How Many Small Businesses Actually Use AI? 2026

Abstract

Ask how many small businesses use AI and you get a genuinely different answer depending on who is asking and how. This study uses the U.S. Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey, the most rigorous federal measurement available, to explain why credible surveys report figures ranging from 18% to 58%, what the official data shows about the adoption trend, why small businesses are catching up to large firms, and what the real barrier to adoption actually is for a North Atlanta small business.

Methodology

This report was prepared by Make It Loud Digital Marketing as part of its North Atlanta Small Business Research Series. It is based primarily on the U.S. Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a biweekly, nationally representative survey of approximately 1.2 million U.S. businesses that added supplemental AI adoption questions in late 2025. The Census Bureau changed its core AI-use question in November 2025 from a narrower producing goods or services definition to a broader any business function definition, which produces a meaningful discontinuity between figures reported before and after that change; this report presents both figures with their specific dates and definitions rather than treating them as directly comparable. It also cites the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's and Thryv's separate small business AI surveys, which use different, looser definitions of AI use and should not be interpreted as measuring the same underlying behavior, and the SBA Office of Advocacy's September 2025 research on adoption barriers. Census Bureau figures are treated as the primary reference. This report does not constitute a guarantee of results for any individual business adopting AI tools.

Findings

AI adoption figures vary dramatically by how the question is asked. The Census Bureau's original strict definition, AI used in producing goods or services, put small business adoption at just 8.8% as of August 2025, while its broadened any business function definition produced an overall figure of about 17% to 20%, reaching 19.8% as of the May 3, 2026 measurement. Looser survey definitions produce much higher numbers: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found 58% of small businesses reporting some generative AI use, and Thryv found 55%, up from 39% the year before. None of these figures is wrong; they measure genuinely different things. The size gap is closing fast: in early 2024 large firms used AI at 1.8 times the rate of small firms (11.1% versus 6.3%), but by August 2025 small business use had climbed to 8.8% while large-firm use had only reached 10.5% and largely plateaued. The real barrier is not cost or complexity: the SBA found roughly 82% of the smallest non-adopting businesses cite the belief that AI does not apply to them, an awareness gap rather than a structural one. Adoption also varies sharply by industry, from 39.7% in the Information sector down to the 19.8% all-industry average.

Overview

Few current business statistics vary as widely, or as confusingly, as small business AI adoption rates. This study uses the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, the most methodologically rigorous ongoing measurement of business AI use in the country, as its primary source, while explaining why other credible surveys report such different numbers and what that variance actually reveals for a North Atlanta business deciding whether, and how, to start using AI.

The honest answer: somewhere between 18% and 58%, depending on how you ask

Before citing any single AI adoption statistic, it is worth understanding why the numbers vary so dramatically across sources that all appear credible. The Census Bureau originally asked specifically whether a business used AI in producing goods or services, a strict definition that put small business adoption at just 8.8% as of August 2025. In November 2025 the Bureau broadened that question to ask about AI use in any of its business functions, a wider definition that immediately produced a higher figure, closer to 17% to 20% for all businesses. Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 survey, asking about generative AI tools, found 58% of small businesses reporting some use, and Thryv found a similar 55%, up from 39% the year before. None of these figures is wrong. They measure genuinely different things, and the practical lesson is to check exactly what question was asked before assuming a single number represents the adoption rate.

The official government number: roughly 1 in 5 businesses, and rising

Using the Census Bureau’s broadened, current definition, the most recent BTOS data, covering December 2025 through May 2026, found overall AI usage ranging from 17% to 20% across that period, reaching 19.8% as of the May 3, 2026 measurement. The same survey found a meaningful share of non-adopting businesses actively planning to adopt soon: between 20% and 23% reported expecting to use AI within the next six months, suggesting the current rate understates where the market is heading. This is a substantial data source: it draws on a sample of approximately 1.2 million businesses with biweekly collection, a level of statistical reliability most private-sector AI adoption surveys cannot match.

Small businesses are catching up to large ones, fast

One of the more surprising findings in the Census data is the direction the size gap is moving. In early 2024, large firms used AI at 1.8 times the rate of small businesses, 11.1% versus 6.3%, consistent with the common assumption that only larger, better-resourced companies could realistically adopt the technology. By August 2025 that gap had nearly closed: small business AI use had climbed to 8.8%, while large-firm use had only grown to 10.5%, meaning large-firm adoption had largely plateaued while small business adoption kept climbing. Industry-level data shows how uneven adoption remains: the Information sector leads at 39.7% as of May 2026, followed by Finance and Insurance at 33.9%, both well above the 19.8% all-industry average. As study contributor Cliff Tillery, COO of Make It Loud, puts it, the data suggests smaller, more agile businesses are now adopting at a faster current pace than large firms whose own adoption has started to level off.

The real barrier is not cost or complexity, it is awareness

Research from the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, published in September 2025, found that among the very smallest businesses, those with fewer than five employees that have not adopted AI, roughly 82% cited the belief that AI simply does not apply to their specific business as the primary reason. The SBA’s own analysis treats this as an awareness and education gap rather than a genuine incompatibility, a conclusion supported by the fact that this objection falls steeply as firm size increases. For businesses further along in considering adoption, the more common sticking points shift to data privacy, limited time to learn new tools, and uncertainty about return on investment. The primary obstacle for the smallest, least-adopted segment is a perception gap about relevance, which is a fundamentally different, and generally more solvable, problem than a technical or financial one.

Practical implications

• Do not assume AI adoption is only for larger competitors, since small business adoption has closed the gap with large firms quickly.
• Start with a specific, narrow use case, not a broad AI strategy, because the primary barrier for the smallest businesses is not seeing how AI applies to them.
• Check which definition of AI use any statistic you cite actually measures, given how differently the Census Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, and private surveys define it.
• Expect this to keep moving quickly, with 20% to 23% of businesses expecting to adopt within six months of the most recent survey period.

These findings ground our AI Consulting and AI Search Optimization services. For practical next steps, see AI Marketing for Small Business and How to Implement AI in Your Digital Marketing.