From January 2026 through May 2026, Patient Prism’s research team studied data from four surveys. These came from the U.S. Census Bureau, the OECD, NVIDIA, and Eliciting Insights. The goal was simple: see how AI adoption differs by industry, by healthcare segment, and by company size. Government surveys and executive surveys use different methods. So we show both side by side, not blended into one number. This gives healthcare leaders a clearer view of where they stand.

AI Adoption Rate by Industry: The Primary Benchmark

The table below presents AI adoption rates across major U.S. industries under two different measurement approaches: government survey data, which samples every registered firm including single-person businesses, and executive survey data, which samples decision-makers at mid-size and large organizations. Both are shown together so healthcare leaders can see where hospitals and health systems stand under either lens.

AI Adoption Rate by Industry, 2026

Industry / Sector	Measurement Basis	AI Adoption Rate
National average, all U.S. firms	Government survey	19.8%¹
Information sector	Government survey	39.7%¹
Finance & Insurance	Government survey	33.9%¹
Retail Trade	Government survey	14.0%¹
OECD firms, overall	Government survey	20.2%²
Healthcare, Payers & Providers segment	Executive survey	56.0%³
U.S. hospitals and health systems (using or planning to use 1+ AI application)	Executive survey	75.0%⁴

Key takeaways:

• Government and executive survey numbers differ by roughly three to four times, driven mainly by who each survey asks, not by real differences in adoption speed.
• Government surveys count every firm, including one-person businesses. Executive surveys ask leaders at larger companies that already have the staff and budget to deploy AI.
• Under executive survey methods, 75.0% of U.S. hospitals and health systems report using or planning to use at least one AI application, up from 59.0% in 2025. This figure blends current use with near-term plans, so it is not directly comparable to the current-use-only figures elsewhere in this table.
• On a current-use basis, healthcare still holds its own against other industries. NVIDIA’s Payers and Providers segment, which measures active use only, reports 56.0% adoption, above the national government-survey average and in line with Finance and Insurance.

AI Adoption Within Healthcare, by Segment

“Healthcare” covers a wide range of organization types, from hospitals to pharmaceutical manufacturers, so the table below breaks adoption down by healthcare sub-segment to show where a specific type of organization actually falls.

AI Adoption Within Healthcare, by Segment

Segment	AI Adoption Rate (2026)	Prior Year	YoY Change
Digital Healthcare	78.0%³	70.0%³	+8 pts
Pharma & Biotech	74.0%³	Not reported	N/A
Medtech, Tools & Diagnostics	70.0%³	Not reported	N/A
Payers & Providers (hospitals, primary care, insurers)	56.0%³	43.0%³	+13 pts
U.S. Hospitals & Health Systems (using or planning to use 1+ AI application)	75.0%⁴	59.0%⁴	+16 pts

Key takeaways:

• Payers and Providers, the segment closest to hospital and multi-site provider work, grew faster than any other healthcare segment tracked here, gaining 13 points in one year.
• Two separate surveys, drawing from different respondent groups and different definitions of adoption, current use only for NVIDIA’s Payers and Providers figure, current use or planned use for the Eliciting Insights health system figure, both show hospital-adjacent organizations growing faster than the broader healthcare average.
• Digital healthcare leads every healthcare segment in this table, consistent with scheduling tools and follow-up messages typically being among the first AI tools an organization deploys.

AI Adoption Growth Trend, 2023 to 2026

After seeing how fast adoption has grown recently, the natural next question is whether that growth is accelerating or starting to level off. The table below tracks adoption year over year across three independent series.

Table B: AI Adoption Growth Trend, 2023 to 2026

Year	OECD Aggregate (Firms)	NVIDIA Healthcare & Life Sciences	Eliciting Insights (Health Systems, Using or Planning to Use)
2023	8.7%²	Not reported	Not reported
2024	14.2%²	63.0%³	Not reported
2025	20.2%²	Not reported	59.0%⁴
2026	Not yet published	70.0%³	75.0%⁴

Key takeaways:

• Every series in this table more than doubled over two to three years, regardless of methodology or segment.
• The OECD figure grew faster between 2024 and 2025 than it did the year before, showing adoption is speeding up rather than leveling off.
• Health systems posted the largest one-year jump of any series tracked, 16 points in a single year, though this figure combines current use with near-term implementation plans, unlike the current-use-only figures elsewhere in this table.

AI Adoption by Organization Size

Multi-location dental, medical, and hospital organizations vary enormously in size, from a single clinic to a system with dozens of locations. The table below shows how much that scale affects adoption on its own, independent of industry.

AI Adoption by Organization Size

Firm Size	AI Adoption Rate
250+ employees	37.0%¹
100 to 249 employees	32.0%¹
Under 20 employees	Under 20.0%¹
Under 4 employees	Under 20.0%¹
OECD large firms	52.0%²
OECD small firms	17.4%²

Key takeaways:

• Firm size predicts AI adoption more strongly than industry sector does under government survey methods. A large firm in any sector is roughly twice as likely to use AI as a small one.
• OECD figures show a similar pattern internationally, with large firms adopting at nearly three times the rate of small firms.
• For multi-location DSOs, MSOs, and hospital systems, this is favorable: scale correlates with faster adoption, independent of anything specific to healthcare.
• Single-location practices sit closer to the lowest adoption figures in this data, framing the remaining gap as an operational scale issue rather than an industry-specific one.

AI Adoption Rate by Industry: What the Future Holds

Every data set in this piece points the same way. Adoption is growing fastest among hospitals and multi-location provider groups. Organization size, not the healthcare industry itself, best predicts who is furthest along. For CEOs and CFOs at DSOs, MSOs, and hospital systems, that changes the real question. It is not whether healthcare lags other industries. The data shows it generally does not. The real question is whether an organization has scaled enough to use what that adoption makes possible.

Understanding what happened during a patient interaction activates change in what happens next. That is the core of Patient Prism’s approach. It turns interaction data, from missed calls to unconverted web inquiries, into recovered revenue. Adoption is only the starting point. What an organization does with that data next is what shows up on the P&L.

See how Patient Prism turns adoption into recovered revenue, with near real-time RELO (Re-Engage Lost Opportunities) follow-up and patient interaction intelligence across every touchpoint. Get a Demo.

References

1. U.S. Census Bureau. “Large Firms With at Least 20 Employees Biggest AI Users.” America Counts: Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), May 26, 2026. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/05/ai-use-businesses.html
2. OECD. “AI Use by Individuals Surges Across the OECD as Adoption by Firms Continues to Expand.” Policy Issues in Artificial Intelligence, January 2026. https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/announcements/2026/01/ai-use-by-individuals-surges-across-the-oecd-as-adoption-by-firms-continues-to-expand.html
3. NVIDIA. “State of AI in Healthcare and Life Sciences: 2026 Trends.” Survey Report, January 2026. https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/lp/survey-report/healthcare-state-of-ai-report-2026-4559650-web.pdf
4. Eliciting Insights, via Fierce Healthcare. “Health System AI Adoption Surges in 2026 With Execs Reporting Increased ROI: Survey.” Fierce Healthcare, March 24, 2026. Figure reflects health systems currently using or planning to implement at least one AI application. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/75-us-healthcare-systems-use-plan-use-ai-platform-2026