The rise of creative AI, based on first-time purchase data

This week, we’re publishing a three-part series on companies’ latest priorities, based on billions of dollars processed on Ramp in the past three months. Don’t miss our other stories on how AI was the fastest-growing expense in Q2 and changing the way businesses work.

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Wondering what aspect of your operations will benefit most from new software tools? Take a hint from our lists of top software vendors that Ramp customers are transacting with. 

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> Download our Summer 2024 Spending Report for even more insights

Top SaaS vendors in H1

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It’s no surprise AI industry hotshots OpenAI and Anthropic top the list of vendors that businesses transacted with for the first time on Ramp cards from January to June 2024. Their strong showing confirms companies are racing to create a competitive edge with foundation models. 

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What’s perhaps more surprising is the appearance of long-time industry leaders like Canva, Squarespace, and Adobe. But these tools all have a lot more in common with each other than it may seem. Namely, they’re big believers in the idea of “democratizing creativity” as a way to increase efficiency—and do so with lots of help from AI:   

• Squarespace in April 2024 announced new AI features, including brand identity creation and text generation.
• Canva recently updated its AI-powered “Magic Studio” with capabilities including generating graphics via text and one-click application of brand colors. 
• Adobe Photoshop announced in April that “the next generation of AI is now in Photoshop.”

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These developments suggest that companies are eager to empower employees of all types with creative tools—and design vendors are responding to the demand. Canva’s cofounder and Chief Product Officer Mark Adams recently noted,“Previously, sales, finance or engineering professionals might've had no interest or need to create engaging, visual reports, but now they’re using AI to build presentations or write a first draft of projects from scratch Indeed, Canva seems to be solidifying its position as a go-to design tool, making our list of first-time purchases for companies of all sizes and reinforcing the increasing importance of visual communication.

Top AI vendors in Q2

A look at the top AI vendors on Ramp further bolsters the notion that companies are seeking a creativity boost. Here are the top 10 AI vendors on Ramp in Q2, based on overall customer count, along with the top 10 AI vendors that customers purchased for the first time this year: 

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On both lists, you’ll find a large number of vendors involved in creative production, including: Midjourney (art and image generation), ElevenLabs (text to natural-sounding speech), and Grammarly (AI writing assistance). These are the tools that not only are already popular, but are also bringing on new customers. Descript (video and audio editing) is another prominent vendor based on total customer count. 

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If we rank AI vendors by first-time mean card spend, more vendors in the creative space emerge, including Synthesia (video creation), Simplified AI (content generation), Tavus (video creation), and Deepgram (text to natural-sounding speech). Companies are willing to spend on tools that make their employees more self-sufficient. If your company isn’t using these tools already, consider trying them out. 

How will these new tools change the way teams work?  

The intersection of creativity and AI is changing the way that our customers work—and it may also be changing the way they think about hiring. Come back tomorrow for a deep dive into how companies are staffing their workforce.  

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