California ranks first, followed by Ohio, Colorado, Florida and Texas in Investing.com analysis of 12 months of investor activity
NEW YORK, Oct. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- California leads the nation in a new analysis of where investors are using AI to inform investment decisions, but some of the strongest activity is taking place far beyond Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Ohio and Colorado tie for second in the nationwide ranking, with Florida and Texas rounding out the top five. New York, meanwhile, fails to crack the top 10.
The new Investing.com AI Investing Index analyzed 12 months of user activity across the U.S., looking at both the use of AI for investment research and investor engagement with AI-focused stocks, adjusted for audience size in each state.
Key findings:
- California ranks #1 overall, putting the home of Silicon Valley at the top of the AI investing map.
- Ohio and Colorado tie for #2, ahead of Florida and Texas.
- New York ranks just #13, despite being home to Wall Street and the center of the U.S. financial industry.
- Florida shows the highest use of AI for investment research among states included in the study.
- Pennsylvania leads the country in engagement with AI-focused stocks.
California leads, but Wall Street doesn't
California may be the obvious home of America's AI boom, and its investors are embracing the technology too. The state takes the top spot in the new ranking, but what happens immediately behind it is perhaps more revealing.
Ohio and Colorado tie for second, followed by Florida and Texas. Other states in the top 10 include Utah, Hawaii, Michigan and Minnesota, creating an AI investing map that looks markedly different from the traditional centers of American finance.
New York, home to Wall Street, ranks just 13th. New Jersey comes in even further down the list at #27.
"What this data shows is people doing more research, not less. AI has opened up information that was previously out of reach for retail investors, and that's leveling the playing field with the professional side of the market," said Thomas Monteiro, Senior Analyst at Investing.com. "The outcome is the most significant shift we're tracking right now: a measurably more sophisticated retail investor, and as the rankings show, that's happening everywhere."
AI is changing how Americans research investments
The rankings come as AI moves rapidly into the everyday investing habits of Americans.
A separate March 2026 survey found that 62% of U.S. retail investors had already used AI to help inform an investment decision, while more than half said they expected their use of the technology to increase.
Investors are also turning to AI for far more than simply asking whether to buy or sell a stock. The activity analyzed shows investors using AI to explore everything from stock statistics and technical analysis to company news, economic events, dividends and financial statements.
Florida stands out particularly strongly for AI-assisted investment research, recording the highest level of activity among states included in the analysis. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, shows the strongest engagement with AI-focused stocks.
"Proximity to Wall Street used to count for a great deal in research terms," Monteiro explained. "This data suggests it now counts for less than it did. The states at the top of the AI index tend not to be the ones with the financial infrastructure. What we may be watching is a catch-up, with investors who were a step behind on access closing that gap, and in a few states closing it altogether."
The U.S. ranking is part of a broader analysis of AI-related investing activity around the world. The United States ranks #19 among 66 qualifying countries, while Italy, Poland, Israel, Chile and Argentina make up the global top five.
View the full U.S. ranking and analysis:
The U.S. States Embracing AI Investing the Most in 2026
Explore the complete underlying dataset:
Full AI Investing Index data
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
New Data Reveals Where U.S. Investors Are Using AI the Most
- More than two in five business leaders (43%) say their organisation has a transformation strategy that exists mainly at leadership level and is not widely shared, while only 13% say it is documented and actively communicated across the organisation.
- While 84% of business leaders (13% strongly agree, 71% agree) say continuous learning is embedded into their organisational culture, only 19% of employees agree that it is embedded into their daily work. Instead, 45% of business leaders say learning depends mainly on individual initiative, while 44% of employees describe it as ad hoc training or self-study outside work.
- Job redesign is often reactive, with more than two in five business leaders (44%) saying roles change when specific issues or gaps arise. About one in five (21%) say their organisation has not started job redesign, while only 7% report that it is embedded and continuously reviewed.
- To build workforce capability, business leaders place the greatest value on bite-sized learning (40%), followed by change management support (36%), leadership development (33%), job redesign support (31%), and skills gap diagnostics and workforce capability assessments (31%).
SINGAPORE, Oct. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise transformation depends not only on having a strategy in place, but on whether organisations can translate it into how employees learn, how job roles evolve and how workforce capabilities are built.
Among business leaders surveyed, more than two in five (43%) say their organisation has a transformation strategy that exists mainly at leadership level and is not widely shared. A further 24% say transformation is taking place without a formal strategy, while one in five (20%) report that a strategy is still being developed. Only 13% say their organisation's transformation strategy is documented and actively communicated across the organisation.
Most business leaders (13% strongly agree, 71% agree) say continuous learning is embedded into their organisational culture, while more than three in four employees (18% strongly agree, 59% somewhat agree) agree that continuous learning is generally encouraged. However, only 19% of employees say it is embedded into their daily work.
These findings are drawn from the second and third editions of NTUC LearningHub's Enterprise Transformation Report, a three-part series on how enterprise transformation is reshaping organisations and the workforce. The report surveyed 450 working professionals, comprising 150 business leaders and 300 employees in July 2026.
While the first edition explored organisational approaches to transformation, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption and business outcomes, the second examined how transformation is experienced on the ground, covering leadership, communication, and employee involvement. The third and final edition focuses on workforce readiness and the capabilities needed to support sustained transformation.
Nearly half of business leaders (45%) say learning depends mainly on individual initiative, while a similar proportion of employees (44%) describe continuous learning as ad hoc training or self-study outside work. The findings also reveal relatively low participation in formal transformation-related training. Just 24% of business leaders have attended training on leading enterprise transformation in the past two years, with 22% of employees having received training to help them adapt to workplace changes.
Many do intend to pursue training within the next six months to two years (59% of business leaders, 48% of employees), reflecting the recognition to build capabilities for transformation. AI literacy emerges as the top skills gap, cited by 39% of business leaders and 32% of employees, while adaptability (36% and 31% respectively) and critical thinking (35% and 26%) also rank highly, underscoring the importance of both technical and human capabilities.
Yet 18% of business leaders and 30% of employees currently have no plans to attend such training, suggesting that a sizeable segment of the workforce may be underprepared to support ongoing transformation efforts. Operational demands may also limit organisations' capacity to expand upskilling efforts. More than two in five business leaders (43%) say employees cannot take time away from daily operations, making this the leading barrier to scaling training. Employees experience similar challenges, with about one in three (34%) citing not having enough time away from daily work, followed by 32% saying too many changes make priorities unclear and 28% saying training is too generic.
The challenge also extends beyond learning to how jobs themselves are evolving. Business leaders most often describe job redesign as reactive, with more than two in five (44%) saying roles change only when specific issues or gaps arise. About one in five (21%) say their organisation has not started job redesign, with only 7% reporting that it is embedded and continuously reviewed.
These constraints are also shaping the kinds of support organisations say they need. Business leaders rank bite-sized or modular learning that minimises operational disruption (40%) as the most valuable form of support for building workforce capability, followed by change management and implementation support beyond classroom training (36%) and leadership development for managers (33%), job redesign support (31%), and skills gap diagnostics and workforce capability assessments (31%).
Commenting on the findings, Mr Tay Ee Learn, Assistant Chief Executive Officer and Chief Sector Skills Officer, NTUC LearningHub, says, "Enterprise transformation is ultimately about people. This means making workforce capability-building a core part of how transformation is planned and delivered. Technology, job redesign and upskilling or reskilling are often treated as separate workstreams, but transformation is most effective when they are brought together from the outset with a clear link between business priorities, how job roles will evolve and the technical and human capabilities employees need. Communicating the strategy is only the starting point; employees also need to understand what it means for their work and how they will be supported through change. The real opportunity for organisations is to build a workforce that can adapt as quickly as business needs change, turning transformation from a series of initiatives into an enduring organisational capability."
To download all three editions of the Enterprise Transformation Report, please visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/media/research-reports. To find out more about enterprise learning solutions, training, and grants, please contact NTUC LearningHub at www.ntuclearninghub.com.
About NTUC LearningHub
NTUC LearningHub is the leading Continuing Education and Training provider in Singapore which aims to transform the lifelong employability of working people. Since our corporatisation in 2004, we have been working with employers and individual learners to provide learning solutions in areas such as Infocomm Technology, Generative AI & Cloud, Healthcare, Retail & Food Services, Employability & Literacy, Business Excellence, Workplace Safety & Health, Security, Human Resources & Coaching and Foreign Workers Training.
To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped over 34,000 organisations and achieved more than 3.2 million training places across more than 1,000 courses with a pool of about 1,000 certified trainers. As a Total Learning Solutions provider to organisations, we also forge partnerships to offer a wide range of relevant end-to-end training. Besides in-person training, we also offer instructor-led virtual live classes (VLCs) and asynchronous online learning. The NTUC LearningHub Learning eXperience Platform (LXP)—a one-stop online learning platform—offers timely, bite-sized and quality content for learners to upskill anytime and anywhere. Beyond learning, LXP also serves as a platform for jobs and skills development for both workers and companies.
For more information, visit www.ntuclearninghub.com.
** This press release is distributed by PR Newswire through automated distribution system, for which the client assumes full responsibility. **
From Transformation Strategy to Workforce Action: Learning, Job Redesign and Skills Must Evolve Together
