Anthropic, with the research firm Material, surveyed over 500 technical leaders in the United States for The 2026 State of AI Agents Report. The numbers are loud: double-digit adoption rates, high ROI, "AI everywhere." Just one problem — most of it is about a Siemens factory, not a 12-person team.
Here's a telling pair from that same report: 54% of enterprise respondents call themselves "very optimistic" about adopting AI agents, against 38% of SMBs. The gap isn't because SMBs are lagging. You're simply playing a different game, with different risks and different numbers.
When we at Grow2.ai advise businesses of 10–200 people, we don't start with enterprise metrics — all they produce is FOMO without a single action. So we cross-checked that report against the Business.com and Dialog study "2026 Small Business AI Outlook" (January 2026; 1,009 leaders and employees at US companies of 2–250 people). All five numbers below come from it.
1. 57% of small businesses already invest in AI
Per Business.com, three years ago (2023) it was 36%, and 42% in 2024. The early-adopter threshold is behind us — this is now mainstream behavior, not a fad for enthusiasts. If you're still on the sidelines, you're already in the minority.
Not a catastrophe, but worth knowing where you stand. And more important: "investing" rarely means "rolled out a strategy." For most it's a single process. That's exactly where to start.
2. 5.6 hours a week — the average time saved
Per Business.com, that's the average gain for a small-business employee using AI tools. But the average hides the real story.
Who | Time saved per week |
|---|---|
Manager | 7.2 hours |
Rank-and-file employee | 3.4 hours |
Team average | 5.6 hours |
A twofold gap inside one team. Not because managers are more diligent. The cause is access to training and permission to experiment. Whoever has heard "try it, it's part of your job" is the one getting the results. If you want the whole team saving time, not just management, start with the right to experiment for the rank and file.
3. 30% of employees fake their enthusiasm
Per Business.com, one in three shows more enthusiasm for AI than they actually feel. It's not sabotage — it's social pressure. Publicly it's "of course I'm for AI"; inside it's "what if I get cut."
The danger isn't the doubts themselves — it's the silence. If the team never talks about them, you see a false signal — and plan the rollout as if everyone's on board. Give people the right to admit they're uncomfortable. Without that, the enthusiasm is paper-thin and your decisions stand on sand.
4. 53% of small businesses choose processes where a human leads
Per Business.com, most deliberately stay away from full automation and don't do "AI instead of people." That's not backwardness — it's a stance.
If your business runs on trust (a coach, a lawyer, a doctor, a tradesperson, a local service), the human stays out front. AI works backstage: drafting, clearing the routine, suggesting. But the face of every interaction stays human. The right question isn't "what can we fully automate" — it's "where can AI take the load off without touching the client's trust."
5. 64% plan to train their team; only 18% plan to hire AI specialists
Per Business.com, most small businesses choose to upskill the people they already have rather than hunt for dedicated AI specialists. It's cheaper, and it's smarter.
Your own people know your business and your processes. Hiring a good AI specialist at a sane price right now is a quest of its own, and knowledge that lives in one head walks out the door with it. A team workshop keeps the competence inside your processes. That's why training existing people almost always delivers better ROI than a new position.
What to do with this if you have 10–200 people
First — don't compare yourself to the enterprise. They play a different game, with different budgets and different risks. Second — find one process for AI, not an "AI strategy"; one narrow, measured result is worth a dozen slides about transformation.
Then comes the hardest part, because it's not about tools — it's about people: invest in the team, not in one-off specialist hires, and let people admit their doubts. The knowledge should stay inside the business, not walk out with a single hired expert.
That's how we build AI for small business at Grow2.ai: one process, a pilot from 14 days against a contracted KPI, and an honest answer if AI isn't the answer. Boring AI that saves measured hours beats a clever demo that changes nothing.
Want to figure out which process to start with in your business? The free 2-minute AI audit from Grow2.ai points to it. For context: AI agents for SMB and what an AI agent really costs. Setting up processes and CRM is Auspex; for AI strategy and thinking, see Andrew Maryasov.
Sources
- Anthropic, in partnership with the research firm Material — The 2026 State of AI Agents Report: over 500 technical leaders in the United States surveyed in late 2025. The "54 % of enterprises vs 38 % of SMBs" pair is reported in Arcade.dev's summary of the report.
- Business.com and Dialog — 2026 Small Business AI Outlook Report, 20 January 2026: 1,009 respondents at US companies of 2–250 people. Source of all five numbers in this article — 57 % (36 % in 2023, 42 % in 2024), 5.6 / 7.2 / 3.4 hours a week, 30 %, 53 %, 64 % and 18 %.