Storage, not GPUs, is the biggest challenge to AI says influential report — lack of bits and bytes is what could make or break your AI/ML project

A major report on the state of the AI industry has revealed some key insights into potential problems for companies and the industry at large as its growth continues to boom following the release of ChatGPT and other AI models. 

S&P Global Market Intelligence, commissioned by WEKA, recently released its 2024 Global Trends in AI report, surveying over 1,500 different tech executives and decision-makers on underlying trends across a broad range of topics.

Some of the most interesting insights related to the supply of AI-capable GPUs, almost all of which are made by Nvidia, although companies like AMD, as well as start-ups, are gaining some ground. 

The main takeaway, as per WEKA, is that AI applications are "now pervasive in the enterprise", which is probably something most employees can feel already. However, scaling these AI apps is often tricky, mostly due to legacy data architectures. 

Generative AI has also taken organisations by storm, with the report noting 88% of organizations are "now actively investigating generative AI, far outstripping other AI applications such as prediction models (61%), classification (51%), expert systems (39%) and robotics (30%)." 

Nvidia, the corporate world needs you

High-end GPUs are, naturally, a big focus of the report – having the raw power is fundamental to being able to actually do anything with many AI applications. 

"Hyperscaler public clouds are one pathway to GPUs, but many are also turning to specialist AI clouds," it notes. "GPU clouds are emerging as a key venue for both training – employed by almost a third, 32% of organizations – and inference, 31%."

All of this interest means that orders for Nvidia chips are only getting bigger. 

Interesting, WEKA highlights the issue of GPU scarcity in a number of major Asia-Pacific economies, including India. "India, Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia are more likely to rank GPU availability among their top three challenges to bringing a model into production," says the report authors. 

"One of the most striking takeaways from our 2024 Trends In AI study is the astonishing rate of change that’s taken place since the onset of ChatGPT 3 and the first wave of generative AI models reached the market in early 2023," principal research analyst John Abbott told Blocks & Files. 

"In less than two years, generative AI adoption has eclipsed all other AI applications in the enterprise, defining a new cohort of AI leaders and shaping an emergent market of specialty AI and GPU cloud providers."

MORE FROM TECHRADAR PRO

• We’re witnessing the death of the graphics card in real time right now, and I couldn’t be happier about it
• Nvidia’s AI market dominance: Can anyone mount a serious challenge?
• We found the best GPUs for all budgets