Confident, Not Capable: Small-Business AI Adoption Outruns Actual Use

Key Trends

• Thryv’s April 2026 survey of 561 small-business decision-makers found self-reported AI adoption climbing to 66% (up from 55% a year ago) and 86% saying they’re comfortable using the tools — but 70% still say they need more training to use it productively. Meanwhile, Census Bureau data shows actual production use holding at just 17–20% of all firms, with usage among businesses with four or fewer employees barely moving even as it keeps climbing at larger companies.

  Review

  Thryv’s 66%/55%/86%/70% figures come from a single vendor-commissioned survey (Thryv sells SMB software) with no independent corroboration and no [!unverified] flag. Suggested action: add unverified flag.

• Update: Friday’s tariff-absorption story has a sequel. The New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics reports 47% of service firms and 44% of manufacturers in its district still plan tariff-driven price increases, with 31% and 37% respectively expecting to raise prices within six months — a “trickle-up” approach that spreads cost recovery over time rather than passing it on all at once.

Notable Businesses & Launches

• American Express launched AI training programs for small businesses, built with nonprofits Generation and Scholarship America — aimed squarely at the skills gap the Thryv and Census figures above just quantified.

  Review

  The underlying Amex/PYMNTS announcement is dated ~May 6–7, 2026, over two months before this brief, and is presented here without a date qualifier — implying recency it doesn’t have. Suggested action: reframe as older context or cut.

• Liberty Mutual Investments committed $320 million in senior and mezzanine financing to inKind, the restaurant growth platform now connecting nearly 5 million diners with more than 7,700 restaurants; the capital funds network expansion and new AI-native tools for filling slow-time reservations.

Funding & Investment

• Bogotá-based Addi closed an $85 million Series D led by Citius and co-led by BTG Pactual — the Brazilian bank’s first growth investment outside its home market — to expand the commerce and credit platform serving more than 39,000 merchants, most of them small businesses.

  Review

  “39,000 merchants” is Addi’s own self-reported figure from its funding announcement, not independently audited — same risk category as the Thryv figures above. Suggested action: add unverified flag or “self-reported” qualifier.

• Context: it was otherwise a quiet week for fintech overall — just $350 million raised across 10 deals industry-wide for the week of July 10, down sharply from the $2 billion-plus weeks logged in late June.

Regulatory & Economic Context

• Borrowing just got a little more expensive for the record-size loans the SBA unlocked on July 4: the SBA’s Optional Peg Rate rose from 4.50% to 4.75% for Q3, and 504 debenture effective rates ticked up across all terms — 10-year to 6.19%, 20-year to 6.20%, 25-year to 6.17%.

  Review

  The “record-size loans… unlocked on July 4” claim (SBA’s $10M loan-limit increase) has no inline citation of its own — only the Peg Rate portion is linked. Suggested action: add a citation for the July 4 loan-limit claim.

• The SBA opened disaster-loan relief this week to businesses in New York, Wisconsin, and Idaho hit by storms and flooding; loans carry rates as low as 4% over 30 years with no payments due for 12 months, though only firms in federally declared disaster areas qualify.

  Review

  Idaho’s actual SBA notice is a continuation of relief for straight-line wind damage (not storms/flooding) and predates “this week”; Wisconsin and Idaho also carry no inline citations of their own. Suggested action: fix — split by state with correct disaster types and individual source links, or cut Idaho.

Takeaway