Report · Edition 1 · Live CMS snapshot
State of AI Adoption
Every published tool, list price, and head-to-head on this site — read against the Census Bureau’s firm-level AI-use series. Click any number. It goes to a real page.
Generated Sep 20, 2026, 1:24 AM ET · 93 tools · 7 verdicts · 41 essays · 11 industries · 12 roles
What the current tool data shows
Four findings from this snapshot. When a tool is added or a price changes in the CMS, these move.
Public series
18% of firms · 32% of employment
CES-WP-26-25: 18% of firms used AI in a business function (November 2025–January 2026), 32% employment-weighted. CES-WP-24-16R: 5.4% of firms used AI to produce goods or services in the prior two weeks (February 2024). Census changed the wording in 17 November 2025. The 2026 paper says you cannot stack those rates.
Tools reviewed
$19 median seat
Among 73 tools with a published starting price (20 have none). That is list price, not what a 200-seat company actually pays.
Where the catalog sits
Writing & Content is the largest category we track
12 of 93 published tools. Median starting price in-category: $20.
Spread
$0 → $149
Cheapest published start: Continue. Highest: Clay. Seat math at the top of that range is a budget line, not a plugin.
The two Census papers
Ask which question, which window, which population. CES-WP-24-16R counted firms using AI to produce goods or services in the prior two weeks, February 2024. CES-WP-26-25 counted firms using AI in a business function, November 2025–January 2026. This site counts tools operators actually compare. Mixing any two of those is how homepages get fake. Do not write a 5.4% → 18% series. Census told you not to.
CES-WP-26-25 · November 2025–January 2026
18%
of firms · 32% employment-weighted · 22% expected in six months
Firm-level AI use in a business function (18%). Employment-weighted 32%. AI-related employment decreases in 2% of firms. Working paper: not an official Census publication. Census changed the core question in November 2025; the 2026 paper says you cannot stack this rate on the 5.4% figure.
Source: CES-WP-26-25 (PDF) →Older paper · February 2024
5.4%
up from 3.7% in September 2023
Share of U.S. firms using AI to produce goods or services in the prior two weeks. Still real. No longer the current wave. This site’s list-price median is $19 across 73 tools.
Source: CES-WP-24-16R (PDF) →Further reading (different populations, not blended): McKinsey State of AI · Stanford HAI AI Index.
List-price ladder
Starting monthly USD among tools that publish a number. Contact-sales rows are in the table, not guessed here.
- Clay$149
- Clearscope$129
- Semrush$129
- MarketMuse$99
- Surfer SEO$79
- Tableau$75
- Dynamics 365 Sales$65
- Akkio$50
- Apollo.io$49
- Lindy$49
- Anyword$39
- Jasper$39
- Gumloop$37
- Copy.ai$36
- Microsoft 365 Copilot$30
- Superhuman$30
- Attio$29
- Close$29
- Intercom$29
- Lavender$29
- Salesforce$25
- Copper$23
- AdCreative.ai$21
- ChatGPT$20
- Claude$20
- Cursor$20
- Gemini$20
- Help Scout$20
- HubSpot$20
- Julius AI$20
- Klaviyo$20
- Lex$20
- Perplexity$20
- Replit Agent$20
- n8n$20
- Amazon Q Developer$19
- Gemini Code Assist$19
- Motion$19
- Relay.app$19
- Relevance AI$19
- Sudowrite$19
- Zapier$19
- Zendesk$19
- Descript$16
- Writesonic$16
- Canva Magic Studio$15
- Freshdesk$15
- Power Automate$15
- Warp$15
- Windsurf$15
- You.com$15
- Pipedrive$14
- Zoho CRM$14
- Mailchimp$13
- Grammarly$12
- Bardeen$10
- Coda$10
- Fireflies.ai$10
- GitHub Copilot$10
- Gorgias$10
- Granola$10
- Notion AI$10
- Power BI$10
- Cody$9
- Freshsales$9
- Make$9
- Tabnine$9
- monday CRM$9
- Mem$8
- Otter.ai$8
- Reclaim.ai$8
- ClickUp Brain$7
- Continue$0
Where seats cluster
- $20 or less50
- $21–5016
- $51–1004
- $100+3
- No list price20
Catalog mix
Categories, commercial models, and essay pillars — the shape of what we have actually published, not a TAM chart.
By category
Pricing model
- Freemium43
- Paid25
- Contact sales24
- Free1
Essays by pillar
- Analysis9
- Tool comparisons8
- Role stacks8
- Tool deep dives6
- Cost & ROI5
- Industry5
Tools reviewed
The full published list. Sorted cheap → dear. No padding.
| Tool | Category | Model | From (USD/mo) | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continue Open IDE agent you can point at your own models | Coding & Development | Free | $0 | 4.2 |
| ClickUp Brain AI on the work OS that already has too many views | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $7 | 4.1 |
| Mem Notes that retrieve themselves | Productivity & Workflow | Paid | $8 | 4.0 |
| Otter.ai Transcripts for people who live in meetings | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $8 | 4.2 |
| Reclaim.ai Habits and tasks defended on Google/Outlook calendars | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $8 | 4.4 |
| Cody Code intelligence on the repo graph | Coding & Development | Freemium | $9 | 4.3 |
| Freshsales Freshworks CRM with built-in phone and chat | CRM | Freemium | $9 | 4.1 |
| Make Visual automation for branching logic | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $9 | 4.5 |
| Tabnine Completions you can air-gap | Coding & Development | Freemium | $9 | 4.1 |
| monday CRM Work OS that wants to be the CRM too | CRM | Paid | $9 | 4.1 |
| Bardeen Browser-native automations for the tab you are in | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $10 | 4.1 |
| Coda Docs that want to be apps, with AI on the tables | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $10 | 4.2 |
| Fireflies.ai The meeting bot everyone already invited | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $10 | 4.3 |
| GitHub Copilot The default IDE autocomplete | Coding & Development | Paid | $10 | 4.6 |
| Gorgias Helpdesk that lives in the Shopify order | Customer Support | Paid | $10 | 4.4 |
| Granola Meeting notes that feel like a notepad, not a bot on the call | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $10 | 4.5 |
| Notion AI AI in the wiki you already forgot to update | Productivity & Workflow | Freemium | $10 | 4.3 |
| Power BI Microsoft BI with Copilot in the tenant | Analytics & Research | Paid | $10 | 4.3 |
| Grammarly Edit layer that sits on whatever you already write | Writing & Content | Freemium | $12 | 4.4 |
| Mailchimp The ESP everyone started on, with Intuit AI bolted on | Marketing Automation | Freemium | $13 | 4.0 |
| Pipedrive Pipeline-first CRM for small sales teams | CRM | Paid | $14 | 4.3 |
| Zoho CRM Broad CRM at a Zoho price | CRM | Freemium | $14 | 4.0 |
| Canva Magic Studio Design seat the whole company already has | Marketing Automation | Freemium | $15 | 4.5 |
| Freshdesk Ticketing that is cheaper than Zendesk for many teams | Customer Support | Freemium | $15 | 4.2 |
| Power Automate Microsoft’s automation seat you may already pay for | Workflow Automation | Paid | $15 | 4.1 |
| Warp Terminal with AI in the prompt | Coding & Development | Freemium | $15 | 4.4 |
| Windsurf Codeium’s agentic IDE | Coding & Development | Freemium | $15 | 4.4 |
| You.com AI search with modes, not just one chat | Analytics & Research | Freemium | $15 | 4.1 |
| Descript Edit video by editing the transcript | Marketing Automation | Freemium | $16 | 4.4 |
| Writesonic Volume content factory with an SEO tilt | Writing & Content | Freemium | $16 | 4.0 |
| Amazon Q Developer AWS’s coding assistant, in the account you already fear | Coding & Development | Freemium | $19 | 4.2 |
| Gemini Code Assist Google’s IDE assistant, especially on GCP | Coding & Development | Freemium | $19 | 4.1 |
| Motion Calendar that tries to schedule the work | Productivity & Workflow | Paid | $19 | 4.2 |
| Relay.app Human-in-the-loop automations | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $19 | 4.2 |
| Relevance AI Workforce of agents with tools | Workflow Automation | Contact sales | $19 | 4.2 |
| Sudowrite Long-form creative, not corporate blogs | Writing & Content | Paid | $19 | 4.1 |
| Zapier The default no-code glue | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $19 | 4.5 |
| Zendesk Enterprise ticketing with AI add-ons | Customer Support | Paid | $19 | 4.2 |
| ChatGPT The general model most teams already opened | Writing & Content | Freemium | $20 | 4.6 |
| Claude Long documents and careful prose | Writing & Content | Freemium | $20 | 4.5 |
| Cursor Repo-aware editor, not a plugin | Coding & Development | Freemium | $20 | 4.7 |
| Gemini Google’s general model inside Workspace | Writing & Content | Freemium | $20 | 4.3 |
| Help Scout Shared inbox for teams that still want to sound human | Customer Support | Paid | $20 | 4.4 |
| HubSpot CRM SMBs actually turn on | CRM | Freemium | $20 | 4.4 |
| Julius AI Chat with a spreadsheet or CSV | Analytics & Research | Freemium | $20 | 4.3 |
| Klaviyo Ecommerce lifecycle with AI in the flows | Marketing Automation | Freemium | $20 | 4.5 |
| Lex A writing room, not a chatbot | Writing & Content | Freemium | $20 | 4.2 |
| Perplexity Cited answers instead of a link dump | Analytics & Research | Freemium | $20 | 4.5 |
| Replit Agent Cloud IDE that will try to build the app | Coding & Development | Freemium | $20 | 4.3 |
| n8n Self-host when you want the workflow file | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $20 | 4.4 |
| AdCreative.ai Ad variants at a volume a designer will not enjoy | Marketing Automation | Paid | $21 | 4.0 |
| Copper CRM that lives in Google Workspace | CRM | Paid | $23 | 4.2 |
| Salesforce The system of record enterprises already cannot leave | CRM | Contact sales | $25 | 4.2 |
| Attio A CRM that feels like a modern data tool | CRM | Freemium | $29 | 4.4 |
| Close Inside-sales CRM with the phone built in | CRM | Paid | $29 | 4.4 |
| Intercom Inbox plus Fin — start as agent-assist | Customer Support | Paid | $29 | 4.3 |
| Lavender Email coach in Gmail/Outlook | Sales Intelligence | Paid | $29 | 4.4 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Drafts inside Word, Outlook, and Teams | Writing & Content | Paid | $30 | 4.2 |
| Superhuman Fast email with an AI split inbox | Productivity & Workflow | Paid | $30 | 4.5 |
| Copy.ai GTM workflows on top of short-form copy | Writing & Content | Freemium | $36 | 4.2 |
| Gumloop Canvas for AI-heavy flows | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $37 | 4.3 |
| Anyword Performance-scored marketing copy | Writing & Content | Paid | $39 | 4.1 |
| Jasper Brand-voice tooling for volume content | Writing & Content | Paid | $39 | 4.3 |
| Apollo.io Data plus sequences without three vendors | Sales Intelligence | Freemium | $49 | 4.4 |
| Lindy Email-and-calendar agents with a leash | Workflow Automation | Freemium | $49 | 4.2 |
| Akkio No-code predictions on a spreadsheet | Analytics & Research | Paid | $50 | 4.1 |
| Dynamics 365 Sales Microsoft’s CRM if you already live in that tenant | CRM | Contact sales | $65 | 4.1 |
| Tableau BI with an Einstein/Pulse copilot layer | Analytics & Research | Contact sales | $75 | 4.4 |
| Surfer SEO Content editor scored against a SERP | Marketing Automation | Paid | $79 | 4.3 |
| MarketMuse Topic models and content inventory | Marketing Automation | Paid | $99 | 4.2 |
| Clearscope Premium content grades for teams that already write | Marketing Automation | Paid | $129 | 4.4 |
| Semrush SEO suite with an AI writing/brief layer | Marketing Automation | Paid | $129 | 4.4 |
| Clay Spreadsheet of the internet for enrichment | Sales Intelligence | Freemium | $149 | 4.6 |
| Ada Automation platform, not a cute widget | Customer Support | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| AlphaSense Market intelligence search for operators who live in transcripts | Analytics & Research | Contact sales | Contact | 4.5 |
| Chorus ZoomInfo’s conversation intelligence | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.2 |
| Clari Forecasting as a system, not a spreadsheet | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.4 |
| Cognism Compliant-leaning B2B data, especially in EMEA | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| Drift Revenue chat on the marketing site | Customer Support | Contact sales | Contact | 4.0 |
| Forethought Agent assist and triage on the existing helpdesk | Customer Support | Contact sales | Contact | 4.2 |
| Gladly Customer-centric inbox, not ticket-centric | Customer Support | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| Glean Work graph search across the tools you already pay for | Analytics & Research | Contact sales | Contact | 4.5 |
| Gong Call intelligence that coaches, not just records | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.7 |
| Hebbia Document matrix for diligence and research | Analytics & Research | Contact sales | Contact | 4.4 |
| Kustomer CRM-style timeline for support, now in Meta’s orbit | Customer Support | Contact sales | Contact | 4.2 |
| Outreach Enterprise sequencing and deal execution | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| Phrasee Brand-language generation for enterprises | Marketing Automation | Contact sales | Contact | 4.2 |
| Salesloft Cadence platform that competes with Outreach | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| ThoughtSpot Search-first analytics for business users | Analytics & Research | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| Tray.ai Low-code iPaaS for product and ops | Workflow Automation | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| Workato Enterprise iPaaS with an AI story | Workflow Automation | Contact sales | Contact | 4.4 |
| Writer Enterprise brand and terminology control | Writing & Content | Contact sales | Contact | 4.3 |
| ZoomInfo The expensive contact graph enterprises already renew | Sales Intelligence | Contact sales | Contact | 4.2 |
Verdicts on the record
Published comparisons. A pick, or an explicit “it depends.”
- Winner: HubSpot
HubSpot vs Salesforce: Which CRM AI is worth turning on?
HubSpot if you need one record for marketing, sales, and service this quarter. Salesforce if you already have admins and an object model HubSpot will fight. Do not migrate for the chatbot.
- It depends
Zapier vs Make vs n8n: Which Automation Platform Should You Use?
Three strong platforms, three different user profiles. Zapier for non-technical teams who value simplicity. Make for ops teams who need complex logic without code. n8n for technical teams who want maximum power and free self-hosting. The right choice depends almost entirely on your team's technical depth.
- It depends
Gong vs Apollo.io: Revenue Intelligence vs Prospecting Platform
Gong and Apollo solve different problems in the sales stack. Gong analyzes existing pipeline and coaches active reps — it's a revenue intelligence platform. Apollo finds and reaches new prospects at scale. Most mature sales orgs need both; early-stage companies should start with Apollo.
- Winner: Jasper
Jasper vs Copy.ai: Best AI Writing Tool for Marketing Teams?
Jasper is the more mature platform for brand-consistent content at scale. Copy.ai has evolved into a compelling GTM workflow tool and offers better value at lower volumes. The choice comes down to team size and how much you invest in brand voice consistency.
- Winner: Zapier
Zapier vs Make: Which Automation Platform Is Right for Your Team?
Zapier wins on simplicity and ecosystem breadth. Make wins on price and power for complex workflows. The right choice depends on the technical sophistication of your ops team and the complexity of the automations you need to build.
- Winner: Cursor
GitHub Copilot vs Cursor: Best AI Coding Tool in 2026?
Copilot is the safer enterprise choice with better IDE integration breadth. Cursor is winning over power users who need codebase-wide AI that understands full project context. For most individual developers, Cursor's capability advantage is worth the switch.
- Winner: ChatGPT
ChatGPT vs Claude: Which AI Assistant Should Your Team Use?
Both are excellent general-purpose AI assistants, but they diverge meaningfully on context window size, writing tone, and ecosystem depth. For most teams, the answer depends on whether you prioritize breadth of integrations or depth of document analysis.
Seat-cost economics
Type headcount and the hours you actually believe. Vendor list prices — Copilot, ChatGPT Team, Claude Team. It will not invent a 340% ROI. Standalone calculator →
Seat math, not ROI theater
Annual list cost vs. hours you type
We multiply vendor list price by headcount. You supply hours and a loaded hourly rate. If you do not know the hours, do not buy the seats.
Annual software spend
$2,280
$19 × 10 seats × 12. List price, before tax and annual-commit discounts.
Hours you claimed
1,040
per year, all seats
Break-even hours / seat / week
0.06
at $75 / hour
If those hours are real
+$75,720
Implied labor value $78,000 minus list spend. This is arithmetic, not a case study.
Prices are public list as of September 2026. Confirm on the vendor page before you sign. We do not model implementation, training, or the week nobody uses the seat.
Method
- Our data. Counts and prices are pulled from our content system on each request. If we do not track a tool, it is not included in the table.
- Census. Two working papers, not a blended index. CES-WP-24-16R: 5.4% of firms used AI to produce goods or services in the prior two weeks (February 2024), up from 3.7% in September 2023. CES-WP-26-25: 18% of firms used AI in a business function (November 2025–January 2026), 32% employment-weighted; 2% reported AI-related employment decreases. Census changed the core question on 17 November 2025. The 2026 paper says that revision precludes a direct comparison of the two aggregates. Working papers are not official Census publications. Current BTOS waves live on the Census dashboard.
- Not ours. McKinsey State of AI and Stanford HAI AI Index measure different populations. Linked, not blended into a fake adoption index.
- Prices. Starting monthly list prices stored on each tool record. Confirm on the vendor page before you sign an order form. Copilot is an add-on; the Microsoft 365 seat is extra.
- Ratings. Editorial scores on the tool record, not scraped review-site averages.
Get the next snapshot
When prices move or we add a verdict, it shows up here. Weekly note — no invented subscriber count.