I was listening to someone knowledgeable talk about how Artificial intelligence is affecting life on earth now

It said that only 6% of the businesses have totally converted to the full use of AI now. However, 88% of the businesses are presently experimenting with it to see how useful it will be for them long term.

Here is a good statement about this:

"Step inside a large company and AI is everywhere and nowhere at once."

This is probably the most definitive statement about AI in the Business world so far.

This quote is from Fahreed Zacharia on Sunday August 16th 2026 on his GPS program that airs every Sunday there usually.

88% of businesses are using AI for at least one function

38% of the companies are scaling AI Company wide.

For many businesses AI is yet to change the ways people work or to deliver meaningful returns.

AI is a General Purpose Technology first of all.

Here are some general purpose technologies:

Electricity

Internet

Mobile phones

It takes Decades to transfer this technology to economically transfer wealth into the economy

But the technology transfer takes years even though the economic transfer will take decades.

I think looking at cell phones and Smart phones are the most recent example of all of this. 

For example, if you were an adult in 2000 already then you likely bought your first cellphone and likely a flip phone at that. I bought one of the Star Trek (communicator ones early on for example) because I liked the idea of owning a "communicator" like you had on star trek at that time.

So, by studying how Cell phones became a part of the business and personal world worldwide the timing of that compared to the timing of how AI will permeate everything and everyone might be somewhat similar in it's timing.

So, to see how long AI might take doing what Cell phones did historically might be useful here to some degree.

begin quotes:

 

Mobile phones became truly popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While heavy and expensive devices existed for business users in the 1980s, smaller phones, lower costs, and text messaging made them mainstream for the general public around 2000. 

Key Adoption Phases

1980s: Luxury items for rich business users; large "brick" phones cost thousands of dollars.
Late 1990s: Smaller flip phones and digital networks arrived; text messaging and games like Snake hooked younger users.
2002–2005: Mass adoption occurred as lower prices made phones common for everyday people and teenagers.
2007 onward:
Smartphones took over after Apple launched the iPhone, bringing the internet to pocket devices.
 

If you want, let me know if you are looking for information about a specific country or the history of smartphones vs. basic cell phones, and I can share more details.

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  Reddit

  When did cellphones become mainstream?

  Comments Section * Lost_Childhood_5005. • 2y ago. I don't really know either lemme think. I graduated high school in 2008 and they...

  
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  Cellular Sales

  A (mostly) quick history of smartphones - Cellular Sales

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History of mobile phones

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › History_of_mobile_ph...

Enabling technology for mobile phones was first developed in the 1940s but it was not until the mid-1980s that they became widely available.