The global market for generative AI will grow from $6bn this year to $59bn in 2028, new forecasts show, as the technology is deployed in industries ranging from marketing to insurance.

Few software markets, if any, have grown as fast or produced as much excitement — and fear — as generative artificial intelligence. Supporters predict that the technology — which can generate vast amounts of sophisticated media, such as text, computer code, images or music by learning from online data — will facilitate huge increases in productivity. Others warn about the technology’s potential to do harm — including automating hundreds of millions of jobs or even posing a threat to humanity.

“Generative AI is innovative and disruptive,” says Eden Zoller, chief analyst at Omdia, which has researched the future of the generative AI software market. “Many businesses are experimenting with it, and some are getting good results. The technology has huge potential but also huge risks.”