According to Google Trends, search interest in AI (measured from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most popular week-long duration for that search term) was hovering at around 10 for the two years leading up to Chat-GPT’s launch in November 2022.  By April 2023, the term had completed its steady rise to 100.

Search interest in AI hasn’t dropped much since. In the past year and a half, AI awareness has rocketed, with thousands of media stories about it, trillions of dollars accumulated because of it, and doomsayers warning about the end of the world as we know it. Amid this cacophony, companies around the world have been seeking to integrate AI to enhance and expedite their operations.

Cameron Steele, co-founder and CEO of Prophia, an AI company that helps commercial real estate firms manage their portfolio data, says that firms, particularly in today’s difficult market, “are realizing they can’t operate the way they’ve been historically — they have to think d