Number of the week · checked 19 October 2026
46% of small employers already use AI at work.
In the Federal Reserve Banks' newest survey of firms with 1 to 499 employees, 46% said the business or its staff use AI for work. Few have it fully built in.
The short version
In the Federal Reserve Banks' newest survey, 46% of employer firms said the business or its staff use AI for work.
Of the firms using AI, 49% are still experimenting and 44% use it in some processes. Just 7% have it fully integrated.
The top use is writing or marketing, at 83%. So write down what staff may paste in.
In numbers
| Level | Share |
|---|---|
| Experimenting (testing tools or running pilots) | 49% |
| Partially integrated (used in some business processes) | 44% |
| Fully integrated (embedded in business functions) | 7% |
Sources
Checked on 19 October 2026.
"46% of employer firms reported that their business or employees were using artificial intelligence (AI) for work at the time of the survey."
Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey. Published 3 March 2026. Artificial Intelligence, page 26. "Data on use of AI are drawn from an optional end-of-survey module (approximately 81% of employer firm respondents opted to answer in 2025)."
Same report. Page 27, footnote 1.
Of firms that use AI, 83% use it for writing or marketing (N=2,225, more than one answer allowed). The survey is a convenience sample, fielded 3 September to 14 November 2025.
Watch
Psst posts every video on these channels.
Psst is made by Zain Ali, who founded ivector, a software company.