Ipsos and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Survey Questionnaire
Published
July 14, 2026
For all the speculation about what artificial intelligence (AI) might someday mean for work, small business owners are already forming opinions based on something more concrete: what they are seeing inside their own companies.
And for many of them, the early picture is more practical than alarming.
A new survey of 750 small business owners and operators, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, found that employers who are using AI tend to describe it as a tool that helps people work more efficiently, improve the quality of their work, and take on more challenging tasks.
That lines up with what small business employees told us in the Foundation’s recent Main Street AI Monitor, which explored how workers themselves are experiencing AI on the job. From the employer side, the message is similarly clear: in many small businesses today, AI is not replacing work so much as changing how work gets done.
AI’s Impact Looks More Practical Than Dramatic
The public conversation around AI often focuses on sweeping predictions about the future of jobs. But when small business owners talk about what they are seeing inside their own workplaces, the story is often more grounded.
Among employers whose businesses use AI, the strongest positive impact reported was the time it takes employees to complete tasks, with 54% saying AI has had a mostly positive impact. Half report a mostly positive impact on employees’ ability to take on more challenging work, and 47% report a mostly positive impact on the quality of employees’ work. Across all three measures, only 3% to 4% of employers say AI has had a mostly negative impact.
When Employees Gain Time, They Give It Back
One of the most important questions we asked employers was what happens when AI saves their employees time or improves the quality of their work. Do those gains stay with the employee, or do they flow back into the business?
Among employers who say AI has a mostly positive impact on employees’ speed or work quality:
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65%
say employees use the time to deliver more or higher-quality work than before.
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56%
say employees use it for learning, planning, or reviewing existing work.
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38%
say employees take on stretch assignments or new responsibilities.
However, about a third of employers find that not all time savings are directed back into work:
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36%
say employees use the time to avoid working overtime or extra hours.
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30%
say employees use the time for breaks and personal tasks.
From the employer’s perspective, AI is giving workers more capacity—and many employers say that capacity is being used to deliver more or higher-quality work, support learning and planning, and sometimes reduce extra hours.
AI Is Reshaping the Whole Business
The impact of AI is not limited to individual tasks. Employers report that it is changing how their organizations operate at a broader level.
Among small businesses using AI, nearly three in four say it has had an impact on employees' roles and responsibilities (73%), and on customer expectations and behavior (73%). Seven in 10 say it has changed what they expect from employees' job performance, and 65% say it has influenced hiring and personnel decisions.
These are not marginal changes. AI is becoming part of how small businesses think about their teams, their customers, and their futures.
Employers Are Leading—and So Are Workers
The survey also points to a more complicated picture of how AI is spreading through small businesses.
Among employers, 29% say AI adoption at their business is mostly driven by ownership or leadership providing guidance, tools, or expectations. Another 26% say adoption is happening equally from leadership and employees, while 19% say it is mostly employee-driven.
That differs somewhat from what workers told us in the Foundation’s employee survey, where just 11% said adoption at their organization had been driven by management versus 19% who said that adoption has been driven by employees. The gap may reflect a simple difference in perspective: owners may see themselves as setting direction, while employees experience adoption more informally, through day-to-day experimentation with new tools. It may also suggest that in many small businesses, responsibility for AI adoption is still being negotiated in real time.
What seems clear from both surveys is that AI is not spreading through small businesses in one neat, top-down way. In many cases, employers and employees are shaping its use at the same time.
What the Two Surveys Show Together
What stands out across both surveys is that small businesses are not waiting around for some future AI moment. Workers are already using these tools, and owners are already seeing the effects in how work gets done. The opportunity now is to help more small businesses adopt AI thoughtfully, safely, and productively—so they can continue to thrive.
Main Street AI Monitor
About the survey: These are the findings of an Ipsos poll, conducted on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation between May 19 to June 4, 2026. For this survey, a sample of 750 small business owners and operators age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii was interviewed online in English. Small businesses are defined as companies with 500 or fewer employees, excluding sole proprietorships. The sample was weighted to reflect the U.S. small business population by region, industry, business size, owner gender, and minority ownership status, using the U.S. Census 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses and the SBA's 2025 Small Business Profiles as benchmarks. The poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points for all respondents.
