AI is operational when it runs one named workflow every working day, with one owner and one measure from the accounts it should move.
In this post, a workflow is one task the company repeats each day, such as matching supplier invoices to purchase orders. Each workflow gets one owner, a manager whose budget pays for the AI tool. That owner answers for the result. The workflow's measure is one cost or revenue number that finance already reports each month, such as overtime pay.
A Census Bureau working paper from April 2026 drew on a Census survey of US firms about AI. About 18 percent of firms used AI in a business area, such as sales or IT.
The Census survey covered more than 117,000 firms from November 2025 to January 2026. Answers often came from one person per firm, "typically an owner, high-level manager, or executive". Researchers at Census and the University of Maryland wrote the paper. The paper has not had the review that Census gives its own publications.
Staff may already use AI before the company decides anything. The paper found workers using AI for work tasks in 23 percent of firms. Its authors write that this worker use sometimes happens without the firm formally adopting AI. The owner should list the AI tools staff already use in the workflow before buying another.
A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, published in March 2026, surveyed corporate executives, most of them chief financial officers. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Its survey ran from November 11 to December 16, 2025 and drew 603 responses. On average, the executives said AI raised output per worker by 1.8 percent in 2025. Their own revenue and headcount estimates implied a smaller gain, 0.6 percent.
The authors write that the gap is likely "reflecting a delay in revenue realizations", meaning sales that arrive later. So the owner should pick a cost measure that finance can read each month, and report revenue effects separately.
What to do first:
- Chief executive: by October 23, name one workflow, its owner and its measure.
- Workflow owner: by November 6, list the AI tools staff already use in that workflow.
- Finance director: from the November month-end close, report the measure each month next to the AI tool's cost.
An owner of several companies can ask each one for the same three names: workflow, owner and measure. In the Census survey, 64 percent of firms using AI reported no changes to the business in the past six months to use it.
