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There is no definitive global count for 2026. The clearest current U.S. estimate is that 19.8% of businesses reported using AI in the U.S. Census Bureau survey period ending May 3, 2026. A separate global survey found that 88% of respondents said their organization regularly used AI in at least one business function in 2025. Those figures measure different populations and definitions, so they should not be combined or treated as competing estimates of the same thing.
What percentage of companies use AI?
The answer depends on what counts as a company, where it operates, and what counts as AI use. The two most useful recent figures are a global, respondent-reported survey result and a nationally representative U.S. business survey:
| Measure | Estimate | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Global organizations | 88% | McKinsey survey respondents who said their organization regularly used AI in at least one business function in 2025. The survey included 1,993 participants at all organizational levels and was fielded June 25–July 29, 2025. Stanford HAI’s 2026 AI Index summarizes the result; see also McKinsey’s 2025 state of AI survey. |
| U.S. businesses | 19.8% | Businesses reporting current AI use in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey period ending May 3, 2026. The survey asks about use in the previous two weeks. The Census Bureau’s May 2026 analysis reports the figure. |
The 88% is a survey response about organizations represented by participants, not a census showing that 88% of every company worldwide uses AI. The U.S. figure comes from a different sampling frame and asks about recent business use. The Census Bureau’s reported U.S. rate ranged from 17% to 20% across data collected December 14, 2025–May 3, 2026.
For that reason, there is not a reliable single percentage for “all companies in 2026.” The strongest global figure available here comes from 2025 fieldwork; the current 2026-period official measure is U.S.-specific.
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Why do the global and U.S. estimates differ?
They are not interchangeable measurements. McKinsey’s global survey asked participants whether their organization regularly used AI in at least one business function. Census BTOS is a representative survey of U.S. businesses asking whether they used AI in the previous two weeks. The Census question was also revised in November 2025: it now covers AI in “any business function,” rather than AI used “in producing goods or services.”
The measures also capture different kinds of answers: one is self-reported by survey participants, while the other estimates the share of U.S. businesses. Differences in geography, wording, respondent, and timeframe make a direct one-to-one comparison inappropriate.
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What does “using AI” mean in practice?
A company can count as an AI user after applying AI in just one function. That does not tell you whether the technology is widely deployed, central to operations, or used by many employees. Census Bureau supplement data collected from November 2025 through January 2026 show how much this distinction matters:
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- Limited functional reach: 57% of AI-using firms applied AI in three or fewer business functions.
- Common functions: Among adopting firms, Sales and Marketing was the most frequently reported area (52%), followed by Strategy and Business Development (45%) and IT (41%).
- Firm share versus employment share: 18% of firms reported AI use in a business function, while the employment-weighted estimate was 32%. Employment weighting gives more influence to firms with more workers; it is not the share of firms adopting AI. These estimates cover the November 2025–January 2026 supplement period.
The figures come from the Census working paper The Microstructure of AI Diffusion: Evidence from Firms, Business Functions, and Worker Tasks.
Are employees using AI even when their company has not adopted it?
Yes. Company-level adoption and employees’ use of AI for work tasks are related but distinct. In the Census working paper’s November 2025–January 2026 data, workers used AI in work-related tasks at 23% of firms, or 41% on an employment-weighted basis. The paper reports that worker task use can occur without formal firm-level adoption, and formal adoption can occur without worker use being reported in tasks. Among firms reporting worker task use, 65% limited that use to three or fewer tasks.
This distinction helps explain why a company may appear to be “using AI” in one measure but not another: an employee might use an AI tool for a task without the business having formally adopted AI, while a business could deploy AI in a function without broad employee use.
Which businesses are most likely to use AI?
The Census Bureau’s period ending May 3, 2026 showed substantially higher reported use among larger firms and in some sectors:
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| Business group | Reported AI use | Period and source |
|---|---|---|
| 250 or more employees | 37% | U.S. Census BTOS period ending May 3, 2026 |
| 100–249 employees | 32% | U.S. Census BTOS period ending May 3, 2026 |
| Information | 39.7% | U.S. Census BTOS period ending May 3, 2026 |
| Finance and Insurance | 33.9% | U.S. Census BTOS period ending May 3, 2026 |
| Retail Trade | About 14% | U.S. Census BTOS period ending May 3, 2026 |
The Census analysis also found that fewer than 20% of firms with four or fewer employees reported AI use, and that smaller firms with fewer than 20 employees did not show a significant increase over the six-month period reviewed. These are U.S. survey findings, not a ranking of businesses globally.
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Is company AI adoption increasing?
The available figures point to growth, but the comparison needs careful labeling. Stanford HAI’s 2026 AI Index reports that the share of McKinsey survey respondents saying their organization used AI in at least one business function rose from 78% in 2024 to 88% in 2025. The same survey series reported regular generative-AI use in at least one business function at 71% in 2024 and 79% in 2025.
For the United States, Census BTOS data collected between December 14, 2025 and May 3, 2026 put reported current use between 17% and 20%, ending at 19.8%. This is a different survey and definition from McKinsey’s global result, so the two trends should not be placed on a single adoption curve.
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How to interpret the headline figures
- Use 88% when describing what participants in McKinsey’s 2025 global survey reported about AI use in at least one business function.
- Use 19.8% when describing current reported AI use by U.S. businesses in the Census period ending May 3, 2026.
- Say whether a figure counts firms or is weighted by employment; the latter reflects the share of workers represented by adopting firms, not the share of companies.
- Distinguish any use from broad deployment. A business may qualify as an AI user based on limited use in one function or a small number of tasks.
- Do not average the global and U.S. percentages: they do not measure the same population or question.
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