New York businesses trail the nation on AI, ranking 43rd of 50

American businesses are adopting artificial intelligence faster every month. New York businesses are not, and the distance between them is growing.

In the two weeks ending September 20, 23.8 percent of U.S. businesses reported using AI in at least one business function, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey. In New York the figure was 17.8 percent, which places the state 43rd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

That is a six point gap on a measure that barely existed two years ago, and it has grown in nearly every survey period since the Census Bureau started asking. Syracuse technology firms working with small businesses, among them the AI consulting team at Express IT Solutions, say local demand has nonetheless turned sharply upward in the past quarter.

How far behind is New York

When the question was first asked, in the survey covering November 17 to 30 of 2025, 17.3 percent of businesses nationally reported using AI. New York stood at 13.9 percent. The gap was 3.4 points.

Ten months later the national rate has reached 23.8 percent, a gain of 6.5 points. New York has climbed to 17.8 percent, a gain of 3.9 points. The gap has widened to 6.0 points, which means New York is adding AI users at roughly 60 percent of the national pace.

The forward looking question shows the same shape. Nationally, 27.6 percent of businesses expect to be using AI within six months. In New York the figure is 19.8 percent. The state is not just behind on adoption, it is behind on intention.

The District of Columbia leads at 33.9 percent, followed by New Hampshire at 30.5 and Colorado at 30.2. New York sits between Oklahoma at 17.9 percent and Vermont at 17.7. West Virginia is last at 13.9 percent.

Why the statewide number understates what is happening in some industries

A single state average hides an enormous spread. Information companies report AI use at 49.0 percent. Professional, scientific and technical services, the category that holds law firms, accounting practices, engineering and consulting, follows at 43.9 percent. Finance and insurance reaches 41.0 percent.

At the other end, hotels and restaurants sit at 10.1 percent and agriculture at 6.2 percent. Manufacturing, a large employer across Central New York, reports 19.5 percent. Construction is at 15.4 percent and retail at 16.5. Health care and social assistance, the region’s largest private employment sector, reports 25.5 percent.

The pattern is consistent. The further a business sits from documents, correspondence and analysis, the less AI it reports using. That is the work these tools automate first.

The demand side of the same technology is already reshaping the regional power market, where a 300 megawatt data center proposed in Lysander would equal nearly one percent of New York’s entire generating capacity.

What Central New York firms are seeing

Providers who install this technology for small businesses locally describe demand changing quickly this year.

“Over the past three months, interest from our clients has exploded,” said William Mahoney, a partner at Express IT Solutions, a managed IT and cybersecurity firm that has operated in Syracuse since 2005 and keeps offices in Fayetteville and downtown Syracuse. “The projects we have delivered have increased productivity in offices, tightened up security, and given small businesses access to resources they simply could not reach before.”

His framing differs from the way AI is usually discussed.

“We see AI as a superpower, not a job replacement,” Mahoney said. “It handles the repetitive work: automating the paperwork nobody wants, answering customers faster, helping a sales team follow up, taking marketing off one person’s plate. The staff you have gets to do the work that actually needs a person.”

That matches what the survey implies. The industries moving fastest are the ones with the most routine document handling, and the gains they report are in throughput rather than headcount.

The same tools are arming the attackers

The security side is moving just as fast, in the opposite direction. The phishing message that used to give itself away through broken grammar can now be produced clean, personalized, and in the voice of a company’s own vendor.

“The same technology making a small office more productive is making attackers more capable, and small businesses are the softest target in that exchange,” said Craig Ciulla, a partner and chief technology officer at Express IT Solutions. “A convincing invoice fraud used to take skill. Now it takes a prompt.”

Ciulla said defenses have to change with the threat.

“Awareness training alone no longer clears the bar, because the tells people were taught to look for are gone,” he said. “We are deploying hardware and software that uses AI on the defensive side, watching behavior rather than matching known signatures, so the next generation of attacks runs into the next generation of defenses. Every business needs that now, not just the regulated ones.”

What is actually holding small businesses back

The survey does not ask why businesses hold off, but the state pattern points at the answer. The highest adoption rates cluster where professional services and technology dominate the economy. States weighted toward manufacturing, agriculture and hospitality sit lower, and New York’s mix outside New York City leans that way.

For a small firm the practical questions are rarely about capability. They are about where company information goes, whether client records end up inside a public model, and what happens to obligations under rules that govern medicine, law and finance. A dental practice and a law office in Onondaga County are both bound by confidentiality requirements that predate the technology by decades.

That is the gap local providers say occupies most of their time. Express IT Solutions positions its AI consulting work on exactly that question, configuring systems so business data stays inside a company’s own privacy and compliance rules rather than being handed to a public model.

What the survey actually measures

The Business Trends and Outlook Survey is run by the Census Bureau and published every two weeks, with estimates broken out by state, industry sector and firm size. The AI question asks whether a business used artificial intelligence “in any of its business functions” during the prior two weeks, and gives machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents and voice recognition as examples.

Two caveats are worth carrying. The survey captures whether a business uses AI at all, not how much or how well. And a federal funding lapse interrupted collection for three cycles in October and November of last year, which the Census Bureau flags in its own documentation.

Questions Central New York owners are asking

How many businesses actually use AI right now?

Nationally 23.8 percent, and in New York 17.8 percent, in the two weeks ending September 20, 2026. New York ranks 43rd of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Is adoption still growing?

Yes. The national rate rose from 17.3 percent to 23.8 percent in ten months, and 27.6 percent of businesses expect to be using AI within six months. In New York that forward looking figure is 19.8 percent.

Which industries are furthest along?

Information at 49.0 percent, professional and technical services at 43.9 percent, and finance and insurance at 41.0 percent. Hotels and restaurants at 10.1 percent and agriculture at 6.2 percent are furthest behind.

Does AI make a small business easier to attack?

It raises the quality of the attack. Phishing and invoice fraud that once required skill can now be produced quickly and convincingly, which is why local providers are moving toward defenses that watch behavior instead of matching known threat signatures.

Does using AI mean cutting staff?

The survey does not measure employment effects. The local providers quoted here describe the opposite approach, using it to absorb repetitive work rather than to reduce headcount.

Where should a small business start?

The adoption data suggests beginning where the routine document work is heaviest, and settling the data handling question before the tooling question, particularly in regulated fields.

What the numbers establish is narrow but useful. Roughly one New York business in six is using AI today, the national rate is approaching one in four, and the distance between those two figures has grown in nearly every survey period since the question was first asked.