Small businesses (10-99 employees) perceive the cloud as essential to success. While they lag behind larger enterprises in technology adoption, they plan to invest in technologies such as AI/ML, cloud, and automation to achieve their business goals. In the 2024 Frost & Sullivan Global Cloud Decision-Maker survey, small business respondents shared their perceptions, purchase decisions, and plans related to cloud, IT, and AI. Key findings include:

•     AI is considered a strategic investment to help achieve business goals. Top drivers for AI investments include improving operations, enhancing the employee experience, and boosting innovation.

•     The percentage of small businesses using public and multi-cloud infrastructure will double by 2026; the percentage using hybrid cloud will triple. At the same time, small businesses plan to retain infrastructure on-premises, primarily to support legacy applications.

•     Small businesses turn to managed service providers (MSPs) to fill expertise gaps, especially in application development, data migration, and data management.

This report offers small businesses and IT service providers a glimpse of the near future for the cloud and AI markets.