Goldman Survey: 86% of Small Businesses Use AI, but Only 15% Have Built It In

TL;DR

On October 22, Goldman Sachs published The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy, a survey of 2,473 alumni of its 10,000 Small Businesses program run by Babson College in August. 86% of respondents use AI in their business, up from 56% in 2024 and 77% in 2025. Only 15% say it is fully integrated into core operations. Most of them work in a chat window, 73% of AI users spend less than $100 a month on AI tools, and the fastest-growing use is financial analysis and business planning, which went from 18% to 42% of AI users in two years. If you sell AI software to small businesses, these numbers show who is buying and what they will pay.

What the survey measured

This is the third year Goldman has asked its program graduates about AI, so there is a trend line rather than a snapshot. Babson fielded the 2026 survey from August 10 to 24. It went to 14,967 alumni and got a 16.5% response rate: 2,117 complete responses and 356 partial ones.

The report landed the same day Goldman announced a $500 million commitment that includes a new Small Business AI Institute, with Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI as training partners. So the data arrives with a launch attached and four AI labs quoted in the press release. The survey numbers are still worth reading on their own.

High adoption, shallow integration

Among the 86% who use AI, 18% call it fully integrated into core operations, 50% use it actively in some areas without it being central, and 32% are still experimenting. Across all respondents, that 18% works out to the 15% figure in Goldman's headline.

63% of AI users use it every day, but mostly through general-purpose tools: 86% of AI users rely on standalone chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, and 54% on AI features built into software they already pay for, with QuickBooks AI Agents and Microsoft 365 Copilot as Goldman's examples. Only 18% use agentic AI, 19% use coding tools and 12% use custom-built solutions.

The budget is under $100

73% of AI users either use only free tools or spend less than $100 a month on AI, and 16% use free tools only. For most of these owners, that is the whole AI budget. A $49-a-month vertical tool fits inside it. A $400-a-month "AI employee" seat costs more than four times what 73% of them spend on AI in total.

From copywriting to the spreadsheet

In 2024, the typical small-business use was AI-written marketing copy. Since then, written marketing content fell from 74% to 65% of AI users, while financial analysis more than doubled and data analysis rose from 26% to 42%.

The report quotes owners doing exactly this. A Georgia medical clinic owner says AI agents audit the clinic's billing every night, flag denials and underpayments, and call insurers about stuck claims, giving "a ten-person clinic the back office of a much larger group." A Wyoming campground runs a custom agent named "Shelly" for guest questions, because, per the owner, 80% of what guests ask is simple information. Naming the support bot like a campground mascot may be the most small-business detail in the whole report.

In the examples Goldman profiles, the owners built these setups themselves rather than buying a finished product. Packaging that work for owners who lack the time or skills is an open product category.

The employee gap

Owners adopted first, and their staff are behind. Among AI-using businesses, 26% say all employees use AI, 18% say most, 42% say some, and 14% say only the owner does. 74% of AI-using owners have no formal policy on how employees use it.

Size matters here, and smaller wins: 28% of businesses with 1 to 25 employees say everyone uses AI, against 11% of those with 26 or more. Service businesses are ahead of product businesses on adoption (87% vs 80%), full integration (19% vs 14%) and daily use (65% vs 57%). Product businesses are the newer adopters, with 66% starting in the last 12 months against 54% for services.

Age and geography

Adoption runs 95% for Gen Z owners, 88% for Millennials, 86% for Gen X and 78% for Baby Boomers. The rural gap narrowed from 10 points in 2024 (47% vs 57%) to 7 points now (80% vs 87%). Rural AI users are still more likely to name a lack of technical expertise as the barrier (47% vs 39%).

Jobs and holdouts

84% of AI-using owners report no change in headcount from AI, 6% say they cut employees because of it, and 5% added positions. 93% of AI users say it has had a positive effect on the business, and 74% list efficiency and time savings as a main benefit. Owners say they spend the saved time on strategic planning (56%), expanded marketing (44%) and new products or services (31%).

Among the 14% not using AI, 45% say they do not know how to apply it, 32% cite data privacy, and 28% worry about unreliable results. 77% of all respondents say more AI training and resources would help.

Caveats before you build a pitch deck on this

• It is not a random sample. These are graduates of a selective business-growth program, and Goldman says their businesses add jobs four times faster than similar US firms. The report itself says the figures may not represent all program alumni, let alone all small businesses.
• Response bias. A 16.5% response rate on an AI survey will tilt toward owners with opinions about AI.
• Not a panel. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 surveys compare respondent groups; they do not track the same businesses over time.
• Interested publisher. The report shipped alongside a Goldman program built with four AI labs. Goldman also says the report is not a product of its investment research and makes no warranty about its accuracy.

For a broader baseline, the Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey tracks AI use across all US firms, and Goldman cites it to say its alumni are ahead of the average small business owner.

What to do with it

If you build for small businesses, the survey describes owners who mostly use AI daily but have not paid anyone to connect it to the rest of the business. Goldman calls the gap between adoption and integration "the defining frontier for small businesses."

• Chatbots, accounting software and office suites are where these owners already work, so an integration there has a better shot than a new dashboard.
• 73% of AI users spend under $100 a month on AI. Price for that, or show savings large enough to justify going over it.
• Planning and data analysis are the growing uses. Marketing copy is the one shrinking.
• 74% of AI-using owners have no staff AI policy, so a product that ships sensible defaults for employee use covers something most owners have skipped.

Key Takeaways

• 86% of 2,473 surveyed Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses alumni use AI, up from 56% in 2024 and 77% in 2025.
• Only 15% of all respondents (18% of AI users) have AI fully integrated into core operations; 32% of AI users are still experimenting.
• 86% of AI users rely on standalone chatbots, 18% use agentic AI, and 73% spend under $100 a month on AI or use only free tools.
• Financial analysis and business planning grew from 18% to 42% of AI users; written marketing copy fell from 74% to 65%.
• 84% of AI-using owners report no headcount change from AI, 6% report cuts and 5% report hires.
• The sample is selective, self-reported and published alongside Goldman's $500 million AI program with four AI labs, so treat it as a signal from motivated owners, not a census.

Sources: Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy (October 2026), Goldman Sachs press release, October 22, 2026, Goldman Sachs Small Business AI Institute, The Tribune (ANI)