AI Adoption Rate Across US Companies

BTOS biweekly question 7: "In the last two weeks, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in any of its business functions? (Examples of AI: machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, voice recognition, etc.)" Share answering Yes: 21.7% for reference period June 15–28, 2026 (SE 0.31%); 21.5% for June 29–July 12, 2026 (SE 0.42%); 21.8% for July 13–26, 2026 (SE 0.33%). Values dated to reference-period end, not release date.

Ramp AI Index, August 2026, based on corporate card and bill-pay transactions from more than 70,000 US businesses. Share of US businesses paying for each vendor: Anthropic 43.5% (up 1.1 percentage points month over month), OpenAI 39.7% (up 0.23 points), xAI 4.0% (up 0.94 points). The median firm spent $11.95 per employee on AI. Measures paid vendor subscriptions rather than self-reported use, so it appears below the chart as a directional signal.

Rapid Adoption of AI Across Industries. Share Using AI: Service Firms / Manufacturers. In 2024: 25 / 16. In 2025: 40 / 26. In next six months: 44 / 33. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Regional Business Surveys, August 2025.

Firm AI adoption has accelerated sharply since 2024, with measured cumulative adoption now approaching 5.9% of eligible hiring firms. Adoption is identified from job postings — a firm is coded as adopting when it posts AI integrator roles — following Hosseini Maasoum and Lichtinger (2025), a different construct from spend-based measures.

47% of employees say their organization has integrated AI tools, up from 41% in the prior quarter. "More than half of U.S. workers (52%) now use AI in their role, with 30% using it frequently (a few times a week or more). Fifteen percent use it daily." Fielded May 6–20, 2026 among 22,573 employed U.S. adults, margin of error +/-0.9 percentage points. This is employees reporting on their employer rather than firms reporting directly, so it appears below the chart as a directional signal alongside the earlier 41% and 46% Gallup readings.

US Census Bureau BTOS 2026 AI Supplement (reference period Nov 17, 2025 - Feb 8, 2026; released 2026). Full biannual supplement replacing the biweekly two-week question with a six-month lookback plus new modules on task substitution, wage/employment effects, and planned adoption. Headline (Q1, 2-week): 17.9% of US businesses used AI in any function in the past two weeks (SE 0.13%). Use case incidence (6-month): sales/marketing 14.3%, strategy 12.4%, IT 11.4%, R&D 11.2%, PR/comms 9.3%. Task substitution: 10.1% used AI to perform a task previously done by an employee; 43.7% to supplement/enhance an employee task; 10.6% to introduce a new task. Of firms that substituted, 70.9% substituted 'a small number' of tasks, 22.0% moderate, 7.1% large. Employment effect: 95.7% report no change in total employment from AI use; 2.3% increased, 2.0% decreased. Generative AI specifically: 20.8% of firms report employees using GenAI at work in past six months; of those, 85.4% used for writing/editing, 49.9% for information search, 44.6% for translation/analysis, 34.7% for paperwork, 30.0% for new-project development. Sector leaders (Q1 two-week): Information 37.6%, Professional/Scientific/Technical 34.2%, Education 30.7%, Finance/Insurance 30.4%, Real Estate 23.5%. Six-month outlook: 21.6% expect to be using AI, with sales/marketing (62.8%) and strategy (57.4%) leading.

US Census Bureau Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) biweekly release Jun 18, 2026. As of the May 3, 2026 reference date: national AI use rate = 19.8% of responding businesses. Between Dec 2025 and May 2026 the national AI use rate hovered between 17% and 20%, with 20-23% of firms expecting to use AI in the next six months. Sector breakdown: Information 39.7%; Finance & Insurance 33.9%; Retail Trade ~14%. Sample: approximately 1.2 million businesses with biweekly data collection.

AI-driven investing has grown steadily since the early 2010s and is concentrated among hedge funds. Average AI labor intensity is 1.17% of job postings at SEC-registered investment advisers. AI hedge funds peaked at ~2.7% of all hedge funds in 2023, with AI-Autonomous funds accounting for over 90% of AI AUM by 2024.

US Census Bureau analysis of BTOS data collected December 14, 2025 to May 3, 2026. Documents a break in the AI-use question: “Originally framed around AI use ‘in producing goods or services,’ rather than to carry out simple tasks like drafting emails, the Census Bureau revised the wording last November to ask businesses whether they were using AI ‘in any business function.’” On November 17, 2025 BTOS began its second AI supplement and revised the core AI use questions. Over the period “overall AI usage hovered between 17% and 20% — and that between 20% and 23% of businesses expected to be using it in the next six months.” The national rate was 19.8% as of May 3, 2026, against 39.7% in Information and 33.9% in Finance and Insurance. Adoption rises with firm size: 37% of firms with at least 250 employees, 32% of firms with 100 to 249 employees, and under 20% of firms with four or fewer employees.

Looking at weekly transactions for the 100 largest non-AI software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies on Stripe, the episode appears as a brief dip followed by a swift recovery and continued growth—a pattern quite different from what equity markets were pricing.

While job postings show a relative decline in vacancies in occupations with greater exposure to AI, that divergence began before the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. These patterns make it difficult to attribute the recent slowdown in entry-level hiring to AI alone.

Only 8 percent of employers report that they have no current plans to use AI tools, while the vast majority of the market has moved into various stages of adoption: 22 percent of firms have reached a state of strategic integration; 32 percent of companies have partially integrated these tools; 20 percent are in a developing phase; and 18 percent are exploring the use of AI tools.

18% of firms used AI in a business function, rising to 32% on an employment-weighted basis; adoption is expected to reach 22% within six months.

Our proprietary survey of AI integration efforts finds that only 11% of management teams expect AI to replace existing software subscriptions. Far more expect the move to AI-centric architectures to reduce maintenance spending on legacy infrastructure, save on consulting fees, and increase the productivity of existing workers, reducing future headcount needs. Figure 4 (Carlyle Proprietary Survey, April 2026): Internal headcount cited as AI spending offset by 26% of respondents — the largest single category.

A one standard-deviation increase in subsector AI exposure is associated with a 6.7 percentage point increase in AI adoption. And, approximately 47% of the observed variation in adoption as of April 2026 can be predicted using the GPT-4 beta measure alone

41% of employees report their organization has integrated AI tools. 23% in AI-adopting orgs report workforce reductions vs. 16% in non-adopting. Survey of 23,717 employed U.S. adults, margin of error +/-0.9pp.

Huge increase in AI-driven capital spending and construction by the five hyperscalers. In 2025, this number was $450 billion, and in 2026, it will be approximately $725 billion.

Already, nearly one in five companies reports having used A.I. in the last two weeks, according to data from the Census Bureau, and in some industries the rate is twice as high.

Adoption stood at about 18 percent of firms at the end of 2025. Prior to the question revision, the adoption rate had grown by 68 percent (3.9 percentage points) over the prior year but decelerated in Q2 2025. Over 20 percent of firms expect to use AI in the first half of 2026.

Agentic implementations are currently a minority at 20% of cases.

Treated firms discover 2.7 additional AI use cases (a 44% increase), concentrated in product development and strategy. The binding constraint is not access to the technology but the ability to discover where they create value and how to reorganize the firm accordingly.

When you look at the data, adoption of AI by firms is still relatively low. Right now I would describe the labor market as more of a wait-and-see environment.

58.5% of ~750 surveyed firms invested in AI in 2025; 85.4% expect to invest in 2026. Many smaller firms only beginning to invest in 2026. Note: CFO Survey uses broader 'invested in AI' definition vs Census BTOS 'using AI in production', explaining higher rate.

more than 71% said they have adopted AI tools either 'somewhat' or 'extensively,' while just under 20% said they were considering it either for this year or later, and only 9% said they had no plans to adopt the technology.

Current data from the Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey shows that fewer than one-fifth of firms are using AI in any capacity, and even fewer are using AI directly for producing goods and services.

Two-thirds of the 3,500 euro-area firms surveyed reported that their employees use AI in their jobs (ECB SAFE survey, Q4 2025). Note: European firms; not directly comparable to US Census BTOS figures.

AI capex – roughly $650bn this year and potentially ~$2tn over three years – materially alters the equilibrium.

Firm encouragement alone accounts for 80% of the overall average gap.

Today, more than half of organizations are actively deploying AI agents.

In the last two weeks, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in any of its business functions? Yes: 17.5%, No: 73.1%, Do not know: 9.4% (Cycle 202604, ref period Jan 26–Feb 8, 2026). First biweekly reading (Cycle 202524, Nov 2025): Yes: 17.3%.

80% of respondents in the 2025 Indeed Workforce Insights Report report they save at least one hour per day using generative AI. Job postings that require AI literacy skills are growing at a rate of more than 70% year over year.

69% of firms across US, UK, Germany, and Australia currently use some AI technology (US: 78%). LLM text generation most common (41%). Expected to rise to 75% in 3 years. Larger, more productive, higher-paying firms more likely to adopt.

35.9% of US workers used generative AI by December 2025; adoption is accelerating but remains unevenly distributed across industries and skill levels.

The United States has seen 50% growth in AI-related postings over the past year, with AI now appearing in 2.5% of all job postings.

Synthesizes firm-level survey data from the US, UK, Germany, and Australia measuring AI's realized and expected impacts on sales per employee and employment. Data collected Feb-Apr 2025 and Nov 2025-Jan 2026.

36.8% of individuals across OECD used generative AI in 2025. 20.2% of firms used AI in 2025 (up from 8.7% in 2023). 41.1% of employed individuals used generative AI. 52.0% of large firms vs 17.4% small.

The Indeed AI Tracker reached a high of 4.2% in December 2025...the number of postings mentioning AI measured 134% above February 2020 levels

49% of jobs now use AI for at least 25% of their tasks (up from 36% in early 2025); widespread adoption could boost US labor productivity by 1.0-1.8 percentage points annually.

Nearly 3 in 4 (74%) companies plan to deploy agentic AI within two years. 34% are already starting to use AI to deeply transform their businesses—creating new products and services, reinventing core processes, or even fundamentally changing their business models.

71% of organizations regularly use generative AI in at least one business function (up from 65% in early 2024). 92% plan to invest in generative AI over next three years. 66% report productivity gains.

35.9% of US workers used generative AI by December 2025. Adoption concentrated among younger, college-educated, higher-earning employees.

Even 18 months after firm-level adoption, only about half of engineers had begun using the tools. Individual take-up was not universal.

AI adoption for production rose from 4.6% (early 2024) to 10% (Sep 2025). Broader measure (any business function): 17.3% (Nov 2025). 78.4% annualized growth rate. 80.9% of non-adopters cite inapplicability.

46% of US workers reported using AI tools at work in Q4 2025, up from 33% in Q1 2025. Adoption driven by white-collar professional and technical roles.

78% of organizations report using AI in at least one business function. Enterprise AI spending grew 45% YoY globally.

AI adoption in core business functions – related to the production of goods and services – ranges from 1.9% in Japan to 6.1% in the United States in 2024. Among SMEs using generative AI, only 29% report using it in their core activities.

In 2025, 19.95% of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees used at least one of the eight AI technologies covered (text mining, speech recognition, natural language generation, image recognition, machine learning, AI-based workflow automation, autonomous machines/vehicles, and AI-based decision systems). Data extracted December 2025 from Eurostat dataset isoc_eb_ai. The Brookings FCAI dialogue briefing cites this figure as the EU diffusion benchmark.

75% of knowledge workers now use AI tools. Adoption in enterprises with 500+ employees reached 60%, up from 40% a year prior.

32% of companies expect AI to reduce workforce by 3%+ within next year. Median 17% of respondents report workforce declines within functions from AI use. 88% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function.

88% of organizations use AI in ≥1 function (up from 78%). Gen AI adoption at 71%. But only 7% fully scaled, and just 6% report EBIT impact ≥5%. 62% experimenting with AI agents.

Survey of 180 Fortune 100 executives and 12,000 knowledge workers. 96% of organizations not seeing dramatic improvements in efficiency, innovation, or work quality from AI. Costing Fortune 500 ~$98B/year in lost returns. Workers report feeling 33% more productive individually, but organizational metrics flat.

About half of respondent firms in the Philadelphia Fed's Third District are using generative AI. Survey conducted late October 2025.

Survey of 1,150 US workers: 40% received AI-generated 'workslop' in the past month; each instance cost ~2 hours to deal with. 18% of AI users admitted sending low-quality AI output. Estimated cost: $186/worker/month or ~$9M/year for a 10,000-person org.

Census Bureau rigorous measure finds 9.7% of firms actively using AI, while broader surveys report 78%. Adoption gap driven by definitional differences in what counts as AI use.

Only ~25% of Information sector businesses using AI; ~2.5% in Accommodation/Food — adoption patterns driven more by workforce composition than income.

In about 40% of employment in exposed occupations, at least 50% of tasks will be replaceable. Average labor-cost savings ~25% from current tools, potentially 40% as systems improve.

37.4% of US workers used AI on the job in the past week. Adoption highest among college-educated (52%) and workers earning $100K+ (58%). Survey of 25,000 workers.

US firm AI usage in production reached 10.2%, with 14.8% in testing. Large firms (500+ employees) at 28%. Adoption accelerating across all sectors.

Less than 10% of firms using AI regularly as of mid-2025 (BTOS data); ~20% adoption in professional, scientific, and technical industries.

Generative AI is showing early evidence of productivity gains for software developers

75% of knowledge workers use AI at work; 78% bring own AI tools (n=31K, 31 countries).

AI is now a core part of business strategy for 78% of respondents. 65% report measurable revenue or cost impact from AI deployments.

Half of workers in AI-exposed occupations have used ChatGPT; adoption unequal — women 16pp less likely, employer restrictions hinder broader use.

Over 50% of information/finance firms use AI; few report layoffs from AI adoption.

RCT shows information about AI productivity gains increases adoption among German firms.

A commuting zone which is an additional 200 km from the closest AI hotspot has 17% lower growth in AI jobs' share of vacancies. 20% of the effect is explained by state borders.

79% of enterprise leaders expect gen AI to transform their industry within 3 years. 42% have gen AI in production, up from 22% a year earlier.

Over 60,000 Azure AI customers by end of FY2024, growing nearly 60% YoY. Azure AI revenue reached a $13 billion annual run rate, growing 175% YoY.

72% of enterprise leaders use AI weekly; 62% of companies actively use AI (n=800).

72% of organizations surveyed now use AI in at least one function, up from 55% the prior year. Generative AI adoption doubled.

AI usage among US firms rose to 6.6%, with an additional 9.1% in testing. Information sector at 24%, finance/insurance at 15%.

Skills shortage has a positive and significant effect on AI adoption breadth and application areas (German Mannheim Innovation Panel).

Salesforce Einstein platform serves over 200 billion AI predictions per day across Customer 360 applications. Einstein 1 platform enables AI-powered apps with low-code development and generative AI assistants.

Just under 6% of firms nationwide used AI as of 2017. Yet most very large firms (over 5,000 employees) reported at least some AI use. Employment-weighted adoption was just over 18%. Based on the 2018 Annual Business Survey of 850,000 firms linked to the Longitudinal Business Database.

3.8% of US firms reported using AI in production. An additional 6.4% were in testing/pilot phase. Adoption highest in information (18%) and professional services (12%).

One-third of respondents say their organizations are using gen AI regularly in at least one business function. AI adoption overall at 55% of survey respondents.