[HN Gopher] The Fall 2024 Workforce Index Shows AI Hype Is Cooling
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       The Fall 2024 Workforce Index Shows AI Hype Is Cooling
        
       Author : zer0tonin
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2024-11-12 22:11 UTC (48 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (slack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (slack.com)
        
       | cj wrote:
       | I'm the "IT guy" at our 30 person startup.
       | 
       | My 2024 stance is "buy every AI add-on and decide whether to keep
       | it next year"
       | 
       | So our team has access to Enterprise ChatGPT, Gemini, Notion AI,
       | Slack AI, and basically every AI add-on in every SaaS platform
       | that offers it as an upsell (Github Copilot, ReadMe AI, etc).
       | 
       | 2024 is the year of "I don't know what the hell these AI tools
       | are going to be useful for, so let's buy them all"
       | 
       | 2025 will be the year of "Ok, we spent $xxx on all these AI tools
       | last year, is anyone actually using them?"
       | 
       | I predict we'll be canceling a lot of those subscriptions. Which
       | all in cost us over $100/mo per employee.
        
         | fsndz wrote:
         | that's a nice strategy for a 39 person startup ! using the
         | tools is indeed the only way to see what works and what
         | doesn't.
        
         | rollinDyno wrote:
         | This makes sense for the current add-on wave but expect the
         | launch of independent AI platforms to increase in the coming
         | year.
        
         | seattleeng wrote:
         | This is exactly how Ive seen things occur. It makes a lot of
         | sense, given some tools are great new additions (coding
         | especially), but others fall flat (IMO, search)
        
       | fsndz wrote:
       | I am not surprised at all. The excitement is receding in
       | accordance with the hype cycle theory. People tried the tools and
       | saw their worth and the limitations. This is actually good news,
       | it means we are entering a moment of truth, a moment when
       | transforming knowledge into productivity and profits becomes
       | crucial ! (https://www.lycee.ai/blog/large-language-models-
       | productivity...)
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | I sort of hate the Gartner hype cycle as a research tool but I
         | think there's a lot of truth to it directionally.
        
       | voidfunc wrote:
       | The big winner for AI at the end of the day is going to be
       | Microsoft and Microsoft-like companies that can integrate AI and
       | Copilots into existing tools, with an understanding of how those
       | tools are used by daily users and without significantly
       | increasing prices.
       | 
       | The rest of it? Mostly useless.
        
         | hipadev23 wrote:
         | Incumbents (Google, Microsoft, Adobe) seem to broadly struggle
         | at reasonable integration of AI. Just look at windows/github
         | copilot compared claude desktop or cursor.
        
       | asdev wrote:
       | who is actually making sustainable revenue solving a real problem
       | using AI? I can only think of the foundational models(OpenAI,
       | Gemini etc), coding helpers(Cursor, GH Copilot)
        
         | cadence- wrote:
         | It might not always be possible to directly translate it to
         | revenue, but in my company, we started using an RAG system to
         | help the Customer Support team answer inquiries. It replaced
         | the old Knowledge Base articles search system, and it improved
         | the number of processed inquiries by about 30%. This decreased
         | customer support times and probably helped make customers
         | happier, which is a pretty nice win, even if it would be pretty
         | much impossible to attribute any revenue numbers directly to
         | it.
        
       | cadence- wrote:
       | It's nice to see that the hype is cooling. There will be more
       | room to focus discussions on what's actually useful, and stop
       | with the endless "I love it", vs. "I hate it", vs. "I fear it"
       | discussions.
        
       | gradus_ad wrote:
       | The only AI product I've found to be useful is ChatGPT and the
       | like. Just chatting it up with a GPT, exploring ideas, getting
       | feedback etc. All derivative products, including coding tools,
       | have been unhelpful at best and actively harmful to productivity
       | at worst.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-12 23:00 UTC)