Rather than replacing workers, artificial intelligence is being used by small businesses to enhance employee productivity, according to business columnist Gene Marks. While corporate America may use AI to cut jobs, Main Street is deploying the technology to retain staff and improve efficiency.
AI in Action: Real-World Examples
Marks recounts meeting the owner of a company that sells windows and doors. The owner invested about $10,000 in an AI application used by salespeople in his showroom. The application listens to conversations between salespeople and prospective customers and automatically creates a quote for review and sending.
“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 connected Claude to a folder containing specifications, manuals, and technical documentation for equipment her company sells. She says her customer-support team can now ask Claude questions on any issue and get quick answers, with plans to roll out the platform to customers.
Data Shows Job Growth Among Small Businesses
Since mid-2021, the Department of Labor has reported a 9% overall increase in employment, not a decrease. Payroll processors ADP, Gusto, and Paychex all report continued job gains among their customers—especially smaller ones—during the same period. Gusto expects small businesses to hire about 974,000 recent graduates aged 20 to 24 in the 2026 season, up from 962,000 in 2025. There are nearly 7.6 million job openings this month, an increase from pre-Covid levels, predominantly at small businesses. Surveys show most small businesses, which employ half the country’s workers, are optimistic about growth and plan to hire more.
Why AI Won't Replace Workers at Small Firms
Marks argues that AI is not replacing people at small companies for several reasons. The U.S. workforce is expected to decline over the next decade due to an aging population and falling birthrates. Immigrant workers are in short supply, and robot technology is years away from many service jobs. Business owners view AI as a tool to help workers do their jobs better while easing into retirement.
Humans adapt, Marks notes. Jobs like social media manager or mobile app developer did not exist 20 years ago. People seek purpose and want to be busy, suggesting they will find productive uses for their time.
Trust is another barrier. Clients doubt big tech's promises on data privacy given frequent breaches and models trained on private information. Bugs, errors, and shutdowns have made business owners wary of letting AI process invoices or interact with customers without human oversight.
Finally, small businesses lack the bloat that makes layoffs possible in large corporations. In a 20-person company, everyone is valuable and must pull their weight. AI is used to help staff do more in a day, enabling growth rather than survival.
Marks concludes that while technology has replaced workers historically, and corporate America may use AI to cut jobs, Main Street will use it to save time, protect margins, and retain employees it struggled to find. That, he says, is the AI story worth attention.
