New McKinsey report highlights generative AI is driving job growth and investments
Generative AI continues to be the “standout” technology trend as interest and investments continue to rise, according to McKinsey’s latest Technology Trends Outlook.
The 100-page report found the pace of innovation for generative AI to be “remarkable,” with the number of investments and job postings continuing to rise.
The report found that Google searches for generative AI alone saw an almost 700% rise from 2022 to 2023. Additionally, the context window of large language models increased from 100,000 to 2 million tokens in 2023-2024.
In terms of investments, the report found generative AI had a sevenfold increase compared with other technologies which “maintained cautious investment profiles over the past year.”
McKinsey said it expects the expansion of generative AI to continue as senior business leaders become increasingly invested in the technology. The technology is already being deployed across a wide range of applications including powering customer-facing chatbots, generating assets for marketing campaigns and accelerating drug discovery.
McKinsey’s recent Global Survey on AI found that 65% of more than 1,300 business leaders said their organizations regularly use generative AI, up from one-third last year. The report also noted that about a quarter of survey respondents self-reported that they are scaling the use of generative AI in their organizations.
The consulting firm's report said that the wave of interest in generative AI is bringing direct interest into other areas of AI, including applied AI and industrializing machine learning, both of which the report states have "seen the most significant uptick in innovation."
This group of technologies, which McKinsey called the "AI revolution" in the report, has shown substantial growth in publications and patents from 2022 to 2023.
The report suggests that the wider adoption of more mature technologies, such as cloud and edge computing, is enabling businesses to lay the groundwork for emerging technologies including generative AI.
The report also looked at job postings and found listings for roles across the 15 tech trends were down by 26% from 2021 to 2023.
Tech companies have been cutting staff. Meta, Snap Inc., Microsoft and Dropbox have laid off staff in the past year.
Despite a downturn in tech jobs, McKinsey found job postings for positions related to generative AI maintained and even increased in the past few years, reflecting a strong demand for businesses looking to implement the technology.
Of the 4.3 million job postings across 15 technology trends, the report found demand for AI-related roles was higher than in most other areas.
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