February 5, 2026

Our new report reveals surprising trends in AI and software spend

Ara Kharazian
Economist, Ramp

The tools businesses depend on are improving faster than anyone predicted. And it’s fundamentally changing the competitive landscape.

This makes it an extremely exciting point in time. Challengers have a rare opportunity to quickly steal market share from much larger incumbents. And incumbents face serious pressure to improve their products in record time.

Ramp Economics Lab is uniquely positioned to monitor these shifts as they happen. We use transactions — real money movements between real businesses — not surveys or other qualitative measures.

Our latest Winter Business Spending Report sheds light on some changes that are already underway, and offers leading indicators of what’s ahead. Here are some highlights:

1. AI adoption rises across the board

Despite bubble concerns, business AI adoption rose, with close to half of businesses now paying for AI services from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

And tech isn’t the only AI-forward sector: While the tech industry still leads in adoption, sectors like retail, manufacturing, and food services saw the biggest adoption spikes.

2. Software upstarts are swiftly gaining share

Our new Ramp Rate dataset, which debuts in this report, tracks the leading and fastest-growing software vendors across 15 categories. While long-dominant software players in categories like project management, SEO/AEO, and business intelligence still have a sizable lead, markets are changing quickly as newer entrants grab customers from incumbents.

3. Answer engine optimization is becoming standard practice

Answer engine optimization (AEO) companies dominate our list of fastest-growing SEO/AEO vendors as AI fundamentally reshapes the world of SEO.

Access the insights you won't find in Fed reports, BLS surveys, or anywhere else.

Download the full report →

Don't miss key shifts in business spend from Ramp Economics Lab.
Ara Kharazian•Economist, Ramp
Ara Kharazian is an economist at Ramp and writes the weekly newsletter Econ Lab on Substack. His writing and analysis of AI, business spend, and the economy has been covered in the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, NPR's Planet Money, Bloomberg, the Guardian, Vox, Axios, and more. Ara previously led economic research at Square and was an economic consultant at Cornerstone Research.
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