Empowering Small Business: The Impact of Technology on U.S. Small Business (2025)

Author: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC), fieldwork by Teneo Research | Published: 2025-08-18 | Source: report

Summary

The 2025 edition of the Chamber’s annual nationwide small-business technology survey, run since 2022. The landing page carries the headline findings and an interactive 50-state table. Nationally, 58 percent of small businesses self-report using generative AI, up from 40 percent in 2024 and 23 percent in 2023. Of AI-using small businesses, 82 percent increased headcount in the past year, 84 percent of all respondents plan to increase technology use, and 77 percent of AI users say limits on the technology would hurt growth and operations. The report frames technology as the way small firms cope with inflation and supply-chain disruption and compete with larger companies, and it notes that barriers to adoption persist without detailing them on the page.

The state table is the part with local value. For Michigan: 58 percent of small businesses currently use an AI platform, 43 percent use generative AI chatbots, 71 percent believe AI will help their business in the future, 68 percent worry a patchwork of state tech laws will raise compliance costs, and 36 percent use a cryptocurrency or stablecoin platform. Michigan’s platform-use figure equals the national generative-AI figure, and its future-optimism figure (71 percent) is among the lower readings in the table (the range runs from 66 percent in Hawaii to 94 percent in Vermont). Read together: a majority of Michigan small firms already touch AI, but a smaller share than in most states expects it to matter, which argues for selling concrete, measurable outcomes rather than AI as a category.

The page does not break results down by industry; that lives in the PDF, which was not retrieved. So this source answers “how many SMBs use AI” and “what does Michigan look like,” not “which verticals hurt most.”

Key Claims

• 58 percent of US small businesses say they use generative AI (2025), versus 40 percent in 2024 and 23 percent in 2023.
• 82 percent of AI-using small businesses increased their workforce over the prior year.
• 84 percent plan to increase technology platform use; 96 percent plan to adopt emerging technologies including AI.
• 77 percent of AI-using small businesses say limits on AI would negatively affect growth, operations, and bottom line.
• Michigan: 58 percent use an AI platform, 43 percent use generative AI chatbots, 71 percent believe AI will help them in future, 68 percent worry about a state-law patchwork.
• Michigan’s 71 percent future-optimism reading is toward the bottom of the 50-state range.
• Eight in ten owners credit technology with helping them cope with inflation and supply-chain disruption.

Direct quotes worth preserving

“While more small business owners understand the benefits of AI, barriers to adoption persist.” — U.S. Chamber, 2025 Empowering Small Business report page, key findings

Why citable: The Chamber acknowledging on the record that awareness has outrun adoption, which is the gap a local implementation service fills.

Connections

Entities mentioned: Blue Water Area Chamber of Commerce (the local affiliate context; the report is national)
Concepts referenced: SMB AI Adoption, Agent Readiness, Productized Services (services-first, productize later)

Contradictions / Tensions

• Reports 58 percent generative AI use (2025) while 2026 AI Impact Report: Mapping Adoption, Use, and Impact Across Small to Midsize Businesses reports 77 percent regular AI use in the US (January 2026). Different question wording (“generative AI” versus “any AI use including built-in features”) and a later field date explain most of the gap.

Notes

Added for the vertical willingness-to-pay open question. Primary source, national trade-association sponsor with a deregulatory policy interest (the state-law patchwork framing is advocacy). Follow-up: retrieve the PDF for industry-level tables.