The Dominant Emotion in Enterprise AI Isn't Excitement – It's Fear
We analyzed 9,648 online signals from people in the middle of enterprise AI transformations. The dominant emotion isn't excitement – it's fear. Here's what that means for leaders, and why strategy (not tooling) is the real unlock.
Using Jetson's behavioral analytics platform (DAS), we analyzed 9,648 online signals from people in the middle of enterprise AI transformation initiatives. What we found is instructive for all leaders.
The dominant emotion isn't excitement. It's fear.
The top searched term in the enterprise AI category is "enterprise ai failure rate." Not "best enterprise AI platform." Not "enterprise AI solutions." Failure rate. At 2,900 monthly searches, it outranks every other keyword in the dataset.
Across social conversations (e.g., Reddit, YouTube, G2 reviews), caution and concern language outpaces excitement and opportunity language nearly 4-to-1. 22% of conversations surface words like risk, failure, trust, cost, and struggle. Only 6% use language like opportunity, innovation, or excitement. People aren't talking about what AI can do – they're talking about what it might cost them.
The external data explains why. According to S&P Global, 42% of companies abandoned most of their AI initiatives in 2025 – up from 17% the year before. Gartner finds fewer than half of AI projects make it into production at all.
This tension doesn't get resolved through better tools. It gets resolved by better strategy; respect for human motivations, fears, and desires; and real expertise in change management.
At Jetson, our AI transformation capability is built to address both the technical and the human dynamics required for success. Naturally, we're optimists about the impacts of AI, but transformation only happens when teams share that view – and see their place in the new world we're racing toward.