We asked 1,226 people who work in nonprofits and government how they use AI at work. They answered The AI Report’s Where You Stand benchmark between July 20, 2026 and November 2, 2026. Here is how far along they are, what holds them back, what they want from AI next and which tools the most advanced teams use, compared with all 14,452 people in the benchmark.
Key findings
- People in nonprofits and government are behind everyone else in the benchmark. 12% are leaders, against 14% of all respondents, and 67% are still early.
- The biggest blocker is picking the right tools (31%), followed by the skills gap (29%).
- Their top goal is to save time (47%).
- ChatGPT is the most used AI tool (83% of those who named a tool), then Claude (61%) and Gemini (48%). Otter stands out: 6% use it, against 4% of all respondents.
- Leaders lean on Claude. 72% of leaders use it, against 53% of those still early.
How far along people in nonprofits and government are with AI
The largest share of people in nonprofits and government say they are “just exploring” (40%). 8% say AI is used across their company and 4% are rolling it out to their team.
- Just exploring
- Testing a few tools
- Using 1 to 3 tools for real
- Rolling out to their team
- Used across the company
- Helping others with AI
What holds people in nonprofits and government back
We asked for the single biggest blocker. Picking the right tools leads at 31%. If that is you too: shortlist tools by the job you need done.
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
What they want from AI in the next 90 days
47% want to save time, 30% want to build their AI skills and 7% want to build an AI product.
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
The AI tools people in nonprofits and government use
People named 3.2 AI tools each on average. These are the 12 most used, as a share of the 1,111 people here who named at least one. Compare any of them in our AI tool database.
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
What the leaders use differently
Leaders are the 148 people in nonprofits and government whose AI is rolled out to their team or used across their company. They named 3.9 tools each, against 2.9 for the 826 who are still early. These are the clearest differences.
| Tool | Leaders | Early | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | 72% | 53% | +19 pts |
| Power BI | 16% | 5% | +11 pts |
| Perplexity | 24% | 14% | +10 pts |
| Microsoft Copilot | 14% | 5% | +9 pts |
| Salesforce | 11% | 3% | +8 pts |
- Share of each group who use the tool. Leaders: 134 people, early: 735 people.
Where they use AI at work
Writing comes first (76%), then personal productivity (61%) and research (57%). People could pick several areas.
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
- Asked July 20 to August 31, 2026: 757 answers.
Budget for a first AI project
45% are not sure yet. The most common amount named is under $500 (34%).
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
- Asked from September 1, 2026: 470 answers.
Who answered
50% decide, recommend or have a say in what their company buys.
Company size
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
Role
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
Say in what their company buys
- Nonprofits and government
- All respondents
Next steps
- Shortlist tools by the job you need done. The AI Report tool database compares 5,500+ AI tools by use case and price.
- Join the free live Claude session. Every Tuesday at 2pm ET, free for every reader.
- Get a plan built for you. The AI Report Pro turns your benchmark answers into a 90-day AI plan, step by step.
How do you compare?
Answer the same nine quick questions as these 14,452 people. See which of five AI types you are, how you compare with readers like you, and get a free 30-day AI roadmap by email.
Free. You also get The AI Report, the five-minute AI briefing, every weekday. Unsubscribe anytime.
Compare with other groups
The full benchmark: AI at Work Benchmark 2026, with every industry, role and company size side by side.
By industry: Professional services, Healthcare, Software and tech, Education, Marketing and media, Manufacturing, Financial services, Retail and e-commerce, Real estate, Legal.
By role: Executives and founders, Directors, Managers and team leads, Individual contributors, Consultants and advisors, Students and career switchers.
By company size: Solo professionals, Small businesses (2 to 50), Mid-size companies (51 to 1,000), Large enterprises (1,001+).
About this data
These numbers come from The AI Report’s Where You Stand benchmark. Between July 20, 2026 and November 2, 2026, 14,452 people completed it. This page covers the 1,226 who said they work in nonprofits and government.
- Answers are self-reported. People chose their own industry, role, company size and stage.
- “Early” means just exploring or testing a few tools. “Leaders” means AI is rolled out to their team or used across their company.
- People could pick more than one tool, so tool shares add up to more than 100%. Tool shares are out of the 1,111 people here who named at least one tool.
- Where people use AI was asked from July 20 to August 31, 2026 (757 answers here).
- Budget was asked from September 1, 2026 (470 answers here).
- Percentages are rounded to whole numbers.
- We never publish individual answers. A group only gets a page with 100 or more people, and we only compare groups of 30 or more.
- People who take an AI newsletter's quiz are more interested in AI than the average worker, so read these numbers as a benchmark of people actively working on AI, not a national average.
Last updated November 2, 2026. To cite this page: The AI Report, AI at Work Benchmark 2026, theaireport.ai/tools/benchmark.