In 2023, AI was thrust into the mainstream media, driven by Generative AI and ChatGPT. It seems everyone and their dog was developing some type of AI-driven content generator that would apparently radically reinvent society. Well, Skynet has not materialized just yet, and we are not at DEFCON 1, but most certainly AI was a massive media driver.
In this Mediascape, we look at how the media covered AI (not including GenAI) during the last 12 months.
AI Coverage – Search Term Analysis
We examined key terms within AI coverage in the United States to explore beyond the zeitgeist of Generative AI. The chart below details the number of articles that featured specific key messages around the base term “Enterprise AI” plus other key terms, for example Enterprise AI + AIOps, Enterprise AI + Edge AI… You get the picture. The chart also shows the number of publications that covered each key message and the average number of unique visitors-per-month (UVM) each publication received.
In total, there were well over 175,000 articles across 18,211 unique outlets. That’s 3378 articles per week… A lot of ink and pixels. Unsurprisingly the more “known” terms garnered the most coverage, with the more niche or perhaps emerging phrases. One example of that is “Composite AI”, which Gartner defines as “the combined application (or fusion) of different AI techniques to improve the efficiency of learning to broaden the level of knowledge representations. Composite AI broadens AI abstraction mechanisms and, ultimately, provides a platform to solve a wider range of business problems in a more effective manner.”
Figure 1 below shows the table data in bar chart format to give coverage percentage breakdowns of the key messages. Enterprise AI and applications captured almost half of the coverage, followed by ML and LLMs. There’s quite a gap then to Edge AI and AIOps, with the remaining messages significantly lower.
Fig. 1: Key messages
Figure 2 shows the number of articles featuring key messages over time. We saw significant spikes, for example, in Enterprise AI in November 2023 (12,052 articles), as the concept of Enterprise AI, bolstered by Generative AI/ChatGPT market penetration, moved more into the mainstream business vernacular, and hence, media coverage. Many providers started to roll out dedicated Enterprise AI offerings, there was discussion around adoption, strategic partnerships, the effects on enterprises, and the benefits and potential risks of AI. There was a correlating spike around Applications too, reflecting the discussion around applications that are driven by, or part and parcel of, Enterprise AI.
Fig. 2: Key messages over time
Trending Topics in AI
We also looked at trending media topics relating to AI. Generative AI was far and away to most pervasive subject, although that’s not the focus of this mediascape. It was so popular that it has its own mediascape blog coming soon. Beneath GenAI, though, as bulleted below, there was an interesting spread of topics covering the application of AI, the implications of the spread of AI, for example, ethics, regulations and governance, and how AI has been democratized (particularly through GenAI).
- Generative AI
- AI and cloud
- AI and observability
- Edge AI
- AI standards and regulation
- AI engineering (relating to delivering solutions at scale)
- Ethical AI
- Democratization of AI
- AI automation
- Computer vision AI
- Conversational AI
- AI governance
- AI talent shortage
We can expect these topics to be newsworthy throughout the rest of 2024 and into 2025, with more subjects emerging as AI continues to evolve and new applications and possibilities come to fruition