The Federal Reserve Board published a research note comparing three major surveys to track U.S. artificial intelligence adoption through 2025 and explain why headline adoption rates differ across sources. It finds that around 18% of firms reported AI adoption by year-end 2025, while individual survey data put work-related generative AI use at about 41% of the labor force, and an employment-weighted executive survey implies that most workers are employed at AI-adopting firms. The analysis draws on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), the Real-Time Population Survey (RPS), and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Survey of Business Uncertainty (SBU). BTOS shows AI adoption at about 18% of firms at end-2025; prior to a late-2025 methodological change, adoption rose 68% (3.9 percentage points) over the year ending September, and more than 20% of firms expected to use AI in the first half of 2026. RPS data show work-related GenAI adoption of about 41% as of November 2025, with the strongest growth in the most recent quarter; daily workplace use was 12%, and use at least once in the prior week was 35.2%. The SBU’s November 2025 module estimates that 78% of the labor force works at firms that have adopted AI and 54% works at firms using large language models (LLMs), and it reports that 35% of respondents typically use AI up to one hour per week and 29% use it one to five hours. The note attributes much of the cross-survey dispersion to differences in sampling and units of analysis, with additional roles for question framing, respondent knowledge gaps, and potential social desirability effects. Across firms and industries, adoption rises with firm size, but uptake among the smallest firms appears stronger than size alone would predict. Among large-output and high-employment peer industries, professional services and finance stand out: BTOS estimates adoption at about 33% and 30% respectively, while RPS reports the highest work-related GenAI usage in finance (63%) and professional services (62%), consistent with early AI use being concentrated in cognitive and analytical work.
Federal Reserve Board 2026-04-03
Federal Reserve Board research reconciles AI adoption surveys showing 18% of US firms using AI by end-2025 and broad workforce exposure
The Federal Reserve Board published a research note comparing three major surveys on U.S. artificial intelligence adoption, finding that about 18% of firms reported AI use by end-2025, while around 41% of workers reported using work-related generative AI and 78% of the labor force is employed at AI-adopting firms. The note attributes differences in adoption rates mainly to survey design, including sampling, units of analysis, question framing, and respondent knowledge. Adoption increases with firm size and is notably high in professional services and finance.