U.S. Census Bureau renames AI survey question to 'Super Intelligence' by executive order

The U.S. Census Bureau has changed the wording of a question on its Business Trends and Outlook Survey. It now asks businesses about 'Super Intelligence or SI (formerly referred to as Artificial Intelligence or AI)' instead of AI. The Bureau's About page says the change began with the October 19, 2026 collection and was made 'due to Executive Order 14434.' Simon Willison, who analyzed the survey's published data, calls the new examples absurd. The timing matters for anyone reading adoption numbers, since the latest published results still use the old wording.

The survey, known as BTOS, goes every two weeks to 200,000 of the 1.2 million businesses in the Bureau's universe. It uses a rotating panel, so an individual business is asked to complete the survey only once every twelve weeks. Results are published on alternating Thursdays at 10am. Willison used the most recent release, published October 22, 2026, and the 'Employment size class' spreadsheet, which breaks responses down by firm size.

The question has changed once before, and that earlier change is why Willison says the answers can't be compared directly. Until November 17, 2025, the survey asked whether a business had used Artificial Intelligence in 'producing goods or services.' From that date the phrase became 'any of its business functions.' Willison says the Bureau announced the change on December 3, 2025, and that answers before and after November 17 are not directly comparable.

His chart covers the largest firms, those with 250 or more employees. In September 2025, under the old 'producing goods or services' wording, about 12% of those companies answered yes. Under the new 'any business function' wording, the share was around 30% by February 2026 and around 40% by October 2026. Willison's earlier version of the chart, made from the same survey last year, followed an Apollo Global Management chart from September 2025 that appeared to show a slowdown in U.S. corporate AI adoption.

The renaming traces to Executive Order 14434, dated September 29, 2026, which is titled 'Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence' on the White House site. The order says that 'to the maximum extent permitted by law' executive agencies should use 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports and policy documents. Its implementation section says nothing in that section requires changing previously issued regulations, contracts, grants or other historical documents. The order also defines the new terms by reference to the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3). It directs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology to propose legislative language for a federal definition within 60 days.

Willison says he looked for the new question text in the latest spreadsheet and could not find it there, but found the Super Intelligence wording elsewhere. The new question keeps the 'any of its business functions' phrasing and changes the examples, which now include 'SI-powered data analysis' and 'virtual SI agents for customer service.' Willison finds those examples absurd. The Bureau's page says the first results reflecting the Super Intelligence wording are due for publication on Thursday.

The open question is whether the new term changes how businesses answer. Willison notes that a respondent would last have seen the question twelve weeks earlier, when it used the word AI. He hopes the survey's note that the term is 'formerly referred to as Artificial Intelligence or AI' will avoid confusion. The post doesn't say whether the Bureau tested the new wording with respondents.