You’re probably sick of reading about artificial intelligence, maybe especially from this byline. But amid all the discussion, hype, and hysteria, Goldman Sachs economists Sarah Dong and Joseph Briggs have a sobering dose of reality in the data: Fewer than 19% of U.S. establishments have adopted it.
The Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, as reported in Goldman’s March 2026 AI Adoption Tracker, shows that the figure is essentially flat from the prior month, though it is expected to rise to 22.3% over the next six months. It shows that adoption, while growing, has yet to reach the tipping point that would make AI a standard workplace tool rather than a competitive advantage reserved for early movers. But the data also suggests that, when used correctly, it saves a huge amount of time.
