Global spending on artificial intelligence is projected to reach nearly $1.5 trillion in 2025 and is on pace to surpass $2 trillion in 2026, but there is an integral ingredient that AI is missing. It still can’t navigate the complexities of human judgment, which drive real-life business outcomes. The solution that the more forward and out-of-the-box thinking companies are turning to? Human behavioral science may be the key to unlocking the true power of artificial intelligence
A growing number of organizations are now coding behavioral science directly into their AI systems, creating what industry experts refer to as “behavioral AI.” The goal of this technology is to predict how humans will respond to the data it processes.
Early Adoption of Behavioral AI
Early adopters of behavioral AI, like Clarity AI are seeing positive results. They process hundreds of thousands of news items daily to detect Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) controversies before they impact quarterly earnings. This helps asset managers identify reputation risks through behavioral cues, enabling them to be more proactive and develop solutions before a negative impact is seen on earnings reports and financial statements.
Morgan Stanley is in its third year of utilizing machine learning to enhance ESG data accuracy and monitor environmental risks through satellite imagery, effectively identifying behavioral patterns in how companies respond to environmental challenges. This digs into micro events to create a macro picture of what behavior is occurring.
A fascinating bit of data to keep an eye on is Google Maps’ eco-friendly routing feature. By their accounts, it has prevented over 1 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually. This is done by influencing driver behavior via algorithmic suggestions. These are all examples that suggest it is possible for AI to understand and then influence human behavior for the benefit of all.
A Behavioral Intelligence Data Boom
A new category of platforms is emerging to deliver behavioral intelligence via systems that anticipate how leaders, organizations, and entire societies will act under uncertainty. If appropriately deployed and performing accurately, this insight will inform PR, scripting, roll-out cadence, and full-stack decision-making of corporations. Companies will then choose the path that was predicted to lead to the most desired outcome.
Take the organization like Mind Friend, for example. They’re a psychology and behavioral science platform that has a history of advising governments, multinational corporations, and financial institutions. They achieve this through connections with over 500 licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, and neuroscientists. They are currently scaling human expertise through AI to create what is described as “behavioral infrastructure.” Sheikha Maytha Bint Maktoum, Mind Friend’s founder and a business psychologist, believes this “can make judgment exponentially better by grounding every allocation of capital and every organizational choice in human science.”
In total, the global behavior analytics market size was $1.1 billion in 2024 and is estimated to grow to $10.8 billion by 2032. Companies like IBM and Adobe are also swimming in this pool, which further demonstrates that human behavior is a significant factor in shaping the direction of technology.
Real-World Testing Ground
The growth of the behavioral AI market is beginning to show at high-level industry events. Events ranging from Davos sessions to specialized forums, such as the Cognitive Exchange in London, are becoming venues where psychological frameworks intersect with capital allocation strategies. These are the types of events where investors, policymakers, and tech leaders debate and address the implementation challenges of incorporating behavioral AI into existing and emerging systems.
This reflects a macro shift in how decision-makers approach uncertainty. They want to get ahead and become proactive enterprises. Companies like FloodHub and IceNet are utilizing AI to process real-time environmental data, enabling earlier warnings and better planning while simultaneously influencing behavior at both the policymaker and individual levels. The goal of these platforms is to shape the human responses that determine outcomes.
Trust and Ethics Remain Imperative
Scrutiny on AI deployment increases as the technology advances. At this point, ethical frameworks are becoming prerequisites for trust and investment. Companies that build behavioral AI systems show that ethics are central to their deployments. Additionally, they are embedding stringent governance and ethical safeguards throughout their operations.
Organizations that proactively address AI bias, privacy concerns, and the ethics of automation are positioning themselves as companies that can be trusted and relied upon to use AI in an ethical and equitable manner. In this era of rapid change and uncertainty, this is a powerful message sent to the industry.
The Human-Centered Future
The question isn’t whether AI will transform business, it is whether that transformation will be guided by technology alone or by a more profound understanding of human behavior. As the AI market approaches a $2 trillion valuation, the winners won’t be those with the most sophisticated algorithms, but rather the ones that best understand the humans using them. The companies building behavioral AI platforms today are betting that the future belongs not to artificial intelligence, but to human intelligence amplified by artificial capabilities.
