Business leaders are largely ‘unprepared’ for the energy impact that artificial intelligence could have on their business, a new study commissioned by SambaNova has found.
The study, which gathered insights from 2,012 business leaders across the United States and Europe, found that some 72.4% of businesses are aware of the significant power needed to train AI models, however only 13% actively monitor the power consumption of their AI systems.
At the same time, approximately half (49.8%) state that they are ‘concerned’ about the growing power requirements of AI.
‘A stark reality’
“The findings reveal a stark reality – businesses are rushing to adopt AI, but aren’t prepared to manage its energy impact,” commented Rodrigo Liang, CEO of SambaNova Systems.
“Without a proactive approach to more efficient AI hardware and energy consumption, particularly in the face of increasing demand from AI workflows, we risk undermining the very progress AI promises to deliver. By 2027, my expectation is that more than 90% of leaders will be concerned about the power demands of AI and will monitor consumption as a KPI that corporate boards will track closely.”
Some 70% of respondents state that they are aware of the energy-intensive nature of training large-language models, while 59.7% understand the substantial energy needs associated with inference workloads, the study found.
Among the businesses that have deployed AI widely across their organisations, more than three quarters (77.4%) state that they are actively seeking to reduce power usage. Some two-fifths (40.4%) are looking to achieve this through hardware and software optimisation, with a similar number turning to energy-efficient processors (39.3%), and investment in green energy (34.9%).
‘Rapid pace’
However, these efforts remain inadequate in the face of the continued acceleration of AI adoption.
“The rapid pace of AI adoption underscores a critical need for enterprises to align their strategies with the power requirements of AI deployment,” Liang added. “As businesses integrate AI, addressing energy efficiency and infrastructure readiness will be essential for long-term success.”
The survey was conducted between December 16 and December 27, 2024, and included 1,004 respondents in Europe and 1,008 in the United States. Read more here.
