Nov
Are We Seeing The Start Of The AI Pullback?
jerry9789 0 comments artificial intelligence, Burning Questions
What Is AI Pullback?
In these last few years, we’ve all heard nothing but the revolutionary and transformative influence of Artificial Intelligence not only in the mainstream consciousness but also in various industries. A mixture of excitement and anxiety, we’ve collectively marveled at what Generative AI could produce or emulate in little to no time at all while grasping at the notion of what all this automation means for the human workforce and talent. However, the tone appears to be shifting these past few months with data showing large companies’ adoption of AI on the decline.
As reported in Apollo, a biweekly US Census Bureau survey of 1.2 million firms revealed a downward trend in AI utilization for companies with more than 250 employees. Falling from about 13.5% in June to under 12% in August, it’s the largest decline for AI adoption since the survey started in November 2023. Mid-sized companies or firms with less than 250 employees but more than 19 workers showed decreasing or stagnating AI adoption. It’s only with small companies with less than four employees that demonstrated a slight increase in AI usage.
New reports might help shed light on the AI pullback, such as a recent one from MIT indicating that 95% of AI pilot programs failed to boost company revenues or productivity. MIT’s findings were based on reviews of over 300 public corporate AI usage, surveying 350 employees, and talking with 150 industry leaders.
A recent study by METR revealed that developers surprisingly took 19% longer to complete issues when using AI coding tools than without. Yet despite actually experiencing slowdown, the developers still believed AI sped them up by 20%. This gap between developers’ perception and reality is representative of these past few years with the hyped up implementation of AI into everything software-related and unrestrained confidence in the hot new tech in spite of the unfavorable results.
IT Consultancy Gartner also attempted to quantify how much work AI agents get wrong when it “hallucinates.” They found that generative AI performs office tasks wrong a staggering 70% of the time. With that much error, human oversight becomes a necessity and in some cases, objectives would’ve been served much better had the task been assigned to a person instead of a machine.
Image: Mathias Reding
Is AI Pullback A Sign Of AI Adoption Maturity?
On a different note, the MTLC wrote that the AI pullback might seem like a slowdown but it could actually be a correction or calibration, as is the natural progression with any emerging tech’s usage. They pointed out that the same MIT report accounted for over 90% of employees using AI tools, no matter the company stance with AI. That these workers would utilize AI just so they can perform their tasks more efficiently and faster. And that this is another way at looking at AI adoption- “bottom-up, not just top down.”
It’s not that AI isn’t viable, but rather “the projects weren’t scoped, aligned, or designed for outcomes.” 95% of AI projects fail not because of the technology but because of how companies approach AI adoption.
AI pullback is signaling the transition from overenthusiasm to realistic expectations, from experimentation to production. For enterprise businesses to succeed with AI, they would need to identify which models, tools and processes work, which projects to invest in, and where AI would deliver the most value.
Image: Andrea Piacquadio
Cascade Strategies’ Approach To AI
The promise of increased production and revenue had led to companies to replace or cease hiring human workers in favor of AI during the onset of its mainstream popularity. Now that AI pullback is happening, companies have begun hiring human workers again not only to oversee but fix or improve sloppy AI outputs.
Cascade Strategies has always approached AI not just merely as a tool but as an augmentation and extension of human intelligence and talent. Yes, AI is a very powerful and promising technology but we recognize early on that on its own, it is gravely limited to the datasets its fed and their quality, the eventual gaps providing the perfect breeding ground for “hallucinations,” each iteration degrading and becoming less of what was before. We’ve always seen human intervention and guidance as essential for AI to maximize its potential; with the AI pullback, more and more companies are on the brink of discovering this incredible synergy between human and artificial intelligence.
Powered by AI, research becomes scalable and cost-effective by being applicable in all facets of the business and not just flagship projects; human oversight amplifies all that productivity and efficiency by unlocking innovative, resonant and actionable insights.
If you would like to learn more about how our human-centered market research work can benefit you or your company, feel free to contact us here.
Image: cottonbro studio
Additional Reading:
AI Pullback Has Officially Started – Will Lockett, medium.com Oct. 22, 2025
Data Shows That AI Use Is Now Declining at Large Companies – Joe Wilkins, futurism.com Sep. 8, 2025
AI adoption slows among big firms, U.S. data shows – Jullianna Anne Briones, tech.co Sep. 18, 2025
US Census Bureau: AI Adoption Has Declined for Large Companies – Conor Cawley, Sep. 11, 2025
AI adoption rate is declining among large companies — US Census Bureau claims fewer businesses are using AI tools – Hassam Nasir, tomshardware.com Sep. 8, 2025
Featured Image: MrWashingt0n
Top Image: Thirdman
Aug
The Future Is Here
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
With just 22 words, we are ushered into a future once heralded in science fiction movies and literature of the past, a future our collective consciousness anticipated but has now taken us by surprise upon the realization of our unreadiness. It is a future where machines are intelligent enough to replicate a growing number of significant and specialized tasks. A future where machines are intelligent enough to not only threaten to replace the human workforce but humanity itself.
Published by the San Francisco-based Center for AI Safety, this 22-word statement was co-signed by leading tech figures such as Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Both have also expressed calls for caution before, joining the ranks of other tech specialists and executives like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak.
Earlier in the year, Musk, Wozniak, and other tech leaders and experts endorsed an open letter proposing a six-month halt on AI research and development. The suggested pause is presumed to allow for time to determine and implement AI safety standards and protocols.
Max Tegmark, physicist and AI researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, once held an optimistic view of the possibilities granted by AI but has now recently issued a warning. He remarked that humanity is failing this new technology’s challenge by rushing into the development and release of AI systems that aren’t fully understood or completely regulated.
Henry Kissinger himself co-wrote a book on the topic. In The Age of AI, Kissinger warned us about AI eventually becoming capable of making conclusions and decisions no human is able to consider or understand. This is a notion made more unsettling when taken into the context of everyday life and warfare.
Working With AI
We at Cascade Strategies wholeheartedly agree with this now emerging consensus and additionally, we believe that we’ve been obedient in upholding the responsible and conscientious use of AI. Not only have we long been advocating for the “Appropriate Use” of AI, but we’ve also made it a hallmark of how we find solutions for our client’s needs with market research and brand management.
Just consider the work we’ve done with the Expedia Group. For years, they’ve utilized a segmentation model to engage with their lodging partners by offering advice that could lead to the partner winning a booking over a competitor. AI filters through the thousands of possible recommendations to arrive at a shortlist of the best selections optimized for revenue.
With the continued growth and diversification of their partners, they then needed a more effective approach in engaging and appealing to them, something that focuses more on that associate’s behavior and motivations. We came up with two things for Expedia: a psychographic segmentation formed into subgroups based on patterns of thinking, feeling, and perceiving to explain and predict behavior, and more importantly, a Scenario Analyzer that utilizes the underlying AI model but now delivers recommendations in very action-oriented and compelling messaging tailor-fit for that specific partner.
The best part about the Scenario Analyzer is whether the partner follows any of the advice recommended or does nothing, Expedia still stands to make a profit while maintaining an image of personalized attentiveness to their partner’s needs. And ultimately, it’s the partner who gets to decide, not the AI.
Copyright Tara Winstead
Our Future With AI
This is how we view and approach AI- it’s not the end-all, be-all solution but rather an essential tool in increasing productivity and efficiency in tandem with excellent human thinking, judgment, and creativity. Yes, it is going to be part of our future but in line with the new consensus, we believe that AI shaped by human values and experience is the way to go with this emerging and exciting technology.
info@cascadestrategies.com
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