Small Business
Survey 2025

The digitalization of small and midsize businesses marches on as SMBs continue to adapt to new ways of doing business. Employees expect more flexibility, and customers expect more ways to make purchases online and interact with sellers. As such, a growing number of small businesses are adopting digital tools and technologies to streamline business operations and enhance both customer and employee engagement.

• Almost half of small businesses (47%) have implemented new systems or technology in the last 12 months to bolster security for their increasingly digital operations.
• More than half (58%) have started offering new products and services to adapt to changing customer needs.

Decision makers’ perceptions of AI’s benefits have remained fairly consistent, although reservations about the technology have declined since last August. Fewer respondents are concerned about the implications of integrating AI. The more they become familiar with the technology, the more they see its potential value across different areas of their business, including inventory management, customer service, accounting, and cybersecurity.

• Today, 38% of SMBs are leveraging AI.
• More than a quarter (28%) are using AI for marketing and social media, while 24% are using the technology for written communications.
• Nearly a quarter (24%) are using AI to power digital personal assistants that can help them with customer service.
• Another 25% are using AI to boost their cybersecurity efforts.

SMBs invested in technology additions and upgrades this year to make efficiency gains and to better connect with customers. Better engaging with customers comes in different forms, including improving or streamlining customer service, as mentioned with AI-powered digital personal assistants in the previous section, and making purchasing easier.

• More than half (58%) of SMBs have evaluated or upgraded their payment processing or are planning to within the next six months.
• More retailer SMBs are investing in 5G networks, which are faster and more secure, to facilitate contactless payments, jumping from 34% last year to 40% this year.

Decision makers possess a greater understanding of cybersecurity best practices than last year, but they’re also less confident that their business is protected. The drop in confidence likely correlates with fewer respondents believing they’ve invested enough to protect their businesses from cyberattacks. Cybersecurity is a growing priority for SMBs looking to protect growing digital operations.

• More than half of SMBs (52%) acknowledge that expanding into new locations has increased the threat of cyberattacks on their business.
• Nearly half of respondents (47%) invested in new technologies to improve cybersecurity in the last year.
• Almost half of small businesses (48%) have added or upgraded cybersecurity training for employees.
• A quarter of SMBs don’t believe their business is investing enough in cybersecurity practices.

Social media remains among the leading customer outreach tactics among SMBs over the past year, with Facebook still at the top of the hierarchy. YouTube overtook LinkedIn as the third most used platform. Content creation has emerged as a key tactic with decision makers.

• 4 in 5 (82%) use Facebook to promote products and connect with customers.
• More than 3 in 5 decision makers (62%) began creating content or increased investment in content creation over the last year.
• TikTok usage continues to grow, with 58% of SMBs on the platform.