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Small Business AI Boom: New Survey from Homebase Reveals Rapid Adoption, High Curiosity & One Key Barrier

via Business Wire

Homebase, a leader in AI for small business and the all-in-one platform for team management and payroll, today released new data revealing that artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept for SMBs — it’s a current reality.

In a survey commissioned by Homebase, small business owners and managers shared that they are quickly adopting AI tools and are already experiencing the positive benefits of the new technology in practice.

The insights uncovered that nearly two-thirds (64%) of SMBs are already using or piloting AI tools, with 94.1% of adopters rating AI as valuable to their business operations and 42.8% saying it’s “Extremely” valuable. This adoption was notably strongest in the Construction, Retail, and Food Service industries, where scheduling and staffing are daily pain points.

The survey also highlighted strong interest from SMBs not yet using AI, among other key insights:

  • Curiosity is strong: 68.5% of those not yet using AI say they’re interested the technology and 65.3% of all respondents feel comfortable trying new AI tools.
  • Agentic AI is entering the mainstream: 70.5% say they’re at least somewhat familiar with AI tools that take action on their behalf, not just provide information.
  • Trust is the main barrier: Concerns around data privacy (61.2%) and fear of errors (46.9%) remain the top obstacles for those who haven’t yet embraced AI.

As SMBs navigate economic pressures and resource constraints, AI is emerging as a force to drive business growth, boosting efficiency, enhancing decision-making, and unlocking the potential to scale.

“Small businesses are adopting AI fast because they’re seeing real, day-to-day impact,” said John Waldmann, CEO and co-founder of Homebase. "We saw more than 10,000 small businesses use our AI-powered assistants within the few weeks after launch. With so much on their plates, tools like our new Hiring and Scheduling Assistants help them reclaim time and build momentum that’s both scalable and sustainable.

This survey comes on the heels of Homebase’s new AI Assistants released last month that automate the time-consuming, tedious tasks of hiring and scheduling. These AI-powered tools were purpose-built to save small business owners and managers valuable time so they can stay focused on growing their business and supporting their hourly teams.

Survey Methodology

The survey canvassed 828 U.S. decision-makers including owners, directors, and managers, overseeing hourly workforces in small businesses with fewer than 200 employees. The survey was fielded from May 30-June 11, 2025.

About Homebase

Our mission is to make small business teams unstoppable.

Homebase is the everything app for hourly teams, with employee scheduling, time clocks, payroll, hiring, communication, HR, and more. More than 100,000 small (but mighty) businesses rely on Homebase to make work radically easy and give their teams superpowers. As the leader in small business team management, Homebase tracked 1+ billion hours for 2.5+ million workers last year. Homebase was named a 2024 Fast Company’s Brands That Matter and is a 2025 Webby Award winner.

Homebase is based in San Francisco, Houston, Denver, and Toronto. We are backed by leading venture investors L Catterton Growth, Emerson Collective, Notable Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Bedrock Capital, and PLUS Capital.

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