• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 21, 2025

Small businesses may have slowed down in their growing use of AI. But one thing is certain: for 18.9%, their top channel for 2025 investment is AI-powered personalized email campaigns, according to a new study by Blaze. 

Email is followed by YouTube (17.6%) and Facebook, which at 14.9% has dropped to third place. 

“Email marketing has always delivered exceptional ROI, but creating truly personalized campaigns at scale was previously impossible for resource-constrained businesses,” says Adam Nathan, CEO of Blaze.  

Nathan adds: “AI has completely changed that equation. As businesses gain AI sophistication, they rediscover email’s inherent advantages—precise targeting, thorough analytics, and direct customer relationships — now supercharged with AI-driven personalization that was once reserved for enterprise companies with massive marketing teams.”

This study roughly coincides with one by Verizon Business, showing that 38% of SMBs -- those with up to 50 employees -- are now deploying AI, roughly flat with the 39% reported last August.  

In contrast, 52% are employing social media, although that is also consistent with the last wave of research.  

But those now using AI are applying it to these critical functions, or thinking about doing so: 

• Data Analysis — 28% 
• Marketing/Social Media — 28% 
• Product or Service Recommendations — 26% 
• Cybersecurity — 25% 
• Customer Service/Digital Personal Assistant — 24% 
• Written Communications — 24%
• Order Processing — 23% 
• Inventory Management/Supply Chain Operations — 21%
• Financial Management/Accounting — 21% 
• Fraud Management — 19% 
• Recruitment and Talent Sourcing — 19%

What stops companies from using AI? They explain: 

• I’m not familiar enough with it — 35%
• My business has security concerns around implementing it — 29%
• I don’t trust it to provide correct information — 28% 
• I don’t know it could help my business — 27%
• It wouldn’t be useful to my business — 26%
• My employees are worried it will take their jobs — 20%
• It is too expensive — 19%
• My business does not have time to learn about or implement these tools — 19% 
• My business has legal concerns around implementing it — 16%
• My business does not have the bandwidth to support employee onboarding and usage — 11%
• Other — 11% 

According to this study, SMBs are also using social media, particularly for content creation. They say:

• My business began creating content in the past year — 20%
• My business created content before, and has expanded or increased our investment in this area in the past year — 42%
• My business created content before, but has not expanded or increased our investment in this area in the past year — 19%
• My business does not create content, but is planning to in the future — 11%
• My business does not create content, and has no plans to in the future — 8%

Blaze surveyed 1,059 small business owners. 

On behalf of Verizon Business, Morning Consult surveyed 600 small to midsize business owners and decision makers between March 7-22, 2025. They range from firms with one employee (sole proprietor) to 500.