Palo Alto CEO Admits AI Isn't Helping Businesses
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora warns that while consumer AI usage is skyrocketing, enterprise adoption remains 2–3 years behind. Speaking at the company’s Q2 earnings call, Arora noted that coding assistants are currently the only AI tools driving significant business use.
Because coding apps generate minimal network traffic, they offer little immediate opportunity for security vendors. However, Arora views this as a "pre-game" phase, an arms race to build the infrastructure necessary to secure the massive data flows expected as AI matures. To prepare, Palo Alto has been on an acquisition spree, recently folding in Koi, Chronosphere, and CyberArk to bolster their AI security portfolio.
Which really makes it hard to believe that the AI bubble will continue to grow, or even maintain its current size, while enterprise businesses play catch-up.
Typically, in markets such as AI, the big spenders are the enterprises. Compare Google's Gmail, where most consumers don't spend a dime, to its business-grade Google Workspace.
It will be an interesting couple of years to see which AI developers can continue to support large spending while the money isn't flowing in.
