Like many celebratory days, AI Appreciation Day was the brainchild of a company. According to the website National Today, “A.I. Heart LLC established this day in May 2021. Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day honors A.I. technology’s positive contributions to humanity. It simultaneously highlights AI ethics and encourages a national conversation about A.I. and ethics.” It would be natural to think that A.I. Heart LLC is one of the numerous global companies, like Enterra Solutions®, that sells artificial intelligence systems to clients. The truth is, AI Appreciation Day was established as a marketing gimmick to promote a movie called “A.I. EVE,” which was apparently never released. At least I couldn’t find anything about the movie. Neither could AI expert Alex Zhavoronkov, who seemed offended that artificial intelligence was being used for promotional purposes.

Back in 2023, Zhavoronkov wrote, “Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing our lives for the better making it easier, better, more entertaining, and, hopefully, longer and healthier. … On July 16th, social media lit up with the celebratory posts for the ‘AI Appreciation Day’ often using the #AIAppreciationDay hashtag. … I also made a toast for AI in the lab; it's important to pause and appreciate the world getting better. But here's where the story gets interesting. … A quick look at the A.I. Heart LLC website revealed that their main focus is popularizing a movie titled 'A.I. EVE.' … The company also sells a variety of AI apparel citing ‘CELEBRATE THE FIRST-EVER A.I. APPRECIATION DAY IN PERPETUITY (07.16.21) — SHOP A.I. HEART FOR CONVERSATION-STARTING APPAREL’ linking to the online store selling T-shirts, hats, bags with the company logos and several AI-related images.”[1]

Technology journalist Ben Wodecki agrees that AI Appreciation Day may have had a questionable beginning; however, he thinks the celebration has moved beyond merchandizing. He writes, “While its beginnings were rooted in commercial interests, the day has evolved into a broader opportunity to reflect on the impact and future potential of AI technology.”[2] There is no debate about the fact that AI has had (and continues to have) a tremendous impact on our lives. Journalist Daniel Gutierrez explains, “AI tools already dominate the market making human life much easier. From travel and navigation to smartphone apps, AI has taken the world by storm and looks set to change the future.”[3]

Recently, generative AI has garnered most of the headlines. But classic AI still plays an important role, especially in business. Madeleine Corneli, product manager at Exasol, told Wodecki, “AI Appreciation Day … is a great time to acknowledge the ongoing impact of classic AI. Classic AI excels at pattern recognition and often better meets stricter business requirements. Forecasting, categorization and scoring are consistent applications of classic AI that will remain relevant to businesses and don't necessitate large language models. Furthermore, explainability and repeatability are regulatory requirements that cannot be met by generative AI and certain businesses or use cases cannot tolerate the hallucinations that can come with generative AI. We should think of classic AI and generative AI as complimentary — each brings unique strengths and value.”

Corneli makes an important point. Businesses should select the right AI solution for their specific needs. Physicist and science writer Salvatore Salamone explains, “AI is an excellent fit for tasks that are high-volume, repetitive, and data-driven. In areas like predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, data extraction, and demand forecasting, AI systems can often operate with minimal human input. These applications benefit from AI’s ability to analyze large datasets quickly and consistently, making them ideal for automation in industries like manufacturing, logistics, and cybersecurity.”[4]

Since generative AI is currently getting most the attention, Marc Zao-Sanders, co-founder of filtered.com, researched how people are using it. His 2025 study updates work he published last year — and he found some differences. Although most of the top 10 ways people currently use generative AI are self-explanatory, the top three need a little explaining.

1. Therapy/companionship (up from #2). “Therapy involves structured support and guidance to process psychological challenges, while companionship encompasses ongoing social and emotional connection, sometimes with a romantic dimension.”

2. Organizing life (new use case). “These uses were mostly about people using the models to be more aware of their intentions (such as daily habits, New Year’s resolutions, and introspective insights) and find small, easy ways of getting started with them.”

3. Finding purpose (new use case). “Determining and defining one’s values, getting past roadblocks, and taking steps to self-develop (e.g., advising on what you should do next, reframing a problem, helping you to stay focused) all now feature frequently under this banner.”

4. Enhancing learning (up from #8)

5. Generating code (for professionals, up from #47)

6. Generating ideas (down from #1)

7. Fun and nonsense (down from #6)

8. Improving code (for professionals, up from #19)

9. Creativity (up from #27)

10. Healthier living (up from #75)

The next big thing, according to Zao-Sanders is agentic AI. Salamone explains, “AI agents are software programs that use artificial intelligence to autonomously perform focused tasks, learn from data, and interact with their environment without continuous human intervention. Such agents have the potential to transform the way companies operate, driving efficiency, improving safety, and unlocking new business opportunities. Most importantly, AI agents can bring advanced capabilities, including real-time data analysis, predictive modeling, and autonomous decision-making, available to a much wider group of people in any organization. That, in turn, gives companies a way to harness the full potential of their data.”

Salamone adds, “Perhaps the most interesting future application of artificial intelligence is the field of collaborative AI agents. Rather than operating as autonomous systems, they communicate and coordinate with each other to achieve shared or complementary goals. That ability to function as teams or networks rather than isolated systems could, in the near future, enable smarter decision-making, greater efficiency, and more resilient operations.”

These advances certainly deserve our admiration, if not our appreciation. However, there are also concerns about how AI has been used, is now being used, and could be used in the future. That’s why the National Today website “highlights AI ethics and encourages a national conversation about A.I. and ethics.” While there is much to celebrate, Zhavoronkov believes the AI sector should “wait for the UN or a professional group to establish [an AI Appreciation] day.” He adds, “Clearly, there is a need for one.” In the meantime, I have no problem building on the questionable origins of the current AI Appreciation Day. Let’s celebrate!

Footnotes

[1] Alex Zhavoronkov, “AI Needs Its Own Day - But Should You Celebrate It On July 16th?” Forbes, 17 July 2023.

[2] Ben Wodecki, “AI Appreciation Day: Industry Leaders Share Insights,” AI Business, 16 July 2024.

[3] Daniel Gutierrez, “AI Appreciation Day,” Inside AI News, 16 July 2024.

[4] Salvatore Salamone, “How is AI Really Being Used?” RT Insights, 20 June 2025.

[5] Marc Zao-Sanders, “How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025,” Harvard Business Review, 9 April 2025.