A Census Bureau working paper using its 2026 BTOS AI supplement found that among US firms that adopted AI between November 2025 and January 2026, the scope of use stayed narrow: 57% of AI-adopting firms use it in three or fewer business functions
The US Census Bureau's 2026 AI supplement to its Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) collected data on AI adoption by US firms. This working paper, published in April 2026, analyzes AI diffusion across firms, business functions, and worker tasks. It found that among firms using AI between November 2025 and January 2026, 57% applied it in three or fewer business functions.
Verified 2026-09-20
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Most firms using AI apply it in only a few areas, so adoption is often shallow so far.
More on Adoption
- Stanford's 2026 AI Index, citing McKinsey's 2025 survey, breaks down AI-agent deployment by business function. Even in IT, the function with the most agent activity, the share of organisations reporting no AI-agent use at all in 2025 was still 69% of organizations report zero AI-agent use in IT, the business function with the heaviest agent activity
- Stanford's 2026 AI Index reports that organizations' use of generative AI specifically, not just AI overall, grew sharply in 2025: the share of organizations that regularly use generative AI in at least one business function reached 79%, up from 71% in 2024
- Stanford's 2026 AI Index compared generative AI's adoption curve after its mass-market debut to that of earlier transformative technologies, and found generative AI reached 53% population adoption within three years, faster than the PC or the internet
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