Business Trends and Outlook Survey Data Release — April 23, 2026

APRIL 23, 2026 - The U.S. Census Bureau today released new data products from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey that measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis. The BTOS will continue to collect data complementary to key items found on other economic surveys, such as revenues, employees, hours, and inventories.

New supplemental questions capturing business use of artificial intelligence (AI) were added to the BTOS from Nov. 17, 2025, to Feb. 8, 2026. These data are now available on the BTOS webpage as data download files and visualizations. The data show how artificial intelligence is being adopted across businesses, including differences by industries, geography (states) and firm size. Additionally, the data provide insights into how AI is being used within businesses, the types of tasks it supports and how it is changing work.

BTOS data are representative of all employer businesses in the U.S. economy, excluding farms. BTOS provides insight into the state of the economy by providing continuous, timely data for key economic measures every two weeks. By providing continuous data with geographic and subsector detail, BTOS captures the impact of events like natural disasters and economic crises and assists in monitoring recovery efforts.

The BTOS sample consists of approximately 1.2 million businesses with biweekly data collection. Selected businesses are split into six panels (approximately 200,000 cases per panel) that will be asked to report every 12 weeks for a year. The Census Bureau estimates it takes the average respondent approximately nine minutes to complete the survey, including the time for reviewing the instructions and answers.

Data will be released biweekly and available by sector, state and the 25 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. Survey results give local, state and federal officials essential, real-time data to aid in policymaking and decision-making. In addition, the information aids businesses in making economic decisions.

No news release associated with this announcement. Tip sheet only.

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