Why do people use drones in 2024? Some might say it’s for photography, given the ongoing popularity of camera drones. Others might say drone delivery, in the wake of big projects like Wing’s delivery operations in Texas with Walmart.

But as it turns out, the top way that businesses use drones in 2024 is neither of those things. Photography was just the third most popular use case among both internal businesses and drone service providers, accounting for 25% and 22% of overall drone use cases, respectively. Drone delivery accounts for just 1% of drone operations across business internal services and 4% of drone service providers.

So what is the top reason people use drones for commercial applications these days?

Germany-based research firm Drone Industry Insights released its latest Global State of Drones 2024 report, which was based on 964 survey responses from drone users across a record 94 countries, collected between May and July 2024. Respondents represented companies as tiny as small business owners to massive companies with more than 500 people. Drone companies represented the hardware, software and service provider sector. And here’s how people using drones commercially said they actually use drones:

So what is the top reason people use drones in 2024? Mapping and surveying. That holds true for both businesses operating drones on their own for internal purposes (BIS), as well drone service providers (DSP), which are third-party service companies that offer drone services to clients. After all, many drone companies don’t put too much energy into building out their own drone teams, but rather contract drone work to other companies.

That largely mirrors the results of the same survey conducted last year. In 2023, drones made up 33% of use cases among DSP companies and 37% of use cases across BIS.

Drone use for photography becomes less important

Perhaps the most interesting shift is how much photography and filming has dropped for drone industry importance. In 2023, photography and filming represented 27% of DSP activities and 31% of BIS activities. By 2024, those figures dropped to 22% and 25% respectively.

So what took its place in importance? That honor goes to inspections, which indeed have proven a popular use case for drones. Inspections claim a 31% share among DSPs and a 26% share
among BIS firms, up from 25% and 16% in 2023, respectively.

So with that, here’s how drone service providers use drones, ranked from most to least percent of share in the drone industry:

1. Mapping and surveying (34%)
2. Inspections (31%)
3. Photography and Filming (22%)
4. Spraying and Dispensing (5%)
5. Delivery (4%)
6. Localization and Tracking (2%)
7. Other (1%)

And here’s how business internal services uses drones by those same metrics:

1. Mapping and surveying (31%)
2. Inspections (26%)
3. Photography and Filming (25%)
4. Spraying and Dispensing (9%)
5. Other (6%)
6. Localization and Tracking (2%)
7. Delivery (1%)

So what’s the motivation to use drones? Sure, drones can save money for businesses, but that’s not the top reason why companies use drones. The No. 1 reason why companies say drone use is “very important” to them is because of how drones improve work safety.

Only 36% of survey respondents said that saving costs was a “very important” reason for them to adopt drones. See the full results of the responses in DII’s survey below:

Learn more about the present and future of drones in the Global State of Drones 2024 report from DII.

If you operate drones for a business, what’s the top reason that you’ve adopted them? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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