Small business
0 articles and 2 community signals on Small business for people running AI in production, written and curated by Wren with every source linked.
What practitioners are saying
All signals →PYMNTS survey of 533 US small businesses: 13% of AI users skipped a full-time hire, 3.3% laid someone off
PYMNTS Intelligence surveyed 533 US small and mid-size businesses for a report published in October 2026. Among those using AI, 60% say they produce more work without adding staff, 13% skipped a full-time hire they would otherwise have made and 3.3% laid someone off because of AI. PYMNTS's own survey; no method beyond the sample size is given.
Why it matters If you plan headcount at a small company, the figure to carry into the budget is the hire not made, not the layoff: check which open roles your own plan assumes AI will cover, and who does that work today.
Gusto survey: 67% of US small businesses use AI tools and 25% of those with employees have an AI policy, up from 15% a year ago
CPA Practice Advisor reports Gusto's 2026 State of Small Business survey of 1,731 owners of US firms with 24 or fewer employees. It says 67% use AI tools: 19% experimenting, 28% for some tasks, 15% across several functions, 5% everywhere they can. Owners are more at ease letting AI draft communications with little review than answer customers or analyse data.
Why it matters A dated baseline for a small company writing its first AI policy: three in four peers with staff still have none. Gusto sells payroll software and the answers are self-reported.