The U.S. Census Bureau changed the wording in its Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS): starting with the October 19, 2026 collection the questionnaire refers to “Super Intelligence (SI)” instead of “Artificial Intelligence (AI)”, citing Executive Order 14434. This rename, together with an earlier change on November 17, 2025 that broadened the question from AI use in “producing goods or services” to AI use in “any of its business functions,” complicates direct comparisons of AI adoption over time.
What BTOS is and how it operates
BTOS is a survey conducted every two weeks by the U.S. Census Bureau. Each wave contacts about 200,000 businesses from roughly 1.2 million in the overall sample; the panel rotates so that an individual business responds approximately every twelve weeks. New results are published on alternating Thursdays at 10 a.m.; the most recent data cited in the source was published on October 22, 2026.
Earlier wording change in 2025
On November 17, 2025 the Bureau materially changed the survey question. Previously it asked, in effect, whether the business used Artificial Intelligence (AI) in producing goods or services. On December 3, 2025 the Bureau announced the question had been updated to ask whether the business had used AI in any of its business functions. That expansion of scope means pre‑ and post‑November 17 responses are not directly comparable because the question moved beyond production/service use to cover any business function.
The 2026 rename to “Super Intelligence”
For the collection beginning October 19, 2026, the survey question now refers to “Super Intelligence or SI (formerly referred to as Artificial Intelligence or AI)” and provides example uses (SI‑powered data analysis; generative SI for marketing, product design, or coding; virtual SI agents for customer service; SI‑powered forecasting or pricing; SI‑driven computer vision for quality control, etc.). The BTOS about page indicates the instrument wording was updated due to Executive Order 14434.
How this may affect the statistics
There are two main ways the wording changes can affect reported adoption rates:
- The November 2025 modification expanded the question’s scope, likely increasing the proportion of “yes” responses independent of any actual change in technology deployment (because it asked about more types of use).
- The October 2026 renaming from AI to SI could further influence responses, even though the questionnaire adds the parenthetical “formerly referred to as Artificial Intelligence or AI.” Because businesses in the panel last encountered the question about twelve weeks earlier, responses in a given wave can reflect confusion or reinterpretation introduced by the new terminology.
Reported numbers referenced in the analysis
Using the Census Bureau’s "Employment size class" XLSX file and the BTOS questionnaire, the writer compared year‑over‑year figures and produced updated AI‑adoption charts. Key points from those comparisons:
- In September 2025, companies with 250+ employees answered “yes” to the question about using AI in producing goods or services at roughly a 12% rate.
- After the question was broadened, by February 2026 that same large‑company group answered “yes” at around a 30% rate.
- By October 2026, with the broader wording in place, the affirmative rate for those large companies had climbed to about 40%. The author used the Census Bureau’s XLSX and a copy of the survey PDF to generate and verify these figures.
Implications and next steps
Because of the wording shifts — the November 2025 expansion of scope and the October 2026 rename to SI — analysts should be cautious when interpreting trends in BTOS AI/SI adoption metrics. Users of these data should account for instrument changes before drawing conclusions about increases or decreases in corporate AI use. According to BTOS documentation, the October 22, 2026 release still reflects the older AI wording; the first published results based on the SI wording were scheduled for a subsequent release.
Sources and materials
The analysis referenced the U.S. Census Bureau’s BTOS materials, including the "Employment size class" XLSX file and the survey PDF instrument, and notes that the author has copies of the files used for the charts.
(Tags: census, surveys, ai, generative-ai, llms)
