US Business AI Spend Doubled to 5.8% of Non-Payroll Outlays, Ramp Data Shows
bittingthembits · x · 2026-10-26
- Ramp's AI Index (85,000+ US businesses, Sept 2026) shows AI's share of non-payroll spend jumped from 2.6% to 5.8% in a year (+122%) — meaning 94% of spend isn't AI yet.
- Adoption: 55.9% of businesses now pay for AI (+12.1pts YoY); Information 79.9%, Finance & Insurance 73.7%, Manufacturing 60.9%, Healthcare 42.5%; large firms 65.7% vs small 50.0%.
- Fastest spend growth: Admin & support +364%, Real estate +300%, Professional services +243%.
- Spending is wildly skewed: median firm pays $15.70 per employee/month, top 10% pay $813, top 1% pay $9,568 — 600x the median, the shape of an early adoption curve.
- Ramp admits it undercounts (free tools and personal accounts are invisible), so most of the market still hasn't moved.
Related event: Ramp Data Shows Enterprise AI Spend Doubling as Anthropic Overtakes OpenAI(9 posts)→
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