AI needs $6tn in annual revenue to justify data centre boom, Bain says - The National

The artificial intelligence industry needs to become creative with new propositions to earn $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 and justify the capital being deployed for data centres, a new report from Bain and Company has shown. Revenue from new product development is projected to become the biggest contributor to the industry, estimated to generate about $4.2 trillion to fund the booming technology's global market within the next half-decade, the US consultancy said in its latest technology report series on Tuesday. That segment would include innovations in search, advertising, autonomy and physical AI, analysts at Boston-based Bain said. Enterprise productivity would require $1 trillion to $1.4 trillion in revenue in order to support gains in areas such as software development, sales, marketing, customer service and IT operations, they said. Absorption speed, defined as the pace at which companies can put AI to work, has become the “new competitive variable”, according to Bain, leading AI labs are investing upwards of $9.75 billion in engineering models to help companies assimilate faster, it said. “The debate today is fixated on employee productivity.