You saw the number and your stomach dropped a little. Eighty-six percent use AI, and you are still writing the same emails by hand, wondering if your competitors quietly pulled ahead. That worry is fair, and the small business AI survey behind it deserves a closer look before it sets your schedule.
The 86% comes from Goldman Sachs' October 2026 report, The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy. It describes graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses who answered a survey, not every small business in the country. In the report's words, "86% of those surveyed report using AI in their business, up from 56% just two years ago."
The same report says "just 15% of graduates have fully integrated AI tools into their core operations." So, the gap between trying AI and building it into the business is wide, even among people who took a business program and chose to respond.
Key Takeaways
It covers 2,473 responding graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, and it measures using AI in the business, not owning a finished system.
86% of those surveyed use AI, and just 15% of graduates say it is fully integrated into core operations.
Among graduates who use AI, 73% use free tools or spend less than $100 per month, and 63% use AI daily.
Pick one repetitive, low-risk job, check the software you already pay for, keep a person reviewing the result, and time it with and without AI.
What does the Goldman Sachs small business AI survey actually measure?
It measures what graduates of one program say about their own businesses. Babson College ran the 2026 alumni survey from August 10 through August 24, 2026. Invitations went to 14,967 alumni, and 2,473 responded, a 16.5% response rate. Every percentage in the report refers to that group, which is why the headline number needs its population attached each time.
The figure also moves over time inside the same report. Goldman reports AI use among its graduates at 56% in 2024, 77% in 2025 and 86% in 2026. That is a rise within one group of program graduates, and it shows direction for them, not a count of all businesses.
| Detail | What Goldman reports |
|---|---|
| Report | The AI Economy Is a Small Business Economy, October 2026 |
| Who answered | 2,473 graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses |
| Who ran the survey | Babson College |
| Field dates | August 10 through August 24, 2026 |
| Invitations sent | 14,967 alumni, a 16.5% response rate |
| Use AI in their business | 86% in 2026, 77% in 2025, 56% in 2024 |
Goldman's full report carries these numbers, and it is the place to check any figure you plan to repeat to a client or a banker.
Is using AI the same as having it built into the business?
No, and the report separates the two. Using AI can mean one person opening a chatbot twice a week. Full integration means AI sits inside the core operations of the business. Only 15% of graduates say they have reached that point, even though 63% of the graduates who use AI do so daily.
Daily use and integration are different things. Someone can ask a chatbot for a draft every morning and still have no process, no shared rules and no connection to the software the business runs on. That is a normal place to be, and the survey shows it is where the graduates are too.
The tools are also plain. Goldman reports that 86% of AI-using graduates mainly rely on standalone generative AI chatbots or AI features built into software they already have. Only 18% use agentic AI, 19% use coding tools and 12% use custom-built solutions. A competitor who seems to be using AI is probably using a chatbot or a feature inside an app, not a system built from scratch.
What are other small businesses using AI for?
Among the graduates, the leading uses are everyday work. Goldman reports productivity at 66%, written marketing content at 65%, strategy and business development at 55%, new projects, processes or products at 51% and visual marketing content at 47%. Each share is the portion of the surveyed graduates who named that use, and a business can name several.
Money is modest too. Among the graduates who use AI, 73% use free tools or spend less than $100 per month. Read no revenue, savings or return into any of these shares. They record what graduates say they do, not what paid off.
| Figure | What it measures |
|---|---|
| 66% | Productivity use |
| 65% | Written marketing content |
| 55% | Strategy and business development |
| 51% | New projects, processes or products |
| 47% | Visual marketing content |
| 63% | Use AI daily |
| 73% | Use free tools or spend less than $100 per month |
If your own list of tasks looks like this one, you are not behind a pack. You are looking at the same short list of jobs that the graduates are handing to a chatbot.
Why do some owners hold off on AI?
Among the 14% of graduates who do not use AI, Goldman reports three leading reasons. 45% say they do not know how to use or apply it in their business. 32% cite data privacy concerns. 28% worry about inaccurate or unreliable results. Across all respondents, 77% say they would benefit from more AI training and resources. Goldman also reports that respondents commonly learn by trying things on their own and by asking online communities. That makes the need clear: help choosing a useful task, protecting business information and checking what the tool produces.
Rules are thin as well. In Goldman's survey, 74% of AI-using owners have no formal employee-use policy. If staff touch customer details, a short written rule about which tools are approved is a sensible early step, and our post on an AI use policy for a small business covers what to put in it.
Can you compare 86% with Census, SBA and Chamber numbers?
You can read them side by side, but they do not measure the same thing. Goldman's group is graduates of a business education program. The Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey uses a nationally representative sample, and its AI use story puts overall business AI use at roughly 17% to 20% from December 2025 through May 2026.
The question wording changed too. Starting in December 2025, the Census survey moved from AI "in producing goods or services" to AI "in any business function," as its survey help page explains. The SBA Office of Advocacy's February 2026 FAQ, using the same Census survey, reported 7.6% of businesses using AI between September 2024 and August 2025.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's October 2, 2026 report found 66% of small businesses using AI. Even Goldman's own numbers shift with the sample: its 2024 infographic reported 69% from 239 participants surveyed June 25 through June 30, 2024. Different groups and different wording give different numbers, so none of them tells you where your business should be.
What is a sensible first step with AI?
Choose one repetitive, low-risk task and test it. Drafting a routine customer email or summarizing meeting notes both fit, because you can read the result in a minute and fix it before anyone sees it. Skip anything that decides money, contracts or a customer's account.
Then look at what you already own. Accounting, email, scheduling and office tools now include an AI assistant or a summarize and draft feature, so you may not need anything new. Write down the three most repetitive tasks from your last week, check the software you pay for against each one, and run the lowest-risk task as a small trial.
A first AI task, in order
Choose a repetitive, low-risk job such as a routine email reply or meeting notes.
Look in your email, accounting, scheduling and office software for an AI assistant, summarize, draft or classify feature.
Read every result before it goes to a customer, and keep sensitive customer information out of any tool you have not approved.
Record the minutes the task takes by hand and with AI, and count the errors you had to fix.
Keep it, change it or drop it based on your own numbers.
The point of a check like this is to leave you with your own numbers. NIST's AI risk management guidance and its Generative AI Profile recommend human review, testing before use and keeping records, which is the same routine on a small scale. Our posts on whether free ChatGPT is enough for your business and what Goldman Sachs' AI training program offers can help you choose a tool and find free training.
When does paid help make sense?
For a first task, often it does not. If a tool you already pay for can handle the job safely, you need setup time, a review habit and a way to measure, not a custom system. The survey points the same way: 73% of AI-using graduates spend under $100 a month or use free tools, and only 12% use custom-built solutions.
Paid help makes sense when the work changes character. That means the task crosses several systems, such as pulling from your email, your customer list and your bookkeeping. It also fits when sensitive data is involved, when the output reaches customers, or when something needs ongoing monitoring. Our AI consulting service is built for choosing and planning, and it is the right first call when you are unsure what fits.
Until one of those conditions shows up, you can run the first test yourself. The goal is a task that works reliably, not a business that looks advanced.
Check your read of the Goldman survey
Pick an answer to begin.
1. What does Goldman's 86% describe?
2. What share of graduates say AI is fully integrated into core operations?
3. Which first step fits what the surveyed graduates report doing?
Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business AI Survey
Does 86% mean 86% of all U.S. small businesses use AI?
No. It describes respondents to Goldman Sachs' 2026 survey of graduates of 10,000 Small Businesses. Census, SBA and Chamber figures come from other groups with their own wording.
How many Goldman respondents have fully integrated AI?
Just 15% of graduates say AI is fully integrated into core operations.
What do small businesses use AI for?
Among surveyed graduates, the leading uses are productivity, written marketing content, strategy and business development, new projects, processes or products, and visual marketing content.
How much do they spend on it?
Among graduates who use AI, 73% use free tools or spend less than $100 per month.
What holds non-users back?
Among the 14% who do not use AI, 45% say they do not know how to apply it, 32% cite data privacy and 28% worry about inaccurate results.
Do I need a custom AI system to start?
Not as a first step. Check whether software you already pay for has an AI feature for one low-risk task, keep a person reviewing the output, and time the task both ways.
Wrapping Up
Goldman's 86% describes surveyed graduates of 10,000 Small Businesses who use AI in their business, up from 56% in 2024 and 77% in 2025. Only 15% say AI is fully integrated into core operations, and 73% of AI users use free tools or spend less than $100 a month. The result is a lot of light, everyday use and very little deep integration.
That is good news if you are starting now. You can learn from one small task, with a review step and a stopwatch, before spending anything meaningful, and your results will tell you more than a headline percentage.
If your first task turns out to cross several systems, touch sensitive customer information, or need someone to watch it, Web Leveling can help you plan it, and our AI automation work connects the tools you already use. We work with small and medium businesses across the country and overseas. Tell us which task is eating your week, and we will tell you whether it needs a project or just a setting in software you already pay for.
Terms
Terms from Goldman's survey
Tap a term to see what it means.
10,000 Small Businesses. Goldman Sachs' program for small business owners, whose graduates make up the survey group.
AI use. Reporting that AI is used in the business, from an occasional chatbot request to daily work.
Full integration. AI built into the core operations of the business, which 15% of surveyed graduates report.
Agentic AI. AI that carries out a series of steps on its own; 18% of AI-using graduates use it.
Response rate. The share of invited people who answered; here 16.5% of 14,967 alumni.
Human review. A person reading and approving AI output before it is used.
