Atlanta Fed survey shows AI spending among US firms nearly doubled

Companies using AI expect to spend an average of $1,024 per employee in 2026, a 96.1% jump from the prior year American companies are spending a lot more on artificial intelligence, and they’re doing it fast. US firms that use AI raised their spending on it by 96.1% from 2025 to 2026, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Survey of Business Uncertainty. That brings the average to $1,024 per employee. What the Atlanta Fed found The Survey of Business Uncertainty, run by the Atlanta Fed, polls executives about their plans and expectations. The latest round was conducted from September 14 to 25, 2026. Executives at companies already using AI said they plan to invest an average of $1,024 per worker for calendar year 2026. That figure represents the 96.1% increase over the prior year. A broader March 2026 round of the survey painted a similar picture with bigger numbers. In that round, average expected AI investment per employee rose from $1,358 in 2025 to $2,068 in 2026, a gain of approximately 50%. Scale that across the economy and the estimate for total private sector AI investment comes in close to $280 billion. That is an estimate built from executive expectations, not...