Archive
Tag: Research
8 in 10 Workers Are Still Doing AI’s Job for It
IN THIS ISSUE: New Workday research reveals that most employees are still spending their days manually bridging broken systems, even as AI adoption spreads. Then, a new Gallup survey finds most Americans don’t want AI data centers in their backyards, putting a number on the public resistance threatening the industry’s $700 billion infrastructure push. The […]
Seattle Has an AI Action Plan. Will Anyone Actually Sign It?
IN THIS ISSUE: Seattle has the cloud giants, the clean energy, and the talent pipeline. What it has lacked is a coherent plan to turn those assets into AI leadership. This week, we examine the WTIA’s latest strategic framework—and whether its voluntary flywheel model can actually move a region that has long struggled to coordinate […]
Ai2 Brings $152M Federally Backed AI Computing Cluster Online
The Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) said Thursday that its federally backed AI computing cluster is now online, marking the first milestone of a $152 million program to build open AI models for scientific research. The project, called the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure for Science (NSF OMAI), is backed by the U.S. National Science Foundation […]
Microsoft: Meet the Frontier Professional, the Rarest AI Worker in Your Organization
Every company wants to become AI-native, and the pressure is real. Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index finds that 65 percent of AI users fear falling behind if they don’t adapt quickly. But knowing you need to transform and knowing how to do it are two entirely different problems. One of the most practical places to […]
Can Seattle Become America’s Next AI Capital?
IN THIS ISSUE: Seattle has long been one of America’s most consequential technology cities—and the evidence suggests it may be more ready for the AI era than its national reputation reflects. This week’s column makes the case for Seattle as a serious AI capital, drawing on its unique concentration of cloud infrastructure, renewable-energy advantages, aerospace […]
Ai2 Launches AutoDiscovery to Analyze Datasets and Break Science’s Ideation Bottleneck
Scientific progress has long followed a familiar arc: form a hypothesis, design an experiment, test, and repeat. But when dealing with sprawling datasets, the bottleneck isn’t in collecting information. It’s deciding where to look. Ai2 is betting that artificial intelligence can automate that decision. The nonprofit AI lab has introduced AutoDiscovery, an open-source experimental tool […]
One in Two Venture Capital Dollars Went to AI in 2025, Largely Concentrated in San Francisco
Investors aren’t showing restraint when it comes to AI. According to new data from Crunchbase and HumanX, AI companies pulled in $211 billion in venture capital last year—an 85 percent jump from 2024. Put differently: One out of every two VC dollars went into AI. The money isn’t evenly spread. Unsurprisingly, it’s heavily concentrated in […]
AI Agent Ambition vs. Reality: Enterprises Expect Mass 2027 Deployment, But ‘Sprawl’ and Skills Gaps Keep 97% From Scaling
If 2025 feels like the year AI agents finally arrived, 2027 may make it look tame by comparison, with analysts projecting an outright surge in enterprise-grade bots. But for now, even as companies adopt these digital workers, their ambitions far outpace their execution; 97 percent have yet to figure out how to scale agents across […]
68% of Companies Use AI, but Frontier Firms Are Driving Real Enterprise Impact
Seven months ago, Microsoft introduced the concept of the Frontier Firm, arguing that AI would fundamentally reshape the enterprise. Its research predicted that within two to five years, most companies would be well on their way to becoming AI-native. Now, a new Microsoft-commissioned study by IDC offers an early look at that trajectory—and how closely […]
Most Companies Still Aren’t Ready for AI, But Leaders Are Starting to Capture Value
The number of companies truly ready for AI may have plateaued, with just 13 percent saying they’re prepared to operationalize the technology. That’s according to Cisco’s third annual AI Readiness Index, released earlier this month. While the topline number hasn’t shifted year over year, the context has. Cisco says the so-called “Pacesetters”—a small but disciplined […]