1. What the Census counted
The Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS) asks: "In the last two weeks, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in any of its business functions?" with examples such as machine learning, virtual agents and voice recognition. Census says its data represent all employer businesses, so a one-person shop with no employees is not in the count.
For construction (NAICS 23), the table we read on October 19, 2026 shows, for the two weeks of September 7 to 20, 2026: yes 17.2%, no 75.5%, do not know 7.3%. The standard error of the 17.2% is 0.72 points, so it is an estimate, not an exact count. For all businesses together the figure is 23.8%. Asked about the next six months, 20.3% of construction firms expect to use AI, 55.7% do not and 23.9% do not know.
The trend is up. The first reading in the current series, for November 3 to 16, 2025, was 7.4%. That is 17.2 minus 7.4 = 9.8 points in ten months. One warning: Census changed the question wording from November 17, 2025, from AI "in producing goods or services" to "in any of its business functions", saw a level shift, and started a new series. Numbers from before that date, including old headlines, cannot be compared with these.
2. What it tells you, and what it does not
Size matters. In a May 26, 2026 Census article, AI use rose among firms with at least 20 employees but did not change significantly among firms with fewer than 20, and fewer than 20% of firms with four or fewer employees reported using it. Among firms with 250 or more employees it was 37%. A 1 to 25 person contractor is on the slower side, and that is normal.
What do firms do with it? A Census working paper (April 2026, all industries, November 2025 to January 2026) found that where workers use AI in their tasks, writing, document analysis and information search lead, and 66% of firms that use AI use it only to help with tasks. Only 2% of firms reported AI-related job cuts. We found no Census table that says what construction firms use it for, so we cannot tell you that contractors mostly use it for estimating or for phones.
Cost: the survey is free. What a tool costs depends on the tool; our earlier notes give the prices we read for phone answering, a website chatbot and receipt scanning, each with its date.
Verdict: worth trying cheaply, for one task. Not worth the money yet: a big AI package bought only because everyone seems to have it, since three out of four construction employers say they did not use any in the last two weeks. Pick the task that costs you the most evening hours, and test it on a free or low-cost plan first.
Where WorkTime CRM fits, and where it does not
If your evening hours go to estimates, the AI Estimator is one such task. You shoot the rooms with notes, pick the photos, and the AI drafts the lines with quantities and prices from the catalog and your own pricebook. It does not measure a room (put the sizes in your notes), it is a draft and not a bid, and nothing goes to the customer until you have read it. It does not tell you what other contractors do, and nothing here depends on it: try any tool on one task first.
This week
- 01Write down the one task that ate the most evening hours last month: estimates, replying to leads, writing job descriptions.
- 02Try one tool on that task only, on a free or monthly plan, for two weeks. Count the hours before and after.
- 03Read every AI-written number or sentence before the customer sees it.
- 04Do not sign a yearly contract for AI before the two weeks are over.