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AI Is the Biggest Small-Business Opportunity in a Generation
Artificial intelligence is transforming industries nationwide, and America’s small-business community is no different. Kelly Loeffler, who heads the U.S. Small Business Administration, recently said small businesses will be the “biggest beneficiaries” of AI — a “huge leveler of the playing field for America.”
Working with and on behalf of the National Association for the Self-Employed, I have spent more than four decades as a certified public accountant advising small businesses — companies that, according to the SBA, employ nearly half of the private-sector workforce. I hear daily from our community, more than 33 million strong, that owners are using AI more and more.
The question is no longer whether they will adopt it, but whether they will use its full value.
The adoption question is settled. A new Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices survey of more than 1,200 small-business owners nationwide finds three-quarters now use AI — and 93 percent say it has had a positive effect on their business. That tracks with Intuit QuickBooks, whose most recent U.S.-specific data puts regular AI use at 80 percent of small businesses, up from 48 percent the year before. Nearly eight in 10 of those owners say AI has made them more productive.
The question is no longer whether AI will be used but whether that usage will generate its highest possible value. Ask owners what they are actually doing with AI, and the answer is very modest. Simply Business found the single most common use is research and brainstorming — asking questions, digging up information, and getting past the blank page. While helpful, it is being used more as a glorified search engine.
Deeper in the Sachs report, you’ll find the statistic that may matter most to the long-term future of mom-and-pop businesses: only 14 percent say AI is fully embedded in their core operations. Every entrepreneur knows the difference between building a tool into how a business actually runs and merely experimenting with it. That is the difference between dabbling and doing. And right now, most owners are dabbling with one of the most powerful tools within their reach.
The stakes extend well past any single accountant, bakery or consultant. Nearly half of America’s private-sector workforce draws a paycheck from a small business, which means how well these owners harness AI won’t just shape their bottom line but it will shape jobs, prices and services for tens of millions of Americans.
The data show owners already use AI as their own bookkeeper, marketing director and customer service department.
The most immediate gains are in communications, and the time savings are real. AI can help owners launch businesses, write grant and funding letters, draft and edit emails, polish documents, and research where and how to reach new customers. Whether the task is internal or external, the payoff is the same. AI gives owners back their most precious resource: time.
Perhaps even greater potential lies in financial planning, forecasting and day-to-day operations.
AI’s power lies in the numbers. AI can help with financial planning, performance analysis, forecasting, customer demographic insights, and even preparing tax returns—work that once required consultants can now be done by owners.
The biggest opportunity is the forward-looking projection, especially for capital access. Most owners can outline where their business stands today; the strongest applications also show where it’s going, the three- to five-year vision, the growth numbers, the roadmap lenders and grant programs want to see.
AI can help with that, and it can make the difference in securing additional capital.
Small-business owners must proceed with caution. AI is a powerful assistant, not the final authority. Treat everything it produces as a first draft: verify the facts and keep a professional on tap for anything consequential.
With opportunity comes responsibility. Owners must be extremely careful about what they share with AI tools. Tax ID numbers, Social Security numbers, customer lists and proprietary data represent the real value of a business and its standing in the community. Protecting that information is not optional — the convenience of AI can never come at the expense of data security and customer trust.
Efficiency and responsibility have always undergirded our federal advocacy, whether on taxes or regulation — it’s how we give voice to our community. AI, paired with human oversight, continues that mission.
Our task now is to empower America’s small-business owners with the information, resources and training to close the AI gap so they can seize one of the greatest opportunities in a generation.
AI will not replace the entrepreneurial ingenuity of Main Street; it will sharpen it. Because when small businesses thrive, not just entrepreneurs win, all of us do.
Meet The Author:
Keith was born and raised in Dallas, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. He began his career with the public accounting firm of KPMG and has worked with and on behalf of the NASE since 1991. Of his many duties with the NASE, his passion remains answering tax and financial questions every day directly from NASE members via Ask the Experts.
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