Each time period of economic development is characterized by one or another key, central technology that links the technological structure together. In the 19th century, this technology became the use of steam engines, from the beginning of the 20th century – electricity and internal combustion engines, in the 90s – computerization and the emergence of network technologies, then – cellular communications and mobile broadband Internet, then – the emergence of social networks and social media. Now, according to the consensus opinion of industry experts, the function of such technology is performed by generative artificial intelligence, which emerged just a few years ago, but has already significantly changed many sectors of the economy. The article discusses the main aspects associated with the emergence of breakthrough technologies of generative artificial intelligence. The key factors that influenced the emergence of technological capabilities were studied, such as the growth of the computing capabilities of processors, a consistent increase in funding for innovative projects, and an increase in publication activity in this direction. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the value chain of generative artificial intelligence technologies. It is shown that hardware requirements are becoming higher, a previously non-existent stage of creating basic models appears, as well as a layer of companies adapting basic models to the tasks of business practice by learning from industry data. We have also shown that generative artificial intelligence technologies will have the greatest impact on the creative sector of the economy, since they allow us to significantly speed up and optimize processes at all stages of creating the value of a product, reducing the need for manual labor, but not replacing it completely.