65% of Wantrepreneurs Will Use AI in 2026. Intention Is Not Execution. Do Keep Up.
An Intuit QuickBooks survey of 3,000 U.S. adults, plus 1,500 each in Canada, the UK, and Australia, found 65% of aspiring U.S. entrepreneurs plan to use AI to launch businesses in 2026. The survey reveals respondents feel an urgent pull toward business ownership but remain held back by financial fears, funding gaps, and low confidence in core business finances. A growing informal economy of side hustles powered by AI tools is reshaping how new ventures begin.
This demonstrates the intention-action gap, a well-documented phenomenon in entrepreneurial research where stated plans vastly overstate actual outcomes. The underlying mechanism is the barrier reduction illusion, where AI tools lower the perceived cost of starting a business without addressing the real constraints of financial literacy and capital access. The lesson is that tools reduce friction, but they do not eliminate the need for fundamental competence.
Intuit QuickBooks commissioned the survey in December 2025, polling 3,000 U.S. adults and 1,500 each across Canada, the UK, and Australia. The findings focus on 2026 entrepreneurship trends, including AI adoption intent and the rise of informal side-hustle businesses.
- Open ChatGPT or any free AI assistant and ask it to draft a simple business plan for a side hustle idea you have, including startup costs and potential revenue streams. Expected outcome: You will receive a structured outline that reveals how AI can accelerate planning but also exposes the financial questions you cannot answer.
- Ask the AI to generate a list of the three biggest financial risks for your specific idea, then rate your confidence in managing each one on a scale of 1 to 10. Expected outcome: You will quickly identify where your knowledge gaps are, simulating the confidence gap the survey respondents reported.
- Search for a free small business finance basics course online, such as those offered by the SBA at sba.gov. Expected outcome: You will find that the real barrier is not idea generation, which AI handles, but financial fundamentals, which require actual study.