2025 State of AI Report: The Builder’s Playbook

Investment Rating - The report does not explicitly provide an investment rating for the industry Core Insights - The 2025 State of AI report emphasizes the importance of building and operationalizing AI products as a competitive advantage, focusing on the practical aspects of developing AI-powered offerings [11][12] - The report identifies key dimensions of the builder's playbook, including product roadmap and architecture, go-to-market strategy, talent acquisition, cost management, and internal productivity [14] Summary by Sections Product Roadmap & Architecture - Best practices for balancing experimentation, speed to market, and performance during model evolution are discussed [14] - AI-native companies are more advanced in product development, with 47% of their products reaching critical scale [28][30] Go-to-Market Strategy - AI-enabled companies allocate 20-35% of their product roadmap to AI features, while high-growth companies dedicate 30-45% [66] - A hybrid pricing model is prevalent, combining subscription and usage-based pricing [69] People & Talent - Companies are increasingly hiring dedicated AI leadership as they scale, with 33% of companies having dedicated AI leadership by the time they reach $100M in revenue [86] - AI/ML engineers and data scientists are among the most sought-after roles, with hiring challenges primarily due to a lack of qualified candidates [90][92] Cost Management & ROI - Companies allocate approximately 10-20% of their R&D budget to AI development, with plans to increase this in 2025 [100] - The cost of AI infrastructure is a significant concern, with API usage fees being the most challenging to control [106] Internal Productivity & Operations - Internal AI productivity budgets are expected to nearly double in 2025, with companies spending between 1-8% of total revenue on AI [122] - Approximately 70% of employees have access to AI tools, but only about 50% use them regularly [129]