Startups' Interest and Usage of GenAI: Findings from Two Surveys

Startups are early adopters of Generative Artificial Intel-ligence (GenAI). But a more nuanced understanding of how differentstartups are adopting GenAI is currently missing in the literature. Ourstudy aimed to address this knowledge gap and examined whether dif-ferent startup characteristics influence their interest and usage of GenAIusing the data from two online surveys. No statistically significant in-fluence of the characteristics on startups’ interest in GenAI was foundin the first survey of 112 startups. However, with the second survey ofsample size 125, the age of startup team members and area of activityof startups are found to influence significantly startups’ usage of GenAI.We argue for more research and practical support for elder startup teamsand startups operating in non-tech areas to use GenAI.