Small Businesses That Adopted AI Are Hiring Faster, New Gusto Research Finds

New hires at the smallest AI-adopting businesses were mostly care providers, cooks, and technicians

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Small businesses that adopted artificial intelligence grew their headcounts faster over the following year than similar businesses that hadn't, according to new research published today by Gusto, the leading partner for small businesses. The findings run counter to a dominant narrative that AI adoption shrinks payrolls — on Main Street, Gusto's data shows the opposite.

The report, Small Businesses that Adopted AI Are Hiring Faster, follows respondents to Gusto's 2025 Main Street Meets Machine Learning survey to track how their workforces changed in the year after they began using AI. Using real payroll data, Gusto compared 1,593 small businesses that had adopted AI against 669 businesses that were aware of AI but hadn't adopted it. 

Key findings:

• AI adopters hired more, and the gap grew over time. Businesses that adopted AI grew headcount about 7% more than comparable non-adopters in the year after adoption, climbing steadily from about 4.5% to 6.8% by the end of the fourth quarter. This is evidence of a sustained trend, not a one-time hiring bump.
• The smallest businesses gained the most. Companies with fewer than 10 employees grew their teams about 10% more than comparable non-adopters. For a typical nine-person business, that's an extra hire within a year.
• It's not a tech story. Hiring gains showed up broadly across restaurants, manufacturers, and accounting firms, not just software companies.
• Health care and social-assistance businesses saw the strongest growth of any sector. Practices with fewer than 10 employees, such as dental offices and mental health clinics, grew headcount nearly 20% more than comparable non-adopters, largely by hiring more care providers, such as dental hygienists and therapists, rather than technologists.
• New hires were mostly hands-on, customer-facing roles. Across adopters, businesses added teachers, technicians, cooks, and front-desk and admin support. This is consistent with owners reinvesting time AI freed up into serving more customers, rather than into AI-specific roles.

"This data pushes back on the idea that AI is coming for jobs on Main Street," said Nich Tremper, Sr. Economist and Head of Gusto's Insights Group. "The smallest businesses are the ones who are most used to doing more with fewer resources. Smaller teams have historically meant that people are doing tasks that stretch outside of what they're hired to do. AI may be shifting their work back to their expertise, and supporting a business's productivity. Small business owners seem to be investing that back into their businesses through increased hiring." 

Zoomed out, the findings suggest AI adoption may be reinforcing small businesses' longstanding role as one of the U.S. economy's most reliable engines of job creation. Small businesses account for roughly half of U.S. private-sector employment, so how they respond to new technology carries weight well beyond any single storefront or clinic. With AI adoption among small businesses continuing to climb, this data offers one of the first real-world signals in a debate about AI and jobs. 

About Gusto

Gusto is the leading partner for small businesses, helping them with a wide variety of critical tasks, including payroll, health benefits, tax credits, compliance, 401(k), HR, and much more. Gusto serves over 500,000 small businesses across the U.S. and is on a multi-decade journey to grow the small business economy with technology and heart.

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SOURCE Gusto, Inc.