Businesses using AI
25.7%
Previous two weeks · Census BTOS
State profile · West
California AI Statistics
Business AI adoption in California, its trajectory over time, and the platforms shaping this state profile.
Expect to use AI
29.5%
During the next six months · Census BTOS
Recent average
24.2%
6 of 6 biweekly observations · calculated
Versus the U.S. estimate
+1.9 pp
Latest current use · percentage point difference
Business adoption over time
Share of employer businesses · revised AI question, November 2025 onward
Current useExpected use in next six months
Gaps indicate suppressed observations. Expected use is what businesses report anticipating, not a measured future outcome.
Reading California’s data
California’s latest reported current-use rate is 1.9 percentage points above the national estimate of 23.8%. This is a descriptive comparison of survey estimates.
Latest current-use standard error: 0.94 percentage points. State estimates are subject to sampling variation.
Coding tool scores
Score / 100Platform scores · California
0188
OpenAI Codex
0280
Claude Code
0375
GitHub Copilot
0469
Gemini Code Assist
0563
Cursor
Score scale: 0–100.
Chat platform scores
Score / 100Platform scores · California
0182
ChatGPT
0273
Claude
0369
Microsoft Copilot
0462
Google Gemini
0550
Perplexity
Score scale: 0–100.
California and the national benchmark
Same reference period · Sep 7, 2026–Sep 20, 2026
0%20%40%
Census estimates are weighted survey measures of employer businesses. Different industry mixes and sampling error can affect comparisons.
Other West states
Closest recent averages · descriptive comparison
Idaho23.3%
Nevada25.2%
Oregon22.9%
Wyoming26.0%
Average of available observations in the same six-period window. Coverage may differ.
Headquarters-based company research
AI use at California organizations
Selected companies headquartered in this state · public statements and reported use · reviewed October 11, 2026
| Company / headquarters | Named platforms / tools | Public AI comments & evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe San Jose | Firefly AI Assistant (public product) | Product announcement Apr 2026 Adobe describes its Firefly AI Assistant for creative workflows. This reviewed source does not identify employees' internal chat or coding platforms. | Headquarters source ↗Adobe · creative AI assistant ↗ |
| Alphabet / Google Mountain View | Gemini; NotebookLM | Company-confirmed employee use Aug 18, 2025 Google describes employees using Gemini and NotebookLM for work. The source does not rank internal coding platforms or measure platform usage shares. | Headquarters source ↗Google · employee workplace examples ↗ |
| Apple Cupertino | Enchanté; Enterprise Assistant; Claude / Gemini models; Claude Agent + Codex in Xcode | Reported employee use / product integration Jan–Feb 2026 Reporting describes Apple's internal Enchanté and Enterprise Assistant. Apple confirms Claude Agent and Codex integrations in Xcode. The employee tools are independently reported. Xcode integrations alone do not establish Apple employee adoption. | Headquarters source ↗9to5Mac · internal assistants ↗Apple · Xcode integration ↗ |
| Meta Menlo Park | Metamate (Llama / GPT-4); Claude Code; Codex | Reported employee use / team restrictions Dec 2024 and later reporting Fortune reported Metamate's model mix. Later reporting describes limits on Claude Code and Codex use in Meta's applied AI engineering division. Independent reporting, including a paywalled source. The disclosures concern different teams and do not identify a company-wide leader. | Headquarters source ↗Fortune · Metamate report ↗The Information · coding restrictions ↗ |
| NVIDIA Santa Clara | Cursor; OpenAI Codex | Reported engineering deployment / vendor case study Feb 2026 and vendor case study Reporting describes Cursor use by more than 30,000 developers. OpenAI describes Codex as a go-to tool for NVIDIA's coding agents team. The sources cover different user groups; neither establishes a company-wide platform ranking. | Headquarters source ↗Tom's Hardware · Cursor deployment ↗OpenAI · NVIDIA case study ↗ |
| Salesforce San Francisco | Claude Code | Company-confirmed engineering rollout 2026 engineering account Salesforce says it rolled Claude Code out to all engineers as its primary AI agent tool for software development. The statement identifies the primary engineering agent at that time; it does not establish state-wide tool popularity. | Headquarters source ↗Salesforce · engineering account ↗ |
Comments are paraphrased. Employee deployment, product integrations, pilots, and hiring statements have different scopes. A headquarters location does not locate every employee or prove state-wide tool popularity. Unnamed providers remain undisclosed. This is a selected evidence sample, not an exhaustive company census.
Browse company evidence across all 50 states ↗ · Download research data ↓
Behind the figures
Current-use question: “In the last two weeks, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in any of its business functions?”
The recent average is the arithmetic mean of available current-use estimates for the last six periods, Jun 29, 2026–Sep 20, 2026. It is calculated from the source workbook and is not an official Census aggregate. Standard errors are published Census values. The AI question broadened in November 2025, so the chart starts with the revised series.
View all 23 source observations
| Reference period | Current use | Expected use | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 7, 2026 – Sep 20, 2026 | 25.7% | 29.5% | Oct 8, 2026 |
| Aug 24, 2026 – Sep 6, 2026 | 26.3% | 30.4% | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Aug 10, 2026 – Aug 23, 2026 | 25.1% | 28.4% | Sep 10, 2026 |
| Jul 27, 2026 – Aug 9, 2026 | 23.6% | 26.8% | Aug 27, 2026 |
| Jul 13, 2026 – Jul 26, 2026 | 22.4% | 27.3% | Aug 13, 2026 |
| Jun 29, 2026 – Jul 12, 2026 | 22.4% | 24.9% | Jul 30, 2026 |
| Jun 15, 2026 – Jun 28, 2026 | 22.7% | 26.3% | Jul 16, 2026 |
| Jun 1, 2026 – Jun 14, 2026 | 22.2% | 26.0% | Jul 2, 2026 |
| May 18, 2026 – May 31, 2026 | 22.2% | 25.1% | Jun 18, 2026 |
| May 4, 2026 – May 17, 2026 | 21.9% | 25.4% | Jun 4, 2026 |
| Apr 20, 2026 – May 3, 2026 | 20.6% | 23.7% | May 21, 2026 |
| Apr 6, 2026 – Apr 19, 2026 | 20.6% | 23.6% | May 7, 2026 |
| Mar 23, 2026 – Apr 5, 2026 | 21.4% | 24.3% | Apr 23, 2026 |
| Mar 9, 2026 – Mar 22, 2026 | 20.0% | 23.7% | Apr 9, 2026 |
| Feb 23, 2026 – Mar 8, 2026 | 19.3% | 22.9% | Mar 26, 2026 |
| Feb 9, 2026 – Feb 22, 2026 | 19.2% | 23.6% | Mar 12, 2026 |
| Jan 26, 2026 – Feb 8, 2026 | 20.2% | 24.2% | Feb 26, 2026 |
| Jan 12, 2026 – Jan 25, 2026 | 19.8% | 21.8% | Feb 12, 2026 |
| Dec 29, 2025 – Jan 11, 2026 | 19.4% | 24.0% | Jan 29, 2026 |
| Dec 15, 2025 – Dec 28, 2025 | 19.1% | 24.4% | Jan 15, 2026 |
| Dec 1, 2025 – Dec 14, 2025 | 18.4% | 22.9% | Dec 31, 2025 |
| Nov 17, 2025 – Nov 30, 2025 | 18.4% | 21.6% | Dec 18, 2025 |
| Nov 3, 2025 – Nov 16, 2025 | 19.4% | 23.6% | Dec 4, 2025 |
Sources & data
Official workbook snapshot downloaded October 11, 2026 · Release October 8, 2026
Census BTOS downloads ↗Official state workbook ↗Official national workbook ↗Download state summary CSV ↓
Platform scores are separate from Census observations. Company statements and headquarters sources are linked in the company evidence table and stored in the research dataset.