We keep hearing that artificial intelligence is coming, but a new survey suggests it has arrived. A majority – 53% – of California business leaders say they are already using or are considering using AI tools.  

That’s according to JPMorgan Chase’s Midyear Business Leaders Outlook survey, which regularly polls executives of middle-market companies and was released last week. Interestingly, resistance to AI tools is high; 38% of California respondents neither use nor plan to use them. That implies most California business leaders have already decided whether to use AI.

Of those adopting or considering their use, 52% are integrating them into business operations and 48% are tapping AI tools for internal or external communications, according to the survey.

JPMorgan, as usual, also asked about the economy. One standout point: Doubt about whether we will enter a recession is growing. Nationally, 45% of business leaders surveyed anticipate a recession before year-end or believe the economy is already in one, but that’s way down from 65% only six months ago. Alternatively, 36% of respondents do not expect a recession this year, and 20% are uncertain whether one will even occur.

California business leaders are even more skeptical: only 34% expect a recession to occur in the second half of 2023, and 42% do not think a recession will occur at all.

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The office vacancy rate in Los Angeles has hit the 25% milestone. More precisely, office vacancy in Los Angeles County was 25.3% in the second quarter. Think: one of every four floors of an average L.A. office building is empty. This is according to data supplied by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. and is detailed on page 16 of this issue.

For comparison’s sake, L.A.’s office vacancy rate got up to 18.6% in the second quarter of 2011, after the Great Recession, according to Business Journal records. That means office vacancy now is 36% greater than it was after the big recession. (Vacancy rates typically lag recessions, which is why the nadir came more than two years after the onset of the Great Recession.)

The vacancy rate for industrial space also hit a milestone in the second quarter. It was 2%. That’s way up from 0.7% for the same period last year, but still low by historical standards. Industrial space hit a vacancy rate of 5.3% in 2011, back when office vacancy hit that 18.6% high.

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Michelin last week released its restaurant ratings for California, and alas, no Los Angeles eatery got the highest rating of three stars. However, five got a still-coveted two-star rating. They are Hayato in downtown, Mélisse in Santa Monica, n/naka in Palms, Providence in Hollywood and Sushi Ginza Onodera in West Hollywood. All are repeat two-star honorees. Twenty other restaurants in Los Angeles County got one star.

Six high achievers in the state got three stars; one in San Diego and five in Northern California, including what may be California’s most famous restaurant, French Laundry. 

The Insider is compiled by Editor-in-Chief Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].