Small businesses that adopted artificial intelligence grew their headcounts faster over the following year than similar businesses that hadn't, according to a new survey by payroll platform Gusto. 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.Businesses that adopted AI grew their headcount by about 7 percent more than comparable non-adopters in the year after adoption, with the gap increasing steadily from about 4.5 percent to 6.8 percent by the end of the fourth quarter. The findings point to a sustained trend rather than a one-time hiring bump.Across businesses adopting AI, new hires were predominantly in hands-on, customer-facing roles. Employers added teachers, technicians, cooks, front-desk staff and administrative support. The pattern suggests that business owners may be reinvesting the time and capacity freed up by AI into serving more customers and expanding their operations, rather than using AI primarily to create or replace jobs with AI-specific roles.