Nich Tremper

AI is making it cheaper and faster to start a business according to Gusto’s 2026 New Business Formation Survey, but gender gaps are emerging. Male entrepreneurs are more likely than women to use AI to launch new businesses, and are also more likely to use AI in regular business operations. With over 5 million new businesses launched last year, we find that about 174,000 new businesses in 2025 that very likely would not have existed without AI.

Gusto’s sixth annual New Business Formation Report documents a year of technological transformation and demographic evolution. The 2025 entrepreneurial landscape was shaped by AI becoming a mainstream tool for launching businesses, a generational shift in who is starting companies, and a meaningful change in how those companies are being funded. The 1,051 founders we surveyed gave us a unique depth of insight into what it was like to start a business in 2025.