Enterprises Actually Using AI Will Be the Big Trend in Tech for 2026

The symbol for a ChatGPT virtual assistant on a laptop computer. In early December, OpenAI executive Ronnie Chatterji said more than a million businesses use the company’s tools. (TECHAI1222)

Key Points

• Micron Technology reported over 80% of employees use AI tools, with a tenfold increase in usage and 30% productivity gains in software development.
• OpenAI’s enterprise AI tools are used by over one million businesses, with weekly message volume to ChatGPT Enterprise increasing nearly eightfold.
• Cursor, an AI start-up, has over 60% of Fortune 500 companies as customers.

Big companies wrapping artificial intelligence into how they do business may be the most underestimated trend in tech next year. Today’s AI winners stand to benefit.

In July, a viral report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that 95% of organizations weren’t generating meaningful value from AI, citing difficulties integrating AI models into their workflows. Now, that seems to be changing.

There are important signs the use of AI tools is making major strides inside corporations. Companies and start-ups are showing visible progress.

Anecdotal evidence is emerging from more enterprises. I expect it will become undeniable that usage is rising, with greater benefits, in 2026.

For instance, on Micron Technology’s latest earnings call, management said more than 80% of the company’s employees were actively using AI tools, with aggregate usage up tenfold versus a year ago. They reported productivity gains of 30% for software development and that the integration of AI into the chip yield-management process has cut the time to identify problems by half.

AI excels at automating tedious, repetitive tasks and making important information instantly accessible. Cursor, an AI start-up, is seeing accelerating demand for its programming assistant, which enables programmers to autocomplete code, fix bugs faster, and automate boilerplate tasks.

Cursor’s products make knowledge workers vastly more productive because they use proprietary custom data and model to achieve what appears to be an intuitive understanding of their needs. CEO Michael Truell has said more than 60% of the Fortune 500 are now customers.

What Cursor has done for coding will likely happen across every industry vertical. I expect large productivity gains for customer service, sales and marketing, and R&D to proliferate as AI makes possible rapid testing and experimentation with new ideas.

OpenAI is known for its consumer ChatGPT service, but it is an enterprise leader too. In early December, OpenAI executive Ronnie Chatterji said enterprise AI is entering an era where “significant” economic value is being created as a result of large gains in productivity. He cited how more than one million businesses use the company’s AI tools, saying that over the past year, weekly message volume sent to ChatGPT Enterprise has risen nearly eightfold.

If growth in corporate AI usage continues, the major leaders in the AI trade—think Microsoft , OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nvidia —stand to gain.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com