AI2B: Enterprise AI usage surges 36-fold with ChatGPT leading adoption

Enterprise AI adoption is accelerating at a remarkable pace, with new data revealing a 36-fold increase in AI-related transactions over the past year. Zscaler’s latest threat report offers a comprehensive look at which AI tools are gaining traction across businesses, highlighting how ChatGPT dominates usage despite also being the most commonly blocked application. The findings shed light on the evolving enterprise AI landscape and provide insights into which categories of AI tools are seeing the most significant adoption.

The big picture: Enterprise Cloud security leader Zscaler’s latest threat report reveals AI/ML transactions have increased by an astonishing 3,464.6% (or 36x) over the past 12 months.

Key findings: ChatGPT dominates enterprise AI usage, accounting for 45.2% of all AI transactions, though it also tops the list of most frequently blocked AI applications.

• Grammarly has secured the second position in enterprise AI adoption, showing stronger penetration than many might have anticipated.
• Microsoft Copilot features prominently among the most-used AI productivity tools, reflecting Microsoft’s strategic AI integration across its product ecosystem.

Usage patterns: The top three categories of AI applications in enterprise environments are productivity tools, writing assistants, and language translation services.

• Productivity tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot lead adoption, suggesting businesses are primarily leveraging AI for everyday workplace efficiency gains.
• Writing assistants such as Grammarly represent the second most popular category, highlighting the value businesses place on communication enhancement.
• Language translation tools like DeepL round out the top three categories, indicating growing importance of multilingual capabilities in global business operations.

Why this matters: The explosive growth in AI adoption provides a clear signal that artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming embedded in core enterprise workflows rather than remaining an experimental technology.

• The diversity of top AI use cases demonstrates that businesses are finding value across multiple functional areas rather than limiting AI to specialized applications.