(This column originally appeared in Forbes)
This Week in Small Business Technology News
Small Business Technology News #1 — Google finds AI chatbots are only 69% accurate…at best.
Google released a new benchmark — FACTS Benchmark Suite — to measure how factually accurate AI chatbots really are. The results are sobering: the best AI models only score 69 percent accuracy at best. The top performer was Google Gemini with OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI scoring lower. This means that chatbots get (roughly) 1 out of every 3 answers wrong even when the tone is confident. Most existing evaluations focus on whether an AI can finish a task — not whether the information it gives you is true. In critical areas like healthcare, finance and legal matters, getting facts wrong can have serious consequences — proving that human oversight is essential. (Source: Digital Trends)
Why this is important for your small business:
This only validates what we all know: AI is cool, fun, great and entertaining. But it’s not accurate or reliable enough yet to be put into business practice. Every business person — and personal friend — I know who has dug into AI chatbots are always amazed by what they can do but very dubious about their output. I don’t think AI will ever be 100% accurate. And although bots and agents may ultimately perform as well as humans, they will still lack intuition, personality and basic human understanding that will prevent from replacing humans in many jobs, despite the doomsday prognostications we read.
Small Business Technology News #2 — CEOs to keep spending on AI, despite spotty returns.
Despite many AI projects not yet delivering strong financial returns, a large majority of corporate leaders plan to boost their AI spending in 2026. According to advisory firm Teneo, 68 percent of CEOs plan to increase AI spending even though less than half of current AI initiatives have generated more value than they’ve cost. The CEOs surveyed report better AI results in marketing and customer-service areas while security, legal and HR implementations lag. Teneo also surveyed 400 investors and found 53 percent expect AI to pay off within six months. In contrast, CEOs of large companies think meaningful returns will take longer than six months. Despite ongoing anxieties about AI replacing workers, 67 percent of CEOs believe that AI will increase their entry-level headcount. The bottom line — leaders are doubling down on AI spending because they see it as a long-term strategic necessity. (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Why this is important for your small business:
I guess this is part two to the item before this. Just this morning I asked ChatGPT to go through a folder with about 40 resumes I received for an open position and to create a spreadsheet of contact information from the resumes. It did it — which is amazing, right? Except…oops…it only captures about half of the resumes and got some of the information wrong. So I had to go through and fill in the blanks. Saving me time? Not really. Not yet.
Small Business Technology News #3 — Meta considering charging business pages to post links.
Meta is testing a restriction that would limit how many organic link posts a business page or professional mode profile can make on Facebook each month unless they subscribe to Meta Verified. The company stated as of December 16, profiles “certain Facebook profiles” that are not Meta Verified will be limited to 2 organic link posts per month. To post more links, Pages would need to subscribe to one of Meta Verified’s paid tiers which run between $14.99-$499/month for business users. (Source: Social Media Today)
Why this is important for your small business:
According to the article, Meta stated that this is a “limited test” with only some Pages being affected. For businesses and marketers, here’s some useful information to keep in mind — according to Meta’s “Widely Viewed Content Report” published last week, Facebook posts that include a link get little traction in the app. For now, Meta seems to be experimenting with a pay-to-post-links model to encourage more upgrades to Meta Verified.
Small Business Technology News #4 — Refer a friend app: New app pays people for recommending their favorite businesses to others.
Refer a Friend app — officially launched on December 15 — is aiming to turn everyday recommendations into cash. The app is designed to amplify word-of-mouth referrals for local and small service businesses –plumbers, electricians, pet groomers, stylists, etc. — and reward people who refer customers to them. Founder Ryan Zeleznak discovered an untapped opportunity and created the app to help people turn their networks into assets. “Our platform gives people the tools to create their own marketplace … and earn money for making those connections,” Zeleznak said. Users can join Refer a Friend for free and create their personal referral marketplace. Users invite professionals they want to recommend and can earn up to 10 percent commission when a referral completes a job. Professionals then pay a referral fee after a job is completed and they’re paid. The app is pitched as a simple way for people from all walks of life (stay-at-home parents, gig workers, side-hustlers, etc.) to use their personal networks to support local businesses while earning extra cash.(Source: Globe Newswire)
Why this is important for your small business:
Love this idea and love this app. For contractors, particularly independent contractors, referrals are the lifeblood of their leads. I would recommend service businesses checking this platform out and leaning into it. I’m sure more features benefitting businesses or giving them the opportunity to promote will be in the future as the company grows.
Small Business Technology News #5 — Zoom launches AI companion 3.0 with agentic workflows, transforming conversations into action.
AI Companion 3.0 is the newest version of Zoom’s intelligent AI assistant designed to go beyond meeting summaries and help automate work tasks, generate insights and streamline workflows. Zoom combines its own language models with top third-party ones (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, and open-source models like NVIDIA Nemotron) to deliver smarter, more flexible responses in what Zoom calls a “federated approach.” The new AI Companion’s features include Agentic Retrieval capabilities that locates information across meeting summaries, transcripts and notes; a Post Meeting Follow Up prompt generates follow-up tasks and messages; and Agentic Writing mode helps draft, edit and refine business documents based on specific meetings or resources. Zoom’s president of Product and Engineering Velchamy Sankarlingam said, “The launch of AI Companion 3.0 is a turning point for Zoom, continuing our transformation from a meeting company into a pioneer of AI-first intelligent work orchestration.” (Source: Zoom)
Why this is important for your small business:
My company still uses Zoom but I feel like it’s continuing to lose market share to Teams and Meet. The reason is that there are too many additional steps to setup Zoom meetings and then have them on our calendar. The platform still delivers quality meetings and their AI tools are useful.
Each week I round up five small business technology news stories and explain why they’re important for your business. If you have any interesting stories, please post to my X account @genemarks
