AI is tilting the field toward small business

I don’t look at AI the way a big company does.

I’m not building an innovation lab. I’m not trying to impress investors. I’m trying to run a better business — move faster, serve customers better, and compete above my weight. That lens changes everything about how I use this technology, and it’s exactly why I think AI is a bigger deal for small businesses than it is for the giants.

This isn’t a thought experiment for me. I’ve spent the past year building AI into my own company — rebuilding my back office around it, cutting software I used to think was essential, and handing real, recurring work to agents. I’ve written about what that actually looked like. I have the results, and they changed how I see the whole game.

Here’s the shift.

For decades, big companies won on structure: more staff, more specialists, more systems, and more margin to absorb their own inefficiency. Small businesses never had that cushion. We made decisions faster and did more with fewer people — out of necessity.

AI quietly erases a lot of that gap.

Used well, it helps a small team write faster, respond faster, organize what it knows, follow up without letting things slip, and automate the busywork that used to eat the day. What it doesn’t do is replace judgment, taste, experience, or trust — the things small businesses actually win on. It amplifies them. A capable owner with the right tools starts to operate like a much bigger company, without the overhead that usually comes with it.

That’s why I build AI for internal use first. Not because it’s trendy — because small teams need leverage. Every bit of friction I strip out of my own operation makes me more efficient without making me more bloated. That’s the whole trick: get bigger in capability without getting bigger in cost.

And the more I do it, the more I think this points somewhere beyond my own company.

Most small business owners I talk to already know AI matters. They just don’t know where to start. They don’t need hype, and they don’t need a vendor selling magic. They need someone who’s actually run a small business, sat in the same seat, and can point to exactly where AI saves time, sharpens service, and creates an edge — and, just as honestly, where it doesn’t.

That’s why I’m seriously considering building an AI consultancy for small businesses. Not because I need something else to do — but because I believe in small business. I believe in local. And — critically — I know how to bring that advantage forward.