AUSTIN, Texas, May 1, 2025 – A new survey from AI voice solutions company Vida shows that small and mid-sized businesses that are early adopters of AI-powered voice agents are seeing increased revenue, improved customer engagement and stronger positioning as industry leaders, according to the company.
The inaugural SMB AI Voice Agent Adoption & Impact Survey found that SMBs that consider themselves industry leaders are more likely to use AI-voice agents, particularly for inbound sales inquiries and customer questions. Yet, adoption is still early and uneven across the SMB landscape, largely due to perceived barriers like customer preference for humans and possible complex implementation.
The SMB AI Voice Agent Adoption & Impact Survey was conducted by Vida and Survey Monkey in March 2025, polling 320 SMB owners and managers across various industries. The survey has a margin of error of ±5 percent, ensuring statistically reliable insights into AI adoption trends, benefits and challenges within the SMB sector.
Survey findings include:
- Only 22 percent of SMBs currently use AI voice agents for their business, but nearly one-third (31 percent) plan to invest in AI voice within the next 12–24 months.
ROI:
- 97 percent of SMBs using AI voice agents report an increase in revenue.
- 82 percent say these tools have improved customer engagement, helping reduce missed calls and capture more sales opportunities.
- 80 percent report saving five or more hours per week, freeing up time for higher-value tasks.
Leader Advantage:
- 69 percent of SMBs classifying themselves as leaders use AI voice agents for customer support or sales, compared to just 22 percent that self-identify as competitive.
- 49 percent of SMBs classifying themselves as leaders have extensively adopted AI into their day-to-day operations.
Missed Calls
- 42 percent of SMBs estimate losing more than $500 a month — or $6,000 a year — due to missed customer calls.
- 50 percent acknowledge broader business impacts from missed communications.
- receive between 10 and 100+ customer calls per day.
Use Cases
- The top applications for AI voice agents are inbound sales inquiries (31 percent) and answering FAQs (20 percent) – tasks that often go unattended but impact revenue.
- Surprisingly, only 7 percent are using them for customer support escalation, signaling untapped potential to improve service workflows.
Barriers to Adoption
- The top reasons SMBs cite for not adopting AI voice agents include the perception that customers prefer speaking to humans and concerns about the complexity of setup.
- Meanwhile, 61 percent of SMBs report feeling not at all confident or only somewhat confident in their ability to implement and integrate new technologies.
Despite these hurdles, most SMBs say they’re keeping pace with competitors when it comes to technology, but confidence in implementation tells another story. A majority of respondents described themselves as either “not at all confident” or only “somewhat confident” in their ability to integrate new tools like AI voice agents.
“SMBs are missing more than calls – they’re missing revenue,” said Lyle Pratt, CEO and Founder of Vida. “Our survey shows that AI voice agents aren’t just a tech trend, they’re a strategic advantage. Businesses using them are seeing real gains, and we expect adoption to rise quickly as more SMBs recognize the opportunity and understand the real-world use cases.”
“There’s clearly a gap between perceived tech-savviness and actual readiness to adopt these tools,” added Pratt. “While SMBs recognize the value of emerging technologies, they often lack the resources or expertise to effectively put them into practice. We want to help bridge the gap with solutions that are easy to implement and deliver ROI fast.”
To learn more about the Vida survey click here.
