What is the AI Adoption Score?

The AI Adoption Score is a 0-100 metric that captures how fast and how deeply a technology penetrates the economy and daily life within its first 20 years from market launch. The less physical friction a technology has, and the deeper it is integrated into existing networks of trust, the higher its score. Electricity scored 25/100, social networks 95/100, and AI is currently at 98/100 with a 20-year Prediction Score of 100/100 by 2042.

Why is the AI Adoption Score so high?

AI's adoption is unprecedented for three reasons: absolute de-materialisation (no new physical infrastructure required), instant time-to-value (responses in seconds vs days for e-commerce), and a natural-language interface (technology speaks the user's language for the first time). These three factors together remove physical, logistical and cognitive friction at once.

What is the difference between Adoption Score and Prediction Score?

Adoption Score measures observed historical penetration over a 20-year window. Prediction Score is the projected 20-year score for technologies whose cycle is still in progress. AI's mass-adoption phase began in late 2022, so only 4 of its 20 years are observed; the remaining 16 years are the Prediction Score path leading to 100/100 by 2042.

Which technologies are compared in the AI Adoption Score research?

Ten landmark technologies are compared on the same 20-year axis: electricity (25/100), telephony (35/100), card payments (55/100), personal computers (45/100), the internet (70/100), e-commerce (65/100), social networks (95/100), smartphones (85/100), A2A payments / Open Banking (80/100), and artificial intelligence (98/100, projected 100/100).

How does AI compare to social networks in adoption speed?

Social networks scored 95/100 thanks to network effects, free access and zero new hardware requirements. AI exceeds even that because it removes cognitive friction on top of physical and logistical friction — for the first time, the technology speaks the user's language rather than the other way around. By 2025, 32.7% of EU citizens (44.2% of youth) already use generative AI, and 20% of European enterprises have integrated it.

A SocialScore.io research interactive — 2026

The AI Adoption Score
— how fast does the future arrive?

Name: AI Adoption Score: 20-year Market Adoption Curves for 10 Landmark Technologies
Creator: SocialScore.io
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Two centuries of innovation, plotted on the same twenty-year axis. Watch the curves bend from electricity's patient climb to AI's vertical takeoff — and meet the metric that names the difference: the Adoption Score.

Read the article Download the full research (PDF)

Adoption Score

0/100

Technologies

20 yrs

Window each

150+

Years covered

100/100

AI by 2042

Twenty years from launch — ten technologies, one chart

Every line below is a technology in its first 20 years. Use the control panel under the chart to toggle industries, switch eras, or focus on AI.

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