Published November 2026 · Independent research; not peer reviewed
AI at Work Explorer
A companion to Issue 01, What AI Actually Does at Work. Choose a survey question and a measure. Each view keeps one question's population on its own.
Denominator: Share of all responding businesses in each industry. Population: All responding businesses in the group. Reference period: Prior two weeks. Values from Q1 cannot be compared with other questions, whose denominators differ.
Used AI in any business function
Industry
- All U.S. businesses17.9%
- Real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53) (Housing Lens industry)23.5%
- Construction (NAICS 23) (Housing Lens industry)9.2%
- Finance and insurance (NAICS 52) (Housing Lens industry)30.4%
- Information (NAICS 51)37.6%
- Professional, scientific, and technical services (NAICS 54)34.2%
What do these industries include?
Industries follow sector-level NAICS classifications. Each sector is broader than its everyday name suggests. Percentages still use the Q1 denominator: share of all responding businesses in each industry.
- All U.S. businesses
- The national all-industry estimate covering every sector in the survey. It is a national benchmark, not an industry sector.
- Real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53)
- Real estate businesses (including brokerage and other property-related services) plus rental and leasing of non-real-estate assets such as vehicles and equipment. Not just residential agents.
- Construction (NAICS 23)
- Residential and nonresidential building, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors. Not just homebuilding.
- Finance and insurance (NAICS 52)
- Banking and credit intermediation, securities and investment activities, and insurance carriers and related activities. Not just mortgage lenders.
- Information (NAICS 51)
- Publishing (including software publishing), motion picture and sound recording, broadcasting and content providers, telecommunications, and computing infrastructure, data processing, web hosting and related information services. Not just tech companies.
- Professional, scientific, and technical services (NAICS 54)
- Legal, accounting, architectural and engineering, specialized design, computer systems design, management, scientific and technical consulting, scientific research and development, advertising and related professional services. Not only science labs.
Official definitions: U.S. Census Bureau NAICS
| Group | Percent |
|---|---|
All U.S. businesses What's included in All U.S. businessesThe national all-industry estimate covering every sector in the survey. It is a national benchmark, not an industry sector. | 17.9% |
Real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53) The Housing LensBroader than brokerages: includes rental, leasing and property-related businesses.What's included in Real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53)Real estate businesses (including brokerage and other property-related services) plus rental and leasing of non-real-estate assets such as vehicles and equipment. Not just residential agents. | 23.5% |
Construction (NAICS 23) The Housing LensAll construction, not only residential construction.What's included in Construction (NAICS 23)Residential and nonresidential building, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors. Not just homebuilding. | 9.2% |
Finance and insurance (NAICS 52) The Housing LensAll finance and insurance, not only mortgage lenders.What's included in Finance and insurance (NAICS 52)Banking and credit intermediation, securities and investment activities, and insurance carriers and related activities. Not just mortgage lenders. | 30.4% |
Information (NAICS 51) What's included in Information (NAICS 51)Publishing (including software publishing), motion picture and sound recording, broadcasting and content providers, telecommunications, and computing infrastructure, data processing, web hosting and related information services. Not just tech companies. | 37.6% |
Professional, scientific, and technical services (NAICS 54) What's included in Professional, scientific, and technical services (NAICS 54)Legal, accounting, architectural and engineering, specialized design, computer systems design, management, scientific and technical consulting, scientific research and development, advertising and related professional services. Not only science labs. | 34.2% |
Employment-size results are national only; no industry-by-size figures are inferred.
Notes on the data
- Q1 · AI use in any business function
- All responding businesses in the group. Reference period: Prior two weeks.
- Q3 · How AI related to employee tasks
- Only businesses that reported using AI. Reference period: As reported in the supplement.
- Q7 · Organizational changes made to use AI
- Only businesses that reported using AI. Reference period: Prior six months.
- Q10 · Work tasks done with generative AI
- Only businesses that reported using generative AI for work-related tasks. Reference period: Prior six months.
- This explorer holds a curated subset of the supplement table, not the full table.
- Industry groups are broad NAICS sectors: real estate (53) is not only brokerages, finance (52) is not only mortgage lenders, construction (23) is not only residential building.
- Differences are shown as published estimates; no statistical significance is claimed.
- "No organizational changes" describes process changes, not whether AI was useful.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey, 2026 AI supplement (curated subset). Official BTOS data downloads.