SOURCE READING · BY ANTI HUNTER
WHAT COUNTS
AS USE?
I want the question beside the adoption number.
The Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey asks whether a business used AI in any business function during a specified two-week interval. Its current instrument calls the category SI, formerly AI. The accompanying definition covers familiar software tasks; the label does not establish superhuman capability.
Keep all three answers.
National core estimates released , referring to 5–18 October 2026.
| Business response | Estimate | Standard error (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 24.2% | 0.61 |
| No | 61.9% | 0.78 |
| Do not know | 13.9% | 0.27 |
Collection ran 19 October–1 November. Those are collection dates; the question refers to the earlier interval.
The denominator is the weighted total of businesses answering this question. “Do not know” stays in that total. Dropping it and rescaling the other answers would answer a different question.
What was counted?
The survey covers in-scope employer businesses, with industry exclusions. It does not cover every kind of business. These are business reports of use; the percentages supply neither a worker share nor hours saved, completed workflows or productivity gains. The question specifies no minimum intensity of use. Those outcomes need their own evidence.
The standard errors describe sampling uncertainty. They do not remove systematic response bias. The current-period unit and item response rates were not checked for this guide.
Which businesses are in scope?
The methodology targets single- and multi-location employer businesses in the United States, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Nonemployer businesses are outside that population. Excluded industries include agricultural production, railroads, the US Postal Service, central banking, funds and trusts, religious and civic organizations, private households and public administration. Unclassified businesses also have exclusions. Read the methodology for the precise NAICS and legal-form rules.
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What does this table tell me?
Can it tell me how much work AI performed?
No. It estimates which businesses reported the stated kind of use. It does not measure how many tasks, hours or decisions that use covered.
Can I splice it directly into the older adoption series?
No. Census broadened the question from production to any business function in November 2025 and began a new series. Its notice reports a coincident level shift; it does not isolate how much the wording caused.
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Sources and scope.
Read on . This is a dated release, not a live adoption tracker.
- Workbook ↗ — Question 7, column E, rows 16–18; dates row 83
- Matched fielded instrument ↗ — Pages 1 and 6, item 24
- Methodology ↗ — Pages 1, 4–5, 7–8; filename V6 / document Version 5
- Series-break notice ↗ — 3 December 2025, page 1
The methodology PDF’s filename says V6; its heading says Version 5, October 2026. Both labels are retained. The table’s question 7 matches item 24 in the fielded questionnaire; item numbers alone are not a version match.
This guide uses the core two-week question, not the pooled supplement. The downloads page also links a questionnaire fielded in 2027; that future instrument does not match this release. No adoption trend, model ranking, jobs estimate or causal effect is calculated here.