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A Meta-commissioned YouGov survey of 3,983 small business owners across nine Asia-Pacific markets found that 76% reported a positive productivity impact from AI in the past 12 months. The survey also found that 86% want more guidance, with training costs the most cited barrier.
Three-quarters of surveyed small business owners across nine Asia-Pacific markets said AI had a positive effect on productivity over the past 12 months, according to a Meta-commissioned YouGov study released in October 2026. The findings also point to a gap between adoption and support: 86% said small businesses need more guidance to gain AI’s full benefits.
The online survey covered 3,983 owners in Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong. YouGov collected responses from August 6 to September 2, 2026. Meta said 84% of respondents were currently using AI, while 71% reported a positive effect on revenue or sales over the preceding 12 months. These are respondents’ reported experiences, not independently measured productivity or revenue changes.
Owners who said AI improved productivity described using the saved time to improve existing work (58%), focus on growth and planning (50%), or get more done with their current team (46%). Among businesses that had used AI in the past year, common applications included creating or editing content (51%), local advertising and marketing (43%), translation (38%), and customer support or communications (37%).
The survey also found that 80% agreed AI helps small businesses compete more effectively with larger companies, and the same proportion said it makes starting a business easier. A further 83% agreed that AI enables small businesses to do things that previously required significantly more money or resources. Meta did not provide objective measures of those competitive effects in the release.
Adoption Outpaces Small Business Support
The findings suggest that many surveyed owners are already using AI for routine business tasks, while a large share still wants help deciding how to use it effectively. Cost was the leading reported barrier to training, cited by 51% of respondents. Owners also said they wanted clearer information about costs and returns, along with guidance on data privacy and security.
That gap matters for businesses with limited time and resources: training, software costs and uncertainty about returns can shape whether owners expand their use of AI or keep it to a few tasks. The survey records owners’ views, however, and does not establish that AI caused higher sales, improved competitiveness or business growth across the markets surveyed.
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How Meta Frames Its AI Programs
Meta presented the research alongside its Small Business Growth Academy, launched across Asia-Pacific earlier in 2026. The company says the program works with governments, chambers of commerce and local partners to provide practical training in AI-enabled advertising, Reels, WhatsApp for Business and cross-border commerce. Meta also promoted its own business tools, including Advantage+, click-to-WhatsApp ads and Meta Business Agent.
Meta highlighted Indonesian modest fashion business Zayya as an example. Founder Husnul Khotimah said training and Meta tools helped the business reach customers in Malaysia on a daily advertising budget of Rp30,000, which Meta’s release put at about US$1.68. The company said the campaign generated 50 enquiries, cut response times from 30–60 minutes to under two minutes and produced a reported return on ad spend of more than eight times. These figures are a company-provided case study, not a result measured by the survey.
“I used to think AI was mainly for writing captions and creating content, but I’ve learned that it can also help me understand new markets and reach the right customers.”
— Husnul Khotimah, founder of Zayya, as quoted by Meta
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Limits of the Survey Findings
The results are not nationally representative of small businesses in the nine markets, according to Meta’s description of the study. Quotas were applied by business size, covering firms with 1–9, 10–19 and 20–49 employees. The release does not provide a margin of error or a detailed breakdown of results for each market.
Meta also cautioned that differences between markets may reflect how respondents interpreted questions, translation and local survey response norms. The reported productivity and revenue effects are owners’ assessments; the release does not specify how those impacts were independently verified or measured. It also does not explain which forms of AI respondents counted as AI.
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Training and Business Support Plans
Meta said it would continue working with governments, partners and entrepreneurs across APAC to help small businesses develop AI and digital skills. The company’s release did not set out new program dates, funding commitments or targets in response to the survey’s finding that owners want more guidance.
For now, the next steps described by Meta are its existing Growth Academy training and access to its business tools. Whether those offerings address owners’ concerns about training costs, returns, privacy and security—and whether their use leads to sustained business gains—remains to be established.
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Key Questions
How many small business owners took part?
3,983 owners completed the online YouGov survey, commissioned by Meta, across nine Asia-Pacific markets.
What share reported AI productivity gains?
76% said AI had a positive impact on productivity over the past 12 months. This is a reported survey response, not an independently measured change.
What support did respondents say they need?
86% said small businesses need more guidance to gain AI’s full benefits. Training cost was the most cited barrier, at 51%; owners also wanted clearer information on costs, returns, privacy and security.
Is the survey representative of all small businesses in the region?
No. Meta said the findings offer insight into a cross-section of businesses in the surveyed markets and are not nationally representative of their small business populations.
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