Everybody says they are using AI. Fewer than one in five small businesses has ever paid a dollar for it.
Bring me the business problem. fargofactor.ai/contact-us
In this Fargo Walks episode, Jeff Fargo draws the line between talking about AI and buying it. Playing with a free chatbot is not a strategy. It is a demo you run on yourself. The businesses pulling ahead are the ones with a paid tool doing a named job inside the operation.
That gap is your opening. Your competitors are mostly still in the talking phase.
The figure comes from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, published 14 April 2026. It tracked actual payments to AI providers across more than 4.6 million small business accounts and found 17.7% had adopted AI by December 2025. Transaction data, not a survey, so it measures what businesses bought rather than what they claim.
Jeff Fargo is the founder of Fargo Factor. He helps businesses streamline and scale with AI.
Bring me the business problem. fargofactor.ai/contact-us
