AI Marketing Statistics 2026: 3,015 Small Businesses

From July 1 to October 20, 2026, 3,015 small businesses made 51,617 ads, videos, carousels and product photos with AI in Vibiz, an AI marketing workspace. Most are tiny: 87% of the owners who gave their team size have five people or fewer. About one creative in eight with a recorded start was made from an outside AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, about one in four was an edit of an earlier result, and a tenth of the businesses made more than half of everything.

These AI marketing statistics come from our own product data, so they describe businesses that already chose an AI tool, not every small business.

Key AI marketing statistics: how small businesses use AI

• 13.2% of creatives with a recorded start came from an outside AI assistant. From July to October 2026, 6,022 creatives were made in Vibiz from an assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, by 731 of the 3,015 businesses (24%).
• 27.5% of creatives with a recorded start were edits. Businesses edited or remixed an earlier creative 12,585 times, and 1,271 of the 3,015 businesses (42%) edited at least once.
• Images lead, but a third of businesses make video. Images were 85.2% of the 51,617 creatives and video 8.7%, yet 31.9% of businesses made at least one video.
• A tenth of the businesses made 57% of the creatives. The median business made 5 in 16 weeks; the top 10% made 40 or more each.
• Agencies use the connector most. 23.9% of agencies' creatives with a recorded start came through the Vibiz connector (MCP), against 12% to 14% for ecommerce, service and software businesses.
• Small teams, small revenue. 87% of the owners who gave their team size have five people or fewer, and 74% of those who gave their revenue make under $5,000 a month.

87% of the small businesses that answered have five people or fewer

Owners answered three questions when they signed up. Industry and country come from reading each business's own website.

In total, 74.0% of the owners who gave their revenue make under $5,000 a month.

Half of the owners who gave their team size work alone, so in those businesses the owner is the one writing the prompt. Business type is the owner's answer and industry is read from the website, which is why software is 14.5% of business types but 7.2% of industries. If your business looks like these, the ecommerce, local business, agency and software pages show what they make.

What small businesses make with AI: 85% images, and 1 in 3 makes video

Images are the everyday format: ad images, social graphics and product photos. Video is a smaller share of the volume but not a niche: 961 businesses, 31.9%, made at least one, for example UGC-style video ads. Carousels were made by 13.4% of businesses.

Monthly totals follow how many businesses joined Vibiz each month, not how much each business made, and October covers 20 days, so compare the shares rather than the totals.

1 in 8 creatives starts in an outside AI assistant

Since July, 88.7% of creatives record how they were started; the other 11.3% are mostly carousels and videos made in the app. Among the 45,780 with a recorded start:

The Create page is a prompt box with options such as format and offer. The Vibiz connector lets an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT make creatives in a Vibiz workspace from its own chat window. It uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to other apps. Here is how to add it to Claude.

We checked each connector creative against the connector's sign-in logs. 6,022 came from an outside assistant: 13.2% of creatives with a recorded start, about one in eight. 5,542 came through the sign-in connectors that apps such as Claude and ChatGPT use and 480 through API keys. 731 businesses, 24% of the total, made at least one creative this way. The other 559 connector creatives could not be matched to an outside sign-in, so the connector share in the chart and tables (14.4%) runs a little above the 13.2% made from outside assistants.

Agencies use the connector most. 23.9% of agencies' creatives with a recorded start came through it, against 12.0% for ecommerce, 14.2% for services and 12.6% for software.

About 1 in 4 creatives is an edit of an earlier one

Edits and remixes were 27.5% of creatives with a recorded start: 12,585, the second largest group after the Create page. An edit changes the text, swaps the image or asks for a new version of an earlier creative. 1,271 businesses edited at least once, more than used the Create page (1,150).

Editing varies by industry. Fitness businesses made 41.8% of their creatives with a recorded start as edits (112 businesses) and SaaS businesses 35.6% (188), while healthcare businesses made 17.8% (108) and leaned on agent chat (30.9%) and the connector (23.0%) instead.

Before an ad runs, check the offer, the price and every word on it. Our ad creative review checklist lists what to check, and the ad creative grader scores a draft.

Agent chat's share rose after it became the first screen

Part of this rise has a known cause. From August 25, 2026 Vibiz opened new workspaces on the agent chat for part of new users, and on September 15 made the chat the first screen for everyone. Agent chat went from 9.8% of creatives with a recorded start in July to 36.9% in September and 24.1% in the first 20 days of October. That design change accounts for part of the jump; this data cannot say how much.

The connector's share was 18.3% in July, 11.5% in August and September and 19.0% from October 1 to 20. These are shares of the same total, so when agent chat rises the other columns fall even if their use does not change.

The top 10% of businesses make 57% of all creatives

The median business made 5 creatives between July 1 and October 20; some joined partway through. A quarter made 16 or more and a tenth made 40 or more. The top 10% of businesses made 56.6% of all creatives and the top fifth made 73.2%; the 307 businesses that made 40 or more made 56.9%.

How the numbers differ by business type and industry

"Made a video" is the share of businesses that made at least one. The other columns are shares of each group's creatives with a recorded start.

Every group in these tables has at least 100 businesses.

What this means for a small business

• Plan to edit. About one creative in four is an edit. Leave time to fix the offer, the price and the words before an ad runs.
• Start where you already work. One business in four made creatives from an AI assistant. If you plan your week in Claude or ChatGPT, the connector lets you do it there.
• Make one video. A third of these businesses made at least one video, while images remain most of the volume. Start with images and add a video when you have an offer worth showing in motion.
• Make enough to learn. Half of the businesses made five creatives or fewer in 16 weeks, while the most active tenth made 40 or more. A handful of ads rarely shows which message works.

How we measured

• Data: totals from the Vibiz production database, read on October 21, 2026, through a read-only account. No customer name, prompt or creative left the database.
• Period: creatives created from July 1 to October 20, 2026 (16 weeks). July 1 is when the Create page, agent chat, the connector, the edit tools and Product Studio started tagging how each creative was started; 11.3% still carry no tag, mostly carousels and videos made in the app.
• Businesses: each Vibiz workspace counts as one business, so a business or agency with several workspaces counts once per workspace. Vibiz staff accounts are excluded. 3,015 workspaces made at least one creative.
• What counts: a creative is one image, video or product photo; a carousel counts once. Each new version or edit counts again. Creatives Vibiz makes automatically during onboarding, in the daily content deck or in the first batch after a plan starts are excluded, so the figures show what businesses chose to make.
• How started: read from each creative's source tag. Creatives without one count in every figure except the "how started" ones. A connector creative counts as made from an outside assistant only when it matches a logged sign-in from outside Vibiz; the connector columns include all connector creatives.
• Who: team size, business type and revenue are the owners' own answers at sign-up, and some skipped them. The team-size split matches the one across all subscribed workspaces. Industry and country are read from each business's website.
• Limits: these businesses already use an AI tool. October covers 20 days and 204 businesses, so its shares move more than the other months. We checked Meta ad results from connected accounts and left them out: the data starts on September 10 and covers too few accounts for benchmarks.
• Next update: January 2027, with a longer period.