AI market for small businesses seen hitting $162.75 billion by 2030

The market for artificial intelligence tools aimed at small and medium businesses is projected to surge from $61.05 billion in 2025 to $162.75 billion by 2030, according to The Business Research Company. Cloud adoption, automation and AI-driven decision tools are emerging as the main growth engines, with North America leading now and Asia-Pacific expected to grow fastest.

Why it matters: - Small and medium businesses are using AI to cut costs, automate work and make faster decisions. - The shift is expanding demand for affordable AI tools that do not require major in-house infrastructure. - The market’s projected jump signals a larger mainstream move toward AI adoption across smaller companies.

What happened: - The Business Research Company released its Artificial Intelligence in Small and Medium Businesses Global Market Report 2026. - The report values the market at $61.05 billion in 2025. - The market is projected to reach $74.49 billion in 2026. - The report forecasts the market will reach $162.75 billion by 2030. - The report puts the 2025-2026 growth rate at 22.0% CAGR. - The report puts the 2026-2030 growth rate at 21.6% CAGR.

The details: - The report links current growth to wider adoption of digital business tools. - Businesses are also pushing harder for operational efficiency and automated business processes. - Data-driven decision-making is another major growth driver. - Cost-effective productivity tools are helping smaller firms adopt AI more easily. - The forecast period is expected to be driven by scalable AI solutions. - AI for customer engagement, automated financial analysis and predictive business insights are expected to add demand. - AI-enabled workflow optimization is becoming more common. - Expected product trends include AI-powered customer service automation. - Other expected trends include AI-driven financial forecasting and business planning. - Automated task and workflow management is also gaining traction. - The report flags AI productivity tools and predictive analytics for sales and marketing as key use cases. - The report defines AI for small and medium businesses as smart technologies that automate routine tasks, analyze complex data and improve decision-making. - These tools help streamline workflows, improve customer interactions and support growth with limited resources.

Between the lines: - Cloud computing is lowering the barrier to AI adoption by giving smaller companies access to storage, processing power and software over the internet. - That model reduces the need for heavy upfront infrastructure spending and extensive internal IT support. - Eurostat data shows the share of EU enterprises using paid cloud computing services rose by 7.42 percentage points from 2023 to 2025. - North America was the largest regional market in 2025. - Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region during the forecast period. - The regional outlook suggests AI adoption is deepening first in mature markets and then accelerating in faster-digitizing regions.

What's next: - The report expects more adoption of AI-powered customer service, forecasting, workflow automation and predictive analytics through 2030. - The company’s 2026 report package also includes TAM analysis, company scoring matrices, Excel dashboards, hotspots infographics and updated graphics. - The report covers Asia-Pacific, South East Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East and Africa. - More information is available in the full report and a free sample.

The bottom line: - AI is moving from a back-office efficiency tool to a core operating layer for small and medium businesses, and the market is still early in its growth curve.