Small Businesses are using AI, but most are not getting all the benefits.

In 2023, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that 23% of small businesses used AI. Its 2026 report puts the figure at 66% nationally and 64% in Idaho. That is one of the fastest technology adoption curves the Chamber has tracked in small business.

But using AI and benefiting from it are not the same thing. In a Goldman Sachs survey of 1,256 owners in its small business program, 76% said they use AI. Only 14% said it is fully built into their core operations. Most owners have downloaded the app. Far fewer have changed how the business runs.

First, a reality check on the numbers

Not every survey agrees. The Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey, which covers employer businesses of every size, found that about 20% were using AI as of May 2026, and that use among firms with fewer than 20 employees had not changed significantly over the prior six months. The Chamber, Goldman Sachs, Intuit and Thryv surveys, by contrast, put adoption between roughly 66% and 77%.

Much of the difference comes down to who gets asked. Surveys run by business groups and software companies tend to reach owners who are already online and engaged with technology. For a typical Treasure Valley business with a handful of employees, the truth is probably somewhere in between. Either way, the direction is clearly up.

What owners who use AI report

The Chamber's 2026 survey compared businesses that use AI with those that don't. AI users were more likely to report growth over the past year:

Measure	Businesses using AI	Businesses not using AI
Increased sales	89%	82%
Increased profits	90%	83%
Increased workforce	89%	80%

Intuit's 2026 report, drawn from more than 34,000 owners, tells a similar story: 78% of U.S. respondents say AI improved their productivity and 43% say it raised revenue, while only 2% say it lowered revenue.

A fair caution: these are owners' own reports, and the Chamber is an advocacy group that has a stake in showing AI helps. Healthier businesses may also be the ones adopting AI first, so the numbers show a link, not proof that AI caused the growth. Still, the pattern shows up across several independent surveys.

Where small businesses are putting AI to work

Among Chamber respondents who use AI, the most common uses are customer-facing and practical: marketing and promotions (41%), improving the customer experience (35%), managing customer relationships (31%) and accounting (31%).

Most are not building anything exotic. Nearly two-thirds (64%) rely mostly or entirely on AI tools made by other companies, and only 8% develop their own. The cost is modest, too: 41% use free AI tools, and the median monthly spend among businesses that pay is $250. You do not need an enterprise budget to start.

What about jobs?

This is the fear that comes up most. In the Chamber's survey, 47% of AI users say AI is creating jobs in their business today, while 6% say it is allowing them to reduce headcount. For nearly every eight owners who credit AI with staffing growth, about one blames it for a cut. Goldman Sachs found a similar mood, with 87% of owners saying AI supports their employees rather than replacing them.

Those are owners' views at an early stage, not a guarantee about the future. But for now, small businesses report using AI to do more with the people they have.

The real gap: from trying to building it in

If adoption is high and results look good, why do so few owners say AI is part of their core operations? The surveys point to a few reasons.

• Skills and confidence. The share of Chamber respondents who call themselves knowledgeable about AI fell from 74% to 68% this year, suggesting enthusiasm is outrunning familiarity. In a Thryv survey, 70% of owners said they need more training.

• Training by hope. Among AI-using businesses in the Chamber's survey, 48% provide tools and hope employees learn to use them, and 47% offer on-the-job training. Many do both.

• Real concerns. Among Goldman Sachs' AI users, the top barriers were data privacy and security (50%), lack of technical expertise (49%) and difficulty choosing the right tools (48%). Cost wasn't the headline. Intuit's report similarly lists privacy, fear of errors and uncertainty about what AI can do.

None of these are problems you solve by buying another subscription.

Three questions to ask this week

1. Which two or three tasks eat the most hours each week? Think customer emails, quotes, scheduling, review responses, social posts.

2. Could I write down how each one is done today? If you can't describe the process, it's hard to improve it, and harder to hand any part of it to a tool.

3. Who checks the AI's work before a customer sees it? Decide that before you start, not after the first mistake.

Don't rush, but don't wait

The pressure is real. The Chamber reports that 51% of owners believe competitors already use AI or will within the year, and 73% say that realization led them to speed up their own plans. But speed without a plan is how businesses end up with a pile of tools and no results. Mark Ruszcyk, president of Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, put it well at a Boise Metro Chamber conference this spring: "go slow to go fast."

Pick one task, learn it well, measure the result, and build from there. In our next post, we'll walk through exactly how.

Call today for a Free Consultation.