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# AI adoption rate for large firms continues to trend down

> U.S. Census Bureau data shows AI adoption among large firms has continued to decline after peaking in July 2025, while smallest firms keep growing

<Info>
  AI adoption among large enterprises has peaked and declined—suggesting the
  companies with the most resources are pulling back on AI usage.
</Info>

The Census Bureau's [Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS)](https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/business-trends-and-outlook-survey.html) tracks AI usage across 1.2 million U.S. businesses. This report continues [Apollo's initial analysis](https://www.apolloacademy.com/ai-adoption-rate-trending-down-for-large-companies/) that first reported this trend in August, and the decline continued:

### Findings

* Large enterprises (250+ employees) **peaked in July 2025 at 13.4%**, then dropped to 11.7% (a 13% decline)
* The adoption in every firm size category declined since July, except the smallest with 1-4 employees
* The smallest firms (1-4 employees) continued rising: 9.65% → 10.3%

<Frame caption="Chart showing AI adoption rates by company size from Nov 2023 to Sept 2025, highlighting 13% decline in large enterprises since July 2025 peak">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/narev/fpyXaBUjJEyahZQ-/images/blog/ai-adoption-rate/ai-adoption-rate-chart.webp?fit=max&auto=format&n=fpyXaBUjJEyahZQ-&q=85&s=d2ef2f698c90286ea706c28364b36da0" alt="Chart showing AI adoption rates by company size from Nov 2023 to Sept 2025, highlighting 13% decline in large enterprises since July 2025 peak" width="1874" height="1465" data-path="images/blog/ai-adoption-rate/ai-adoption-rate-chart.webp" />
</Frame>

### What does it mean?

This 2-3 month decline breaks the steady growth pattern seen since late 2023—and it's happening among the firms with the most resources. Analysts plan to monitor whether it continues.

### About the data

Survey question:

> In the last two weeks, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in producing goods or services? (Examples of AI: machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, voice recognition, etc.)

Possible answers: `Yes`, `No`, `I don't know`. This analysis calculates the percentage of `Yes` responses across data from November 19, 2023 through September 10, 2025, using a rolling 6-survey (12-week) average to smooth fluctuations. Methodology based on [Apollo's August analysis](https://www.apolloacademy.com/ai-adoption-rate-trending-down-for-large-companies/).

*Source: [U.S. Census Bureau Business Trends and Outlook Survey, Employment Size Class dataset](https://www.census.gov/hfp/btos/data_downloads)*