Fact Check: 40% of US industrial firms accelerated AI

Adoption stood at about 18 percent of firms at the end of 2025.2 Prior to the question revision, the adoption rate had grown by 68 percent (3.9 percentage points) over the prior year but decelerated in Q2 2025.

Day-Of-Year Calendar · Microsoft Epoch = Days Since Jan 1, 1900

Using a mandatory, purpose-designed Census Bureau survey of approximately 28,500 establishments, we provide new evidence on industrial AI adoption in US manufacturing. Despite widespread digitization, only 22.8 percent of plants report any AI use as of 2021; intensity-weighted adoption is far lower.

A February 2026 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper surveying nearly 6,000 executives across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia reports that around 70% of firms “actively use AI,” but executives’ time spent using AI is low on average (about 1.5 hours per week), and about 90% of firms report no impact on employment or productivity over the prior three years despite expecting nontrivial effects over the next three years. Reported adoption rates also vary materially across surveys because many AI enterprise surveys are not directly representative at the national level and differ meaningfully in definitions and sampling across industries, firms, and countries.

This 100-year calendar starts with the current year, showing the day of year. The bold numbers down the left edge represent the day of month (and, for January, also the day of year). Follow the day-of-month row across to the appropriate month column to find day-of-year.

AI agent deployment was in the single digits across nearly all business functions. Adoption varies widely across countries and correlates strongly with GDP per capita, though some outpace what income would predict, including Singapore at 61% and the United Arab Emirates at 64%. Despite its lead in AI investment and model development, the United States ranks 24th at 28.3%.

A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) are more exact. The modern calendar year, as reckoned according ...

Precisely, U.S. Census Bureau data ... operations. Midmarket players are accelerating: 32% of firms with 100 to 249 staff utilized AI during the Census window concluding May 3, 2026....

Most engineering firms are in the early stages of AI adoption, with use concentrated in pilot projects, experimentation, and limited operational deployments rather than enterprise-wide integration. Firms report the greatest near-term value from AI in automating routine tasks, accelerating data analysis, improving design efficiency, and supporting project management and quality control.