The following three resources provide valuable insights about not only the current state of the AI technology landscape but also its continuous evolution. And they are all open access to boot.
Joy Larkin’s Awesome AI Market Maps
Joy Larkin has built a comprehensive, frequently updated list of over 300 AI market maps by top VCs, industry analysts, and AI practitioners. The list, she writes, is organized by quarter, ”to illustrate hot AI topics as they are discussed and how fast the industry is evolving.” The “current data collection workflow includes ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Exa Websets, Liner, human-in-the-loop curation for ‘taste,’ and some other unlisted methods.” Examples of hot topic categories include AI Agents, AI Hardware, AI Applications, Conversational AI, AI DevTools, Robotics, Voice AI, and AI Security. Vertical coverage includes Fintech, Healthcare, Industrial, Retail, Biopharma, Construction, Energy, Government, Insurance, Legal, and Drug Discovery, to name a few.
Matt Turck and FirstMark’s 2025 MAD (Machine Learning, AI & Data) Landscape
In a category all its own is Matt Turck and FirstMark’s MAD (Machine Learning, AI & Data) Landscape. Started in 2012, the 2025 MAD Landscape is the eleventh edition. This newest version has fewer logos (from 2,000 to ~1,150) and more space for the “hyperscalers and pure-play category leaders…to reflect where market share, distribution, and developer gravity sit today.” In an accompanying post, 25 ideas for 2025 covers “what’s breaking through, what’s consolidating, and where the next wave of value is likely to accrue.” The concepts are organized around: Macro & Markets, Research & Frontier, Geopolitics, The Business of AI, AI Infrastructure, Data Infrastructure, and Applications & Agents. For example, coverage for Geopolitics include 1) China’s assembling of a parallel AI stack, 2) Sovereign AI (“build local models on local compute”) is moving to actual procurement, and 3) nations are noticing that power (energy) is the new bottleneck, not GPUs.
The Talent Acquisition and Recruiting AI (TARAI) Index
Though the title references an index this resource also serves as a unique market map on steroids. The TAIRI is from Sloane Lab at the University of Virginia School of Data Science and College of Arts and Sciences. It is an interactive database that “maps the integration of AI into over 100 HR and recruiting technologies” and offers insights about “AI tools that are used across the hiring process.” Drawing directly from company product materials and interviews with recruiters and HR tech professionals, the database concisely addresses how AI is deployed within these products. “It offers a searchable and filterable view of products across sourcing, screening, and interviewing stages, revealing where marketing promises may not align with actual functionality.”
