Research summary
Hawaiʻi AI Adoption
The state of the evidence
No primary research measuring AI adoption among Hawaiʻi organizations has been published with a documented methodology, so no adoption rate appears on this page. What exists is official economic and workforce data that constrains how adoption is likely to proceed. Future Skills Hawaiʻi is the canonical owner of the forthcoming Hawaiʻi AI Adoption Index; this page summarizes and links rather than duplicating it.
63-word direct answer
Key takeaways
- There is no published Hawaiʻi AI adoption percentage with a stated methodology. This page does not invent one.
- The official data that does exist describes the structural conditions: small-business share, occupational mix, cost of living, economic concentration.
- Future Skills Hawaiʻi is the canonical owner of the Adoption Index. This page summarizes and links; it does not reproduce.
- Everything below the data table is labeled analysis, not research.
Research page metadata
Every research page on this site carries these eight fields. Where the honest answer is that something does not exist yet, that is what it says.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Author | Martin Zialcita (credentials and verification) |
| Canonical owner of the primary research | Future Skills Hawaiʻi, an independent civic initiative. This page is interpretation, not the source. |
| Published | 31 July 2026 |
| Last reviewed | 31 July 2026 (a human review of the figures and their sources) |
| Methodology | Secondary-source compilation. No original survey has been conducted for this page. Figures are drawn from published federal and state statistics, cited individually below. |
| Sample | Not applicable. No primary sample exists. The compiled statistics carry their own samples, described in their source publications. |
| Data link | Each figure links to its primary source publication. No derived dataset is offered, because none was produced. |
| How to cite | For the figures, cite the original source rather than this page. For the interpretation: Zialcita, M. (2026). Hawaiʻi AI Adoption: research summary. martinzialcita.com. |
Why no adoption percentage appears here
A figure such as “X% of Hawaiʻi businesses are using AI” would be the most quotable thing this page could contain, and it is exactly what is missing from the public record. No survey of Hawaiʻi organizations with a documented sample, instrument, and date has been published.
National figures exist, but applying one to Hawaiʻi would require assuming the state resembles the national average, and the data below is largely an argument that it does not. That inference would be the kind of unfalsifiable claim the claim standard exists to prevent.
The Hawaiʻi AI Adoption Index is planned by Future Skills Hawaiʻi. When it publishes, this page will summarize it and link to the canonical version there.
What the official data does establish
Secondary sources compiled from federal and state statistics. These describe the conditions AI adoption has to operate inside, not adoption itself.
| Indicator | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Small businesses as a share of all Hawaiʻi businesses | 99.3% | SBA Office of Advocacy, Hawaii 2025 State Profile |
| Share of Hawaiʻi employment at small businesses | 49.6% | SBA Office of Advocacy, Hawaii 2025 State Profile |
| Total small businesses (fewer than 500 employees) | 144,375 | SBA Office of Advocacy, Hawaii 2025 State Profile |
| Largest occupational group | Food preparation and serving: 13.3% of employment, 82,980 workers | DBEDT / BLS Occupational Employment and Wages, Hawaii 2024 |
| Second-largest occupational group | Office and administrative support: 12.3% of employment, 76,210 workers | DBEDT / BLS Occupational Employment and Wages, Hawaii 2024 |
| Statewide median hourly wage (May 2024) | $25.61, 13th among 54 states and territories | DBEDT / BLS Occupational Employment and Wages, Hawaii 2024 |
| Cost of living index (2025, US average = 100) | 185.0, highest in the nation | MERIC Cost of Living Data Series |
| Economic concentration | “Extraordinarily concentrated in the tourism industry,” with flat real visitor spending over three decades | UHERO, July 2024 |
These are secondary sources compiled here, not original research. Cite the source publication rather than this page.
Interpretation
What the structural data implies: analysis, not findings
This section is Martin's reading of the figures above. It is analysis rather than research, and it is labeled that way deliberately: none of it is a measured finding, and it should not be cited as one.
The small-business share reframes the adoption question. When 99.3% of businesses are small and they employ roughly half the workforce, the relevant question is not how enterprises deploy AI at scale. It is what a five-to-fifty-person organization with no dedicated technical staff can adopt and maintain. Most published AI adoption advice is written for the other case.
The occupational mix locates where change will land. The two largest groups, food preparation and serving and office and administrative support, sit at opposite ends of exposure. Food service is among the least automatable by current AI. Administrative support, at 76,210 workers, is among the most exposed to exactly the drafting, extraction, scheduling, and correspondence tasks these systems handle well. That is a specific, sizeable group of jobs, and it deserves to be discussed as jobs rather than as an efficiency opportunity.
Cost of living raises the stakes on both sides. The highest cost-of-living index in the nation means displacement is harder to absorb here than almost anywhere else. It also means productivity gains are worth more, because labor is expensive relative to the value it produces. Both things are true and they point in opposite directions.
Concentration cuts both ways. UHERO's characterization of an economy extraordinarily concentrated in tourism, with flat real visitor spending over three decades, describes a diversification problem that predates AI by decades. AI is not a diversification strategy. What it can plausibly do is lower the operating cost of the small businesses that would have to carry any diversification.
What would make this page better
Stated openly, because the gaps are the most useful thing to publish while the research does not exist.
- A survey of Hawaiʻi organizations with a documented instrument, sample frame, and date. This is the single most valuable missing artifact and the Adoption Index's purpose.
- Occupational exposure analysis using Hawaiʻi's actual mix rather than national task-exposure estimates applied to a different labor market.
- Longitudinal data. One measurement establishes a level; two establish a direction, which is what anyone planning actually needs.
- Sector breakdown. Hospitality, healthcare, education, government, and nonprofits face different constraints, and a single statewide figure would obscure all of it.
- Small-organization capacity data. How many have anyone at all who could own an implementation, arguably the binding constraint, and entirely unmeasured.
The relationship to Future Skills Hawaiʻi
Worth stating precisely, because the boundary here is an important one.
Future Skills Hawaiʻi is an independent civic initiative and the canonical owner of public research on Hawaiʻi AI adoption and workforce readiness, including the surveys, the instruments, and the forthcoming Adoption Index. When that research publishes, the authoritative version lives there.
This page owns Martin's interpretation and nothing more. A research page on this site summarizes and links to the canonical owner rather than duplicating the report, and that is the arrangement here.
The separation is also a commercial one: civic research is not routed into lead generation for AI Marketing Box. If you arrived looking for the research, the correct destination is Future Skills Hawaiʻi, and this page should not stand between you and it.
Limitations
No primary data. Everything factual here is a secondary source compiled from published statistics. The analysis section is explicitly interpretation.
The figures were not collected to answer this question. SBA business counts and BLS occupational data were produced for other purposes. Using them to reason about AI adoption is a legitimate inference and still an inference.
Vintage varies. The occupational data is May 2024, the business profile 2025, the UHERO characterization July 2024. AI capability moved considerably across that window.
Occupational groups are not tasks. “Office and administrative support” contains work of widely differing automatability. Treating a group as uniformly exposed would be wrong, and any displacement estimate built that way should be distrusted.
Martin does not represent Hawaiʻi's AI industry and this page is not a sector position. It is one practitioner's reading of public data.
Primary sources
Cite these rather than this page for any figure above.
- Hawaii 2025 Small Business ProfileU.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
- Occupational Employment and Wages 2024, State of HawaiiHawaii DBEDT / Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Employment and wages by occupationHawaii DBEDT
- Cost of Living Data SeriesMissouri Economic Research and Information Center
- Potential opportunities to diversify the economy of Hawaiʻi (July 2024)UHERO, University of Hawaiʻi
- Workforce and AI adoption researchFuture Skills Hawaiʻi (canonical owner)
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a figure for AI adoption among Hawaiʻi businesses?
No, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight. No survey of Hawaiʻi organizations with a documented methodology has been published, so any figure offered here would be either a national number relabeled or an estimate presented as a measurement.
The Hawaiʻi AI Adoption Index is planned by Future Skills Hawaiʻi to address exactly this gap.
Can I cite the figures on this page?
Cite the original source publication rather than this page; each is linked in the sources section. That way your reader reaches the primary data and its own methodology.
If you are citing the interpretation in the analysis section, please attribute it as analysis rather than as a research finding.
Is this Future Skills Hawaiʻi research?
No. Future Skills Hawaiʻi owns the primary research program and is the canonical source for it. This page is Martin's summary and interpretation, published separately.
When the Adoption Index publishes, this page will link to it rather than reproduce it.