much higher percentage than the US' meager 39%.
Prepare for a future of intelligent agents
AI agents, or intelligent systems capable of understanding and responding to human-like inputs, are gaining traction, hitting an eye-popping 1,088% increase in Google searches over the past 16 months. Also, the AI-powered autonomous vehicle and machine arena is heating up, with organizations shifting their focus towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), designed to match or surpass human cognitive abilities.
Featured image: Mariia Shalabaieva / Unsplash
Additional Insights from the Enrichment Data:
- AI Adoption Trends:
- Unprecedented Growth: The report highlights that AI adoption is faster than any previous tech revolution, with examples like ChatGPT reaching 800 million users in just 17 months. This rapid growth underscores the significant impact AI is having on various industries[1][3].
- Democratization of AI: The report notes that AI technology is becoming more accessible to smaller developers, which is expected to continue driving innovation and adoption across different sectors[5].
- AI Costs and Challenges:
- AI Training Costs: The cost of training AI models remains a significant challenge, affecting the adoption and development pace for many companies. Despite this, advancements in technology are helping reduce these costs[5].
- Developer Adoption: Despite high training costs, more developers are adopting AI, largely due to the increasing availability of tools and platforms that simplify AI integration[5].
- Monetization and Revenue Models:
- Revenue Growth: Many AI companies are achieving high annual recurring revenue rates, an unprecedented feat in tech history. This growth is driven by innovative monetization strategies and emerging business models[1][3].
- Challenges in Monetization: The report discusses the challenges AI companies face in terms of revenue and monetization, including competition and regulatory environments[5].
- Competition and Market Landscape:
- Competitive Landscape: The AI market is highly competitive, with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity vying for dominance. The report mentions rumors of strategic partnerships, such as a potential Perplexity/Samsung collaboration, which could further shape the competitive landscape[5].
- Market Growth: The AI market is experiencing exponential growth, driven by advancements in AI technology and its increasingly widespread adoption across industries[1][5].
- Future Developments and Predictions:
- Advancements in AI Performance: The report notes significant advancements in AI performance, with prototypes like "GPT-4.5" showing human-like writing capabilities that are often indistinguishable from actual human writing[3].
- Future Applications: The report predicts a wide range of future applications for AI, including more sophisticated conversational interfaces and deeper integration into various industries[5].
- Predictions for AI: The future of AI is expected to involve more accessible and powerful tools, further democratizing AI technology and driving innovation across sectors[5].
- The rapid growth of AI, as exemplified by ChatGPT, suggests that news about technology and artificial intelligence (AI) will increasingly center around its unprecedented adoption rates, with more developers jumping on the bandwagon.
- As the competition between open-source and closed AI models heats up, technology and AI discussions will likely focus on the power struggle between established players like OpenAI and emerging contenders such as DeepSeek, particularly in regions like China where AI adoption is on the rise.
