The Economist - Welcome to the AI trough of disillusionment

“When the chief executive of a large tech firm based in San Francisco shares a drink with the bosses of his Fortune 500 clients, he often hears a similar message. “They’re frustrated and disappointed. They say: ‘I don’t know why it’s taking so long. I’ve spent money on this. It’s not happening’”.

For many companies, excitement over the promise of generative artificial intelligence (ai) has given way to vexation over the difficulty of making productive use of the technology. According to s&p Global, a data provider, the share of companies abandoning most of their generative-ai pilot projects has risen to 42%, up from 17% last year. The boss of Klarna, a Swedish buy-now, pay-later provider, recently admitted that he went too far in using the technology to slash customer-service jobs, and is now rehiring humans for the roles.”

https://www.economist.com/business/2025/05/21/welcome-to-the-ai-trough-of-disillusionment