I recently met the owner of a company that sells windows and doors. He told me he invested about $10,000 in an AI application that is used by his salespeople in his showroom. The application listens to the conversations between the salesperson and the prospective customer and then automatically creates a quote for the salesperson to review and send.
“It allows my salespeople to talk to more customers and spend less time doing paperwork,” he said. “And it cuts down on errors.”
Another businessperson I know connected Claude to a folder containing the specifications, manuals, instruction guides, technical sheets and other documentation for the equipment her company sells. She says that her customer-support team can now ask Claude questions on any issue and get quick answers. Her next step is to roll out the platform to her customers.
There are many more projects like these under way. Last year, most small businesses were using AI to get answers to questions, review contracts, create policies and rewrite emails. Now they’re starting to move into real-life applications that are showing true return on investment.
The AI story on Main Street seems so far to not be mass layoffs. It is exhausted owners using technology to help scarce employees do more work, make fewer mistakes and serve more customers.
Since mid-2021, the Department of Labor has reported an overall 9% increase – not decrease – of people employed. If you don’t believe the government, then read the numbers from HR and payroll processors such as ADP, Gusto and Paychex, who all report continued job gains among their customers – especially their smaller customers – during the same period of time. Gusto says that small businesses are expected to hire about 974,000 recent grads ages 20 to 24 in the 2026 season, up from 962,000 in 2025. There are almost 7.6m job openings this month, an increase from pre-Covid levels and most predominantly at small businesses. And recent surveys from numerous outlets have found that most small businesses – who employ half of the country’s workers – are not only optimistic about their growth but plan to hire more people in the coming months.
AI is not replacing people. And, despite media reports and the warnings from pundits, academics and experts, it’s not going to, at least for small companies. Why?
For starters, there just aren’t enough people to do the work that needs to be done. The US workforce is expected to significantly decline over the next decade, thanks to an ageing population and a slowdown in birthrates. Immigrant workers who perform much of our services are in short supply. Robot technology – even if a smaller company could afford them – is years away from installing dishwashers, fixing HVAC systems, laying pipes and putting up drywall. The construction industry is desperate for workers. Business owners now view AI as something that can help their workers do their jobs better while they’re easing into retirement.
People also adapt. It’s insulting when those experts say that millions will be unemployed, as if humans will just retreat into their darkened living rooms, collect some form of universal income check and watch Netflix all day. Humans aren’t like that.
When the tax code was first released in 1913, there were only a few dozen pages. Today it’s grown to tens of thousands. Twenty years ago, jobs like “social media manager”, “mobile app developer”, “executive coach”, “SEO specialist” and even “cannabis compliance manager” didn’t even exist. With all the automation and technology around us, how many times do you hear that someone is “slammed” or “hasn’t taken a vacation in years”? People want purpose and want to feel needed. They want to be busy. I believe humans will find plenty of other productive things to do with our time. Maybe the recent surge in entrepreneurship is indicative of that.
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Also, it’s going to take a while to trust AI. My clients don’t. They don’t believe big tech’s promises that their data is protected and private when we regularly read of breaches and models trained on private information. They wonder if, by using AI platforms, their pricing, costs and other proprietary information are being exposed for others to see. They’ve been burned by bugs, errors, shutdowns and disruptions before caused by unreliable technology, and they’re not stupid when today’s big tech companies cover up their tracks by saying these are just “hallucinations”. Please. There’s a long way to go before business owners in particular are going to let some bot process their invoices, collect receivables, interact with irate customers or be responsible for shipping products without human oversight.
Finally, big companies can lay off thousands of people without flinching because every big company has bloat. These jobs are generally in PR, marketing, IT and customer service and have always been exposed. Big companies often have entire departments where automation can quickly reduce headcount. Small businesses usually don’t. In a 20-person company, there is rarely much slack. Everyone’s valuable and needs to pull their weight. Like the windows-and-doors guy, they want AI to help their staff to do more in a day so they can stop just surviving and start growing.
Yes, technology throughout the years has replaced workers and the AI boom will do the same. Corporate America may use AI to cut jobs. Main Street is more likely to use it to save time, save margins and save the employees it already struggled to find. That is the AI story we should be paying more attention to.
