ChatGPT, 
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Bluehost partnered with ListenLabs to field an online quantitative and qualitative study engaging 350 U.S. small business owners in May 2026. Participants own businesses with 1–50 employees across multiple industries including retail, professional services, local services, health and wellness, tech, non-profit, media, restaurant, hospitality and more. Owners ranged from never having tried AI to using it many times every day. The survey covered six areas: AI tool adoption, self-rated confidence and mastery, trust in AI for customer-facing work, time and revenue ROI, awareness and readiness for AI search, and appetite for agentic AI. Drop headline and just go straight into explaining our Methodology. We need to add the following to this paragraph. The margin of error for the full sample is ±5.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Margins of error for subgroup analyses are larger and vary by subgroup size.
Established Adopters
61% (188 of 306) have been using AI for 6+ months. These are real operators making practical decisions about tools, spending, and customer acquisition.
Recent Users
26% (81 of 306) started using AI within the last 6 months. This group is still building familiarity and forming habits around AI tools.
Non-Users
12% (37 of 306) are not yet using AI in their business. Their perspectives capture the remaining edge of hesitation and where enablement is needed.
Business size breakdown
Methodology Notes:
- In some instances, percentages may not total 100% due to rounding of individual figures.
- (Frequency Builds Confidence) Confidence scores reflect respondents’ self-reported ratings on a 1–10 scale (1 = not confident at all, 10 = completely confident) in response to the question “How confident are you that you are using AI effectively in your business?” Average scores by usage frequency were calculated as weighted means — each rating value was multiplied by the number of respondents who selected it, summed, and divided by the total number of respondents in that frequency group. Frequency groups reflect responses to “How frequently do you use AI tools for your business?” and range from Rarely to Multiple times per day. N=350.
- (The AI Vetern Growth Curve) Confidence scores reflect respondents’ self-reported ratings on a 1–10 scale (1 = not confident at all, 10 = completely confident) in response to the question “How confident are you that you are using AI effectively in your business?” Average scores by length of AI usage were calculated as simple means across all respondents in each tenure group. Tenure groups reflect responses to a question about how long respondents have been using AI tools, ranging from less than 3 months to more than 2 years. The 2.2x figure reflects the ratio of average confidence among respondents using AI for 2+ years (7.1) vs. those using AI for less than 3 months (2.8). N=350.