“Rulebreakers in a really good way.”
That’s how Neil Bradley, EVP and Chief Policy Officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, described small businesses at last week’s CO Small Business Forum. It’s a statement that’s stuck with me.
Bradley, who sees small businesses as the engines of communities and the U.S. economy, expressed optimism about the future of work and AI.
“Small businesses are using it more quickly and more effectively than the biggest businesses,” he said, noting that 58% of small businesses now report using generative AI.
While large companies are bound by policies that limit inventiveness, Bradley said, small businesses are “way more inventive” with AI. That’s what makes them, as he put it, “Rulebreakers in a really good way.”
“We have an amazingly strong economy. The resiliency that’s occurring from Main Streets all the way across the country is real.”
And with the AI innovations coming from small business operations, Bradley is confident the U.S. will see productivity and economic growth.
85% of the jobs Americans are doing today didn’t exist in 1945.
That statistic, shared by Chris Turner, Global Head of Knowledge and Information Products, Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google, during last week’s CO Small Business Forum, stopped me for a moment.
Eighty years of change. New industries. New tools. New ways of thinking and doing.
It’s no surprise, then, that AI is fueling the next great shift.
Turner noted that some jobs will change, some will go away, and entirely new ones will be created.
The key, he said, is to get comfortable using AI tools today.
He compared this moment to the early days of email and the internet when simple adoption determined who would be ready for what came next. Small businesses that actively use AI will be the ones building the future.
“The key is being able to use the stuff,” Turner said, encouraging small businesses to treat AI as a thought partner to solve problems, create products, and unlock new markets.
Turner ended with a warning that hit home:
The greatest risk for small business owners today is your competitor figuring out how to use AI before you do.
That line brought Blockbuster to mind and a business truth: the next era of resilience belongs to those willing to learn, test, and adapt AI now.
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