Survey: 40% of Small Businesses Now Using AI, With Marketing and Customer Insights Leading

According to a new research by the US Chamber of Commerce, there has been a 17% increase in small businesses using AI in 2024 from 2023. In 2023, 23% of the small businesses were using AI but now 40% of small businesses have integrated AI into their workspaces. This survey was based on 1,100 people working as small businesses in the US.

Upon asking what purposes these small businesses are using AI for, 51% said they use it for marketing and promoting purposes. 56% said so in 2023, marking a 5% decline this year. Marketing and promoting was still the top purpose for using AI in 2023 as well as 2024.

46% of small businesses are also using AI for developing customer insights, a 14% up from 32% in 2023. 41% of small businesses are also using AI for communicating with their customers. There has also been a 10% increase seen in usage of AI for managing customer relationships in 2024 (38%) from 2023 (28%).

The top AI enabled tools small businesses in the US are using are search engines (63%), social media (61%) and email services (58%). Financial management tools (51%), digital cameras on smartphones (46%) and computer virus detection and cybersecurity tools (44%) are also some AI enabled tools used by small businesses in 2024 .

31% of the US small businesses have been using AI for more than a year, with 12% using it for three to four years. 27% of the small businesses have started the use of AI just this year. 60% of the respondents of the survey also said that they believe that AI can help their business in the future. 5% also think that AI can hurt their business in the future.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World