86% of small businesses use AI, but only 15% have made it core: what Goldman Sachs found
Almost every small business owner in a new Goldman Sachs survey uses AI. Very few have made it part of how the business actually runs. That gap is where most of the value is still sitting.
What the survey found
Goldman Sachs published "The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy" in October 2026. It is based on a Babson College survey of alumni of the 10,000 Small Businesses program, fielded August 10 to 24, 2026, with 2,473 responses. The report itself cautions that results may not represent all program alumni, so read these as a signal from motivated owners, not a census of every small business.
Within that group, 86% use AI, up from 77% in 2025 and 56% in 2024. But only 15% have fully integrated it into core operations. Among AI users, 18% are fully integrated, 50% use it in some areas but not centrally, and 32% are experimenting.
Using AI is not the same as getting value from it
Most owners are starting with chatbots. Among AI users, 86% use standalone generative AI chatbots, 54% use AI features built into existing software, and 18% use agentic AI, according to ANI's coverage of the report. Also, 73% of AI users spend under $100 a month, including 16% who use only free tools.
That matches what we see. A chatbot helps one person write an email faster. It does not know your customers, your open deals or your service history. The value grows when AI works on top of your own data.
Where the effort is shifting
The report shows AI use moving from content toward decisions. Among AI users, financial analysis and business planning rose from 18% in 2024 to 42% in 2026, and data analysis rose from 26% to 42%. Written marketing, still common, slipped from 74% to 65%.
Analysis is only as good as the data behind it. If your customer records are incomplete or scattered across spreadsheets, an AI tool will summarize the mess confidently.
The risks owners are not managing
- No rules for staff. 74% of AI-using owners have no formal policy for employee AI use.
- Uneven adoption. Only 26% of AI-using businesses say all employees use AI, and 14% say only the owner does.
- A skills gap. 77% of respondents say additional AI training and resources would help. Among the 14% not using AI, 45% say they don't know how to use or apply it.
What the survey says about jobs and results
The report offers reassurance. 84% of AI-using owners report no workforce change, 6% reduced staff and 5% added positions. And 93% of AI users say AI has had a positive impact, with 74% citing efficiency and time savings as a primary benefit. These are owners' own assessments, not measured outcomes.
What to do this quarter
- Write a one-page AI policy. Cover which tools are approved and what customer data must never be pasted into them.
- Pick one process to embed AI in. Lead follow-up, case triage or weekly pipeline reporting are good candidates. Measure it before and after.
- Clean the data it will use. Duplicate contacts and missing fields in your CRM (customer relationship management system) limit any AI built on top of it.
- Train the team, not just the owner. Block an hour a month for sharing what works.
The takeaway
Adoption is no longer the hard part. Integration is. The small businesses that pull ahead will connect AI to their real customer data and give their people clear rules and training.
Not sure whether your Salesforce data is ready for that? Book a free audit and we will show you where to start.