Business AI adoption flatlines

Ramp AI Index shows AI adoption held flat at 45% of businesses in November, with slight declines in the finance and technology sectors. Adoption also didn’t change across small, medium, and large businesses. OpenAI fell 1% to 34.8% of businesses, while Anthropic and Google continued adding users, growing business adoption by 0.8% and 0.7% respectively.

Adoption is flat! Is the bubble popping?

I’m not calling it yet. The slowdown comes at the end of a rapid run-up in adoption rates in 2025, which coincided with a significant step-change in the capabilities of these models. Now, the effect of the latest advancements has faded.

If we want to see another run-up in adoption, we would have to see at least one of two step-changes: technological gains (the models get even better, spurring faster adoption), or implementation gains (early adopters figure out the best use cases for AI and the rest of the market follows, driving incremental adoption). Both are likely — the latter even moreso, as adoption actually rose in several industries with relatively low adoption rates, like retail, construction, and manufacturing.

Is Google’s AI good now?

It’s still underrated. Adoption of Google’s Gemini rose 0.7%, its second-highest monthly increase on record. We also updated our methodology to better capture API usage of Google’s models, which increased its adoption rate from the 1% to 2% range to about 4% today. Note that our estimates only include paid usage, and we are likely undercounting many businesses that use Gemini models integrated for free within Google Workspace.

Last week, I wrote that Google was adding new customers faster than almost any other company on Ramp’s platform following the release of Gemini 3 and its image generation model, Nano Banana Pro. “New” meaning businesses that weren't already spending on Workspace and Cloud. These results are rare for an established business like Google, which has already achieved broad market adoption for its enterprise software. It means the tech giant's AI investments are expanding their market, in addition to increasing revenue from existing customers.

What’s going on with OpenAI?

I caution an overreaction to the latest results, which show OpenAI adoption dropping while Anthropic and Google add new users, and what that means for OpenAI’s business. I’ve learned a lot covering how companies use and buy AI: mainly, this market changes rapidly and the typical rise and fall timeline of companies does not apply here.

OpenAI enjoyed rapid adoption growth in 2025, in many ways emerging as a default spend category for businesses, and it’s not unreasonable to think that rate would normalize as competitors find their fit in the market.

We have never seen this level of dynamism in the software industry, in which new technologies are introduced monthly and startups unseat large incumbents in the span of a year. OpenAI remains the leader in business adoption and that puts it in a strong competitive position going forward.