What’s actually happening with AI adoption inside U.S. businesses—and how much of the public discourse is just vibes?

In this episode of AI-Curious, we dig into the hard numbers behind AI spend and adoption with Ara Kharazian, an economist at Ramp and the leader of Ramp Economics Lab. Using anonymized, real-time corporate spend data across tens of thousands of businesses, Ara shares what the “receipts” reveal about who’s buying AI, how fast budgets are shifting, and where the hype diverges from reality.

What we cover

Ramp’s unique vantage point: why transaction-level corporate spend data can reveal real behavior—not just surveys or anecdotes
AI adoption is rising: what Ramp’s data suggests about the share of businesses paying for AI tools and APIs
The “ROI” question: how we can infer whether AI is working (hint: contract sizes and renewals)
Where spend is concentrating: tech and finance lead—but healthcare and manufacturing are climbing faster than many expect
Chatbots vs. real workflow change: why “everyone has a chatbot” isn’t the same as transformative productivity
Who’s winning the model wars: OpenAI’s default position, Anthropic’s growth, and how buyers behave differently
Bundled AI and hidden usage: why Copilot/Gemini adoption is hard to measure, and why employees expensing personal accounts matters
Trust, governance, and observability: the fast-growing category of tools that monitor AI outputs and reduce reputational or security risk
996 culture is real: what corporate receipts suggest about weekend work patterns in San Francisco
Open source reality check: what the data suggests about DeepSeek-style hype vs. actual enterprise adoption
Looking ahead: why we likely won’t see a reversal in AI adoption—and why it’s still unclear who the ultimate winners will be

Timestamps:

00:06:00 – What Ramp is, and what “Ramp Economics Lab” tracks
00:08:00 – The biggest headline: adoption, spend, and contract sizes
00:11:00 – Which industries are adopting fastest (including surprises)
00:12:00 – Chatbots vs. productivity gains: where AI is actually moving the needle
00:15:00 – Signals of ROI: contract renewals and retention trends
00:16:00 – OpenAI vs. Anthropic: what spend reveals about “default” vs. multi-provider behavior
00:18:00 – Why Copilot/Gemini are tricky to track (bundled AI)
00:21:00 – The real blocker: trust in outputs (and how companies respond)
00:26:00 – The rise of AI observability / governance tooling
00:30:00 – What spend data can reveal about how work is changing (996 / SF)
00:33:00 – How rare it is to see a trend that truly moves an economy
00:36:00 – Is AI spend crowding out other budgets?
00:38:00 – The narratives that bother Ara most: data-poor hot takes
00:42:00 – Predictions: continued growth, unclear winners
00:44:00 – DeepSeek and open source: what actually happened in the spend data

If you want to understand AI adoption the way a CFO would—through budgets, renewals, and real purchasing behavior—this conversation will give you a sharper, more grounded lens.

Guest: Ara Kharazian, Economist at Ramp; Lead, Ramp Economics Lab