One of the biggest questions facing AI-related companies is the return on investment. Beyond providers of foundational technologies like Nvidia’s AI accelerators, and cloud computing services from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, data on AI revenue has been inconsistent. Established enterprise software providers have noted rising adoption, with ServiceNow for instance reporting that 12% of its customer base had begun to employ their Now Assist agent, and Workday reporting that over 30% of customer expansion deals included an AI solution. Encouragingly, it’s not only larger tech companies leveraging the technology, but also startups. According to the payments processor Stripe, in 2024, the median time for AI startups to reach annualized revenues of USD 5 million was 24 months, compared to 37 months for Software as a Service (SaaS) startups in 2018.
Source: Stripe, February 2025