People come and go so I don't know how much can be assumed to be common knowledge but what changed is that big enterprises figured out that ML/AI can now be app

People come and go so I don't know how much can be assumed to be common knowledge but what changed is that big enterprises figured out that ML/AI can now be applied in their business contexts with low enough cost to justify the investment to shareholders without anyone getting fired if things don't work out as expected. Every business has data that can be turned into profits and investing in AI is perceived to be a good way to do that now.