The U.S. Census Bureau has revised its estimate of AI adoption in business

The U.S. Census Bureau has changed the wording of the question regarding artificial intelligence usage in official surveys. Instead of the narrow criterion of "producing goods or services," the agency has begun to account for "any business function."

This change in methodology led to a sharp jump in adoption metrics. For large companies, the level of AI usage rose from approximately 12% to 40% between November 2025 and October 2026.

The new data was published by researcher Simon Willison, citing statistical reports from the government agency. Discussion of the data collection methodology also unfolded on the Hacker News platform.

The adjustment to the surveys shows that the actual scale of technology adoption by businesses was previously significantly underestimated due to overly narrow evaluation criteria.