Brazilian small businesses already use more AI than American ones, and the advantage starts after adoption

The survey Digital Transformation in Small Businesses, conducted by Sebrae with Meta’s research institute, interviewed 7,182 entrepreneurs between March and May 2026. The result: 52% of Brazilian small business owners used artificial intelligence in the two weeks before the interview. The equivalent survey from the US Census Bureau records 21%. Among Brazilians, 60% plan to adopt or expand their use next semester, versus 24% among Americans.

What companies do with the technology is less dramatic than the public debate suggests. The most common use is improving tasks that employees already performed (28%), followed by creating new functions (19%). Among Brazilian businesses that use AI, 90% did not change headcount because of it. Five percent reduced staff and 3% hired more. It is the same pattern we saw in August: while large corporations cut entire layers, small businesses use the technology to do more with the team they have.

The figure that interests us most sits elsewhere in the survey. Forty-six percent of Brazilian businesses had to develop new workflows to incorporate AI. In the United States, the figure was 15%. Among entrepreneurs who do not plan to adopt the technology, 38% cite a lack of knowledge about what it can do.

For us, using AI is the easy part. The tool is within reach of any company and costs little. The advantage shows up when the process changes: what the company started measuring, what it stopped doing by hand, where it applied the time saved. Those who merely sped up isolated tasks gained productivity that a competitor can copy quickly. Those who redesigned their customer service, collections or purchasing flow built something harder to imitate.

Three questions help test which side a business is on: which process takes up most of the team’s time, what would change in the result if it became faster and more reliable, and how the company will measure that. It is also the filter we use when looking at any business: we ask whether AI changed the process or only the speed of one task. Brazil got ahead in adoption. The challenge now is to turn adoption into advantage.