AI in small business: statistics with sources

Updated November 9, 2026

I am Elijah Purcell, Founder/CEO of Purcell Ventures LLC. I opened every source below and read each figure off the source itself. Where a number came only from news coverage, I left it out. For the terms these surveys use, see the AI glossary for small business owners.

How should I read these numbers?

Read each figure against who the survey asked and what it counted as AI use. The surveys below disagree by a wide margin because they measure different things.

Who counts as small. The Census Bureau surveys businesses of every size. The Federal Reserve survey covers employer firms with 1 to 499 employees, the SBA spotlight uses fewer than 250, Intuit uses up to 100 and Salesforce uses 200 or fewer.
What counts as use. Census asks about AI in any business function in the past two weeks. Intuit asks about regular use, the Chamber asks about generative AI, and the Federal Reserve counts use by the business or its employees.
Who answered. Census draws a sample meant to represent U.S. employer businesses. The Federal Reserve uses a weighted convenience sample. Goldman Sachs surveyed graduates of its own program, and Salesforce surveyed leaders worldwide.
When. In November 2025 the Census Bureau began asking about AI use in any business function, a broader question than before, so its figures from before and after that change do not line up.

How many small businesses use AI?

About 19.8% of U.S. businesses used AI in some business function in the two-week period ending 3 May 2026, and the rate stayed between 17% and 20% from December 2025 to May 2026. Between 20% and 23% expected to use AI within six months (U.S. Census Bureau, May 2026).
Fewer than 20% of firms with four or fewer employees used AI, against 37% of firms with 250 or more (U.S. Census Bureau, May 2026).
From December 2025 to May 2026, AI use grew among firms with 20 or more employees and showed no significant change among firms with fewer than 20 (U.S. Census Bureau, May 2026).
Census data put AI adoption at about 18% of U.S. firms at the end of 2025 (Federal Reserve Board, April 2026).
Under the earlier Census question, the AI use rate among small businesses with fewer than 250 employees rose to 8.8% in 2025, from about 6.3% six months before, when large businesses stood at 11.1% (SBA Office of Advocacy, September 2025).
46% of small employer firms said the business or its employees use AI, 15% more planned to start within 12 months, and a third had no plans to use it. The survey ran in fall 2025 (Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, March 2026).
Among those AI users, about half said they were experimenting with it, 44% had partly worked it into their business processes, and 7% had fully integrated it (Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, March 2026).
58% of small businesses said they use generative AI in 2025, up from 40% in 2024 and 23% in 2023 (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, August 2025).
68% of U.S. businesses with up to 100 employees said they use AI regularly in April 2025, up from 48% in July 2024, and 28% used it daily (Intuit QuickBooks, 2025).
76% of surveyed small business owners in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program use AI, and 14% say AI has become a full part of their core operations (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, March 2026).
In 2024, 75% of small and medium businesses worldwide were at least experimenting with AI, and 83% of businesses with growing revenue were (Salesforce, December 2024).
Organizational adoption of AI reached 88% in the 2026 AI Index, a figure that reflects organizations of all sizes worldwide (Stanford HAI, 2026).

How many workers use AI on the job?

As of May 2026, 15% of U.S. employees used AI daily in their role, 30% used it a few times a week or more, and 52% used it at least a few times a year (Gallup, May 2026).
28% of employed U.S. adults said they had used ChatGPT for work in early 2025, up 20 percentage points in two years (Pew Research Center, June 2025).

What do small businesses use AI for?

Of small employer firms that use AI, 83% use it for writing or marketing, 61% for individual productivity and 51% for planning or analysis (Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, March 2026).
The top five uses among U.S. businesses with up to 100 employees were marketing (43%), customer service (36%), administrative tasks (33%), data processing (32%) and bookkeeping (29%) (Intuit QuickBooks, 2025).
AI use stood at 39.7% in the Information sector and 33.9% in Finance and Insurance, against the national rate of 19.8%, in the period ending 3 May 2026 (U.S. Census Bureau, May 2026).

What holds small businesses back from AI?

A third of small employer firms had no plans to use AI. Over half of those said AI does not apply to their business, and 30% said they prefer not to use it (Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, March 2026).
Firms already using AI named accuracy (46%) and adapting tools to their business (43%) as their top challenges. Firms planning to start named finding tools that fit their needs (54%) (Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, March 2026).
73% of surveyed owners in the Goldman Sachs program said more training and implementation help would benefit their business (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, March 2026).
65% of small businesses said they worry about a patchwork of different state AI laws (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, August 2025).

What results do small businesses report from AI?

Of small employer firms using AI, 71% reported higher productivity, 39% better quality of goods or services and 31% higher sales. Most saw no change in labor costs (Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, March 2026).
93% of Goldman Sachs program owners using AI reported a positive effect on their business, and 84% named efficiency and productivity as the main gain. 67% expect AI to raise revenue (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, March 2026).
87% of those owners said AI adds to what their employees do instead of replacing them (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, March 2026).
82% of small businesses using AI grew their workforce over the past year (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, August 2025).
91% of small and medium businesses using AI said it raises their revenue, in a 2024 global survey (Salesforce, December 2024).
65% of employees at organizations that have put AI in place said it improved their productivity and efficiency, as of May 2026 (Gallup, May 2026).

How do customers use AI to search?

About half of U.S. adults used AI chatbots in February 2026, up from about a third in 2024, and 12% used them several times a day (Pew Research Center, June 2026).
42% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots to search for information, and 60% say they read the AI summaries at the top of search results (Pew Research Center, June 2026).
44% of U.S. adults use ChatGPT, 24% use Gemini and 17% use Copilot (Pew Research Center, June 2026).
Google users who saw an AI summary clicked a regular search result in 8% of visits, against 15% when no summary appeared. They clicked a link inside the summary in 1% of visits. The data covers March 2025 (Pew Research Center, July 2025).
About 18% of Google searches in March 2025 produced an AI summary. The share reached 53% for searches of ten words or more and 8% for searches of one or two words (Pew Research Center, July 2025).

For what this means for a business website, see AI websites for small businesses, or run the free AI visibility check on your own site.

Common questions

What share of small businesses use AI?

It depends on the survey. The Census Bureau put AI use at about 20% of all U.S. businesses in spring 2026, counting use in any business function in the past two weeks. The Federal Reserve's Small Business Credit Survey found 46% of employer firms with 1 to 499 employees using AI in fall 2025. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce found 58% of small businesses using generative AI in 2025.

What do small businesses use AI for most?

Writing and marketing. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, 83% of firms that use AI used it for writing or marketing, 61% for individual productivity and 51% for planning or analysis. Intuit QuickBooks found marketing, customer service and administrative tasks at the top of its 2025 list.

Why do some small businesses not use AI?

The most common reason is fit. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, a third of firms had no plans to use AI, and over half of those said AI does not apply to their business. Among firms already using AI, the top problems were accuracy and adapting tools to their needs.

Do AI summaries in search reduce clicks to business websites?

Yes, in Pew Research Center's March 2025 browsing data. Google users who saw an AI summary clicked a regular search result in 8% of visits, against 15% for visits without one, and clicked a link inside the summary in 1% of visits.

Sources

All sources accessed 9 November 2026.

U.S. Census Bureau. Large Firms With at Least 20 Employees Biggest AI Users (Business Trends and Outlook Survey). Published 26 May 2026. BTOS responses from 14 December 2025 to 3 May 2026. Asks whether a business used AI in any business function in the past two weeks.
Federal Reserve Board. Monitoring AI Adoption in the U.S. Economy (FEDS Notes). Published 3 April 2026. Reviews Census BTOS and other surveys of AI adoption through year-end 2025.
SBA Office of Advocacy. New Advocacy Article Highlights Small Businesses Closing the AI Adoption Gap. Published 24 September 2025. Summarizes the research spotlight AI in Business: Small Firms Closing In, built on Census BTOS data. Small means fewer than 250 employees.
Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey. 2026 Report on Employer Firms. Published 3 March 2026. 6,525 employer firms with 1 to 499 employees, surveyed 3 September to 14 November 2025. The sample is a weighted convenience sample.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 2025 report on technology and U.S. small business. Published 18 August 2025. National survey of U.S. small businesses by the Chamber's Technology Engagement Center with Teneo Research.
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices. Press release on the 2026 small business AI survey. Published 17 March 2026. 1,256 participants of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, surveyed by Babson College and David Binder Research, 27 January to 4 February 2026. The sample covers program participants only.
Intuit QuickBooks. QuickBooks Small Business Insights, April 2025 survey. Published 25 June 2025. More than 2,200 U.S. businesses with up to 100 employees, commissioned April 2025.
Salesforce. News story on the SMB AI trends research. Published 4 December 2024. 3,350 leaders of businesses with 200 employees or fewer in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, surveyed 3 August to 16 September 2024.
Gallup. Global Indicator: Artificial Intelligence. Published updated 2026, figures as of May 2026. U.S. employees, Gallup Panel.
Pew Research Center. 34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023. Published 25 June 2025. 5,123 U.S. adults, surveyed 24 February to 2 March 2025.
Pew Research Center. Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results. Published 22 July 2025. Browsing data from 900 U.S. adults in March 2025, covering 68,879 Google searches.
Pew Research Center. Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact. Published 17 June 2026. 5,119 U.S. adults, surveyed 17 to 23 February 2026.
Stanford HAI. The 2026 AI Index Report. Published 2026. Annual report. Its organizational adoption figure covers organizations worldwide, mostly larger ones.