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Ranked: The Industries Leveraging AI the Most

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Ranked: The Industries Leveraging AI the Most

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Key Takeaways

  • Employees in the tech industry are using gen AI the most, with 88% utilizing it for one or more functions.
  • Professional services rank next, with 80% of employees using gen AI, primarily for marketing and sales functions.
  • Overall, McKinsey found that 71% of 1,491 employees surveyed in July 2024 used generative AI for at least one function—up from 65% at the beginning of 2024.

Since ChatGPT launched in 2022, the share of workers using generative AI has exploded.

While employees in energy and materials see among the lowest use across industries, the majority of workers in a wide scope of industries use gen AI in at least one function. As firms increasingly look to extract value from AI and boost efficiency, these skills are in red hot demand.

This graphic shows the top AI-adopting industries by workers, based on data from McKinsey.

The Top Industries That Use AI

In the second half of 2024, 16% of companies used gen AI across five or more functions—rising by twofold compared to the first half of 2024.

Below, we focus on just the share of workers using gen AI in at least one function:

Industry Share Using Gen AI in One or More Functions
Technology 88%
Professional services 80%
Advanced industries 79%
Media and telecom 79%
Consumer goods and retail 68%
Financial services 65%
Healthcare, pharma, and medical products 63%
Energy and materials 59%
Overall 71%

As we can see, the top two industries are tech (88%) and professional services (80%). In the past year, this share has likely grown considerably higher as a proliferation of tools—from AI agents to video generation have entered the market at rapid speed. In the tech industry, marketing and sales stood as the most common function when using gen AI.

Ranking in third are advanced industries, including aerospace, semiconductors, and advanced electronics firms. Similarly, marketing functions were the top use among employees, while risk and compliance tasks were the least popular.

Overall, manufacturing and supply chain functions saw the least AI usage across all employees, at 5% and 7%, respectively.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic from an AI perspective, check out this graphic on the top uses for gen AI in 2025.