Where AI actually enters the business
Company use, employee tasks, and implementation choices tell different parts of the adoption story.
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The evidence
Using the 2026 BTOS AI supplement, the authors examine company adoption, business functions, and employee use in work tasks. Adoption is more prevalent among larger firms and in knowledge-intensive industries. Many adopters use AI in a limited set of functions or tasks. Employee experimentation and formal company adoption do not always occur together.
- Business adoption and employee task use describe different aspects of AI diffusion.
- Writing, document analysis, information search, and sales and marketing are prominent use cases.
- Helping people perform tasks is common. Reported employment reductions occur less frequently.
What this means for your business
For a small business, a focused workflow is a practical place to begin. Choose a recurring task, define an acceptable result, assign a responsible reviewer, and track time and quality. This is the Chamber’s application of the research, rather than an intervention tested by the paper.
What this study cannot establish
Business respondents report employee use; employees are not independently surveyed. Associations with business performance do not prove that AI caused higher profits or growth. These U.S. employer-business results do not measure household outcomes.
Which recurring task could you improve—and how would you judge the result?