More Than Three Quarters of Small Business Owners Say AI Makes Them More Productive, But Most Need More Guidance

Today, we’re releasing findings from a new YouGov study we commissioned of almost 4,000 small business owners across nine APAC markets: Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong, on how AI is helping them grow, compete with larger businesses and reach customers beyond their borders. 

AI adoption is already broad, with 84% of surveyed small business owners currently using AI, 76% reporting a positive impact on productivity and 71% reporting a positive impact on revenue or sales over the past 12 months. Small business owners also report AI helps tackle two significant challenges facing small businesses: limited resources and limited time. 

• Owners say AI is helping small businesses compete. Across the nine markets, four in five (80%) owners agree AI helps small businesses compete more effectively with larger companies, and the same proportion say it makes starting a business easier. 83% agree AI enables small businesses to do things that previously required significantly more money or resources.
• And, they say the time saved is going back into the business. Among those reporting a positive productivity impact from using AI, 58% are using the time to improve the quality of their existing work, 50% are putting it into growth and business planning, and 46% are getting more done with the team they already have.
• The everyday uses are practical. Among surveyed owners whose business has used AI in the past 12 months, 51% have used it to create or edit content, 43% for local advertising and marketing, 38% for translation, and 37% for customer support and communications.

From Adoption to Advantage

More than four in five owners surveyed (86%) say small businesses need more guidance to gain the full benefits of AI. Cost is the leading barrier to training, cited by 51%. When asked what support they would value most, owners pointed to clearer information on cost and return on investment, and guidance on data privacy and security.

In other words, small businesses have adopted AI – what they’re asking for now is help using it well. To make the most of AI, they need free training, clearer information on costs and returns, and policies that support access and investment in AI and digital skills. 

Helping Small Businesses Get More From AI

That’s why we’ve been partnering with governments and industry associations to help businesses use AI effectively, so more entrepreneurs can compete and contribute to economic growth. This research follows the launch of the Meta Small Business Growth Academy across Asia-Pacific earlier this year – a programme built to help small businesses move from small to scale using digital and AI-enabled tools to find customers, improve productivity and grow across borders. Delivered with governments, chambers of commerce and local programme partners, it offers practical training in AI-enabled advertising, Reels, WhatsApp for Business and cross-border commerce.

Small businesses can get started with AI-enabled tools from Meta today, including Advantage+ to create and run high-performing ads, ads that click to WhatsApp to turn conversations into customers, and Meta Business Agent to handle customer enquiries automatically.

In Indonesia, Husnul Khotimah, founder of modest fashion brand Zayya, used Small Business Growth Academy training to expand into Malaysia on a daily ad budget of just Rp30,000 [approx USD 1.68]. Using business tools from Meta, she generated 50 enquiries , while reducing customer response times from 30 to 60 minutes to under two minutes. This helped to increase sales – she reported more than eight times return on ad spend for this campaign.  

Ms Khotimah says, “Meta has helped me see what is possible for a small business like Zayya. I used to think AI was mainly for writing captions and creating content, but I’ve learned that it can also help me understand new markets and reach the right customers. Using tools like Advantage+, we’ve been able to reach customers beyond Indonesia with a small advertising budget, while giving me more time to grow the business and connect with more women who share the same needs that inspired Zayya in the first place.” 

At Meta, we believe the future is for everyone, and that includes small businesses. We’ll keep working with governments, partners and entrepreneurs across APAC so more small businesses have the skills, tools and confidence to grow with AI.

About the research

The research was commissioned by Meta and conducted online by YouGov among 3,983 small business owners across Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong. Data was collected between 6 August and 2 September 2026.

Within each market, quotas were applied by business size to achieve a broad and balanced spread across businesses with 1–9, 10–19 and 20–49 employees. The findings provide insights across a diverse cross-section of small businesses in each market, rather than being nationally representative of the small business population. Reported adoption and impact differ across the nine markets surveyed. These differences may partly reflect how owners in each market interpret the questions, as well as translation and local survey response norms.