AI Adoption Spreads Beyond Tech as Finance, Manufacturing Businesses Race to Catch Up

Paid artificial intelligence (AI) adoption among businesses tracked by Ramp reached record levels in 2026, with technology, finance and manufacturing firms leading a broader shift that is spreading into traditionally less tech-intensive industries.

According to Ramp AI Index data cited by The Kobeissi Letter, a leading commentary account on global capital markets, technology and media firms remain at the top, with 80.6% now paying for AI tools, the highest share on record.

Finance Closes the Gap on Tech

Finance and insurance companies aren't far behind, with 73.1% now holding paid AI subscriptions, up sharply from roughly 60% in December 2025. The rapid climb reflects how deeply AI has embedded itself in core financial functions, including risk modeling, fraud detection and regulatory compliance.

Major institutions, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)/a>, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS)/a> and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC)/a>, have deployed AI tools.

The more important story, however, is developing outside the traditional sectors that have been early adopters.

Manufacturing adoption reached a record 60.4%, making it the third-highest sector tracked, nearly doubling since the start of 2025. Retail follows closely, with adoption up 20 percentage points over the same period to a record 49%.

Meanwhile, health care at 42.9%, construction at 42% and accommodation and food services at 31.9% continue to grow steadily, although they still trail the leading sectors by a wide margin./p> figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x">div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

AI adoption is spreading far beyond tech:br>br>80.6% of US technology and media businesses now have paid AI subscriptions, the highest percentage on record.br>br>Finance and insurance companies follow at 73.1%, up from ~60.0% in December 2025.br>br>Meanwhile, 60.4% of US manufacturing firms… pic.twitter.com/vMQsL1sjZo/p>— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) September 5, 2026/blockquote> /div>

Wall Street Sees Bigger Macro Implications

The pickup echoes broader bullish signals on AI's economic reach.

Recently, responding to Elon Musk, who said the "AI riptide is already underway," Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said inference demand has multiplied 25-fold in a year, adding that the trend could push U.S. real GDP growth toward double digits.

The data reported by Kobeissi points to enterprise AI demand broadening beyond software vendors, a trend that could sustain growth for cloud infrastructure and AI platform providers as adoption deepens economy-wide.

This growing momentum is already reflected in hardware earnings. On Saturday, Foxconn, a server assembly partner of Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA)/a>, reported record revenue of $29.15 billion for August, up nearly 52% from a year earlier, citing strong demand for AI.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors./p> div class="bz-read-next-block" data-variant="card" data-news-mode="manual" >

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