How much power does your AI use? Most businesses don't know
According to new research only 13 percent of businesses are monitoring their AI’s energy consumption despite escalating power demands.
The study from SambaNova Systems gathered responses from 2,012 business leaders (1,004 in Europe and 1,008 in the US) finds that 49.8 percent are concerned about the energy and efficiency challenges posed by AI.
Of those that have widely deployed AI 77.4 percent say they are actively seeking to reduce power usage. Hardware and software optimization is practiced by 40.4 percent, while 39.3 percent are adopting energy-efficient processors and 34.9 percent investing in renewable energy.
"The findings reveal a stark reality: businesses are rushing to adopt AI, but aren’t prepared to manage its energy impact," says 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 percent of leaders will be concerned about the power demands of AI and will monitor consumption as a KPI that corporate boards will track closely."
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Enterprises risk falling behind in AI adoption
The roll-out of Agentic AI is further amplifying power concerns for enterprises. For 20.3 percent of companies, rising power costs are identified as a pressing issue. In addition, 37.2 percent are experiencing increasing stakeholder pressure to improve AI energy efficiency, with a further 42.0 percent expecting these demands to emerge soon.
While 70.0 percent of leaders recognize the energy-intensive nature of training large language models, only 59.7 percent are aware of the significant power demands of inference. This gap is critical as inference workloads are set to dominate AI usage with the scaling of Agentic AI.
"The rapid pace of AI adoption underscores a critical need for enterprises to align their strategies with the power requirements of AI deployment," adds Liang. "As businesses integrate AI, addressing energy efficiency and infrastructure readiness will be essential for long-term success. Customers are turning to SambaNova for help deploying energy efficient solutions."
You can find out more on the SambaNova site.
Image credit: peshkov/depositphotos.com