(This column originally appeared in Forbes)
Here are five things in tech that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
This Week in Small Business Technology News
Small Business Technology News #1 — How Google’s AI overviews are accelerating change in paid search.
An exhaustive study on Google’s AI Overviews and their impact on SERP (Search Engine Results Page) on the retail, travel, finance, healthcare, and automotive industries found that paid search click-through rates declined 8–12 percent where AI Overview’s show up. Finance showed the highest increase of AI Overviews across informational and top-funnel queries, followed by healthcare. The data also shows how the visibility of AI Overviews shifts based on the length of a query (1 word to 10 words). (Source: Search Engine Land)
Why this is important for your small business:
AI is beginning to turn the world of paid search upside down. And while AI search is decreasing traffic to many websites, some marketing executives tell me that the clicks that do make it to their sites are of higher quality. That makes sense. Search Engine Land suggest that advertisers can stay competitive by increasing visibility and bidding more aggressively on paid placements as AI Overviews continue to evolve. It will be interesting to see what new search and advertising models are coming. But make no mistake: changes are coming.
Small Business Technology News #2 — Is ChatGPT Atlas Better Than Google Chrome?
ChatGPT’s new browser Atlas is designed to work seamlessly with the chatbot, offering real-time assistance, summarization, and remembers the context of previously visited sites. With Google Chrome’s Gemini users can ask for clarification on complex content and assign the AI time-consuming tasks. It can also summarize information across multiple sources and extract key details. A comparison found that Gemini’s integration with Google apps enhances each tool — Google Calendar, Google Meet, etc. It also found that Atlas is the most accessible ideal for users seeking a more AI-centric experience while Google Chrome with Gemini can help with research and organization with the bonus of compatibility with Google’s services. (Source: News24)
Why this is important for your small business:
Over the next year or so I believe many users are going to be switching their browser preference to ones that are more integrated with their favorite AI chatbot. I’ve been a Google Chrome user for years but am increasingly going to ChatGPT for answers, so I’m betting it will make sense that I switch over to Atlas at some point. Right now I’m switching between the two. I’m not sure what the tipping point is.
Small Business Technology News #3 — Instacart rolls out AI tools for grocers, Sprouts will be first to use its Cart Assistant.
Instacart has launched a suite of AI tools for grocers called “AI Solutions,” with Sprouts Farmers Market and Kroger among the first to adopt its new Cart Assistant for personalized shopping. Solutions include Cart Assistant: An AI-powered shopping assistant that helps customers with meal planning, budgeting, and product recommendations. It can be integrated into grocers’ websites and apps or used in-store via smart shopping carts. Store View offers real-time shelf monitoring using images and videos to detect low or out-of-stock items. An AI Catalog System provides analysis of retail data to provide business insights. Sprouts Farmers Market and Kroger will be the first to roll out Cart Assistant on their digital platforms. Instacart CEO Chris Rogers emphasized that this move brings “enterprise-grade AI tech” to grocers of all sizes. (Source: CNBC)
Why this is important for your small business:
Even though Sprouts and Kroger are large companies, they’re choosing to forego the development of their own customer-facing AI applications and instead licensing from companies like Instacart. If you’re a small grocer, this is probably the best route for you too.
Small Business Technology News #4 — Study: 71 percent of data breaches impact small businesses.
Swiss company Proton released the findings from its Data Breach Observatory, showing that 71 percent of data breaches in 2025 targeted small businesses, exposing over 300 million user records. Offering services that helps protect online privacy, Proton’s report underscores the vulnerability of small businesses due to limited cybersecurity resources. Of the 800 attacks that occurred in 2025, 23 percent of those were companies with fewer than 10 employees and 48 percent were companies between 10–250 employees. One of the main reasons small businesses are targeted is hackers see them a low-hanging fruit because of limited cybersecurity budgets. Fewer employees means fewer defenses and more vulnerability to human error. Extensive employee training and investing in cybersecurity tools — even on a tight budget — can prevent costly breaches. (Source: Tech.co)
Why this is important for your small business:
I try to include articles like this regularly to remind readers that run small businesses how important it is to invest in security. Doing otherwise can shut your operations down and create significant costs. The #1 cause of security breaches are employee mistakes, so no matter security platforms you use it’s just as important to get your employees (and yourself) regularly trained on the most recent threats. One click is all it takes to download a malware bot that wreaks havoc.
Small Business Technology News #5 — The 10 best AI chatbots for small business websites in 2026.
Open PR ranked the top 10 AI chatbots for small business websites in 2026, focusing on features like automation, customer engagement, affordability, and ease of integration. Leadie.ai makes the list for small service businesses looking to convert website visitors into qualified leads. The chatbot engages visitors in real time and retrieves contact details only from serious prospects. Tidio’s chatbot Lyro can answer up to 70 percent of common questions and was given a 4.7 rating out of 5 for ease of use. ManyChat automates conversations across social media platforms, turning them into actionable leads/bookings. ManyChat is used by 1.5 million businesses in over 170 countries. Chatbase allows businesses to construct their own chatbots that are trained on internal data and/or website content, creating a query assistant almost instantly. For the entire list visit the link. (Source: openPR)
Why this is important for your small business:
If you’re looking to put an AI chatbot on your website to answer visitors’ questions there’s never been a better time. The tools are extremely affordable and work well. Also worth considering are the tools offered by your customer relationship management platforms. Mainstream CRM applications like Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot and Dynamics offer their own chatbots which are already integrated with your CRM data.
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
