AI adoption passes the majority mark

More than half of United States small businesses now say they use artificial intelligence in their operations, a sign the technology has moved beyond pilot projects. (uschamber.com) The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in its 2025 “Empowering Small Business” report that almost 60% of small businesses use an artificial intelligence platform, more than double the 2023 level. Its state-by-state map shows rates above 50% in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (uschamber.com) Stanford University’s 2026 Artificial Intelligence Index points to the same direction at larger-company scale: 88% of surveyed organizations reported using artificial intelligence in 2025, and 70% said they used generative artificial intelligence in at least one business function. Stanford published the report on April 13, 2026. (hai.stanford.edu) That is a sharp change from late 2023, when the U.S. Census Bureau found only 3.8% of businesses were using artificial intelligence to produce goods or services in the Business Trends and Outlook Survey. The same Census release said use was concentrated in information and professional services, not spread evenly across the economy. (census.gov) The gap reflects different ways of counting adoption. Census measured whether firms were using artificial intelligence to produce goods and services, while the Chamber counted use of artificial intelligence platforms in business operations and Stanford tracked whether organizations reported using artificial intelligence at all. (census.gov) (uschamber.com) (hai.stanford.edu) The newer numbers still show a broad shift inside offices. Stanford said generative artificial intelligence reached nearly 53% population-level adoption within three years, faster than the personal computer or the internet. (hai.stanford.edu) Business leaders are tying that spread to day-to-day output. PwC said in its 2024 Artificial Intelligence Jobs Barometer that sectors more exposed to artificial intelligence recorded 4.8 times higher labor-productivity growth than less exposed sectors across 15 countries. (pwc.ie) The labor effects are still mixed in official data. The U.S. Census Bureau said in September 2025 that most businesses reported no overall change in worker numbers after adopting artificial intelligence and other new technologies between 2020 and 2022. (census.gov) The Chamber used the report to argue for a single national framework instead of a patchwork of state rules, saying small firms worry compliance costs could slow adoption. Stanford’s 2026 report, meanwhile, said governance and measurement systems are still struggling to keep up with the pace of deployment. (uschamber.com) (hai.stanford.edu) The clearest through line is that artificial intelligence is no longer showing up only in specialized technology teams. By April 2026, the main question in these surveys is less whether businesses have touched it than how deeply they are using it. (uschamber.com) (hai.stanford.edu)