(This column originally appeared in Forbes)
A new bi-partisan bill proposed in the Senate aims to provide AI training for small businesses.
It’s called the AI For Mainstreet Act and it was introduced in early January by Senators Todd Young (R-Ind) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). The idea is for the Small Business Administration (SBA) to — with no additional funding — expand its existing support services and provide AI training through its existing Small Business Development Centers across the country and cover areas such as implementation, streamlining business operations, and protecting intellectual property.
“Our bill will provide training, guidance, and support to ensure more American small businesses are equipped with the tools needed to compete in today’s evolving digital economy,” said Senator Young in a statement.
Misconceptions About Small Businesses and AI
As someone who runs a business technology consulting firm I can say that, with peace and love, I don’t believe our government officials truly appreciate how a generalized curriculum won’t be able to keep up with this rapidly changing environment. I also don’t think they understand the level of expertise required to provide this kind of training. And I’m sure they couldn’t identify three areas where AI would actually be used in a business other than a simple prompt in a popular AI chatbot.
Small businesses are not going to use AI in this way. Within a very short period, AI functionality will be embedded in most of their software applications — accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), human resources, order entry, etc. — and the smartest business owners will be paying attention. The real AI revolution for small businesses won’t happen in classrooms. It will happen inside the software they already use.
Asking ChatGPT (or Copilot or Claude or whatever) to pretty-up an email is nice. But the smartest managers will be learning how the AI tools in their core business technology can be used to shorten up sales cycles, speed up production time, re-assign field workers and manage their communications.
How Small Businesses Will Really Use AI
They will be using products like Meta’s glasses for augmented reality-based building design, Intenseye to monitor security and safety, Epicor to forecast demand and supply chain bottlenecks, Boston Dynamics’ robots to automate packing, RingCentral’s virtual receptionists and developing specific, vibe-coded applications with tools provided by Anthropic and OpenAI to solve specific problems. Small business owners will be leaning on AI applications like Wix to create their websites, Otter to manage their meetings and GitHub for all the latest tools that their programmers will use to create applications.
Small businesses in the construction industry will want to know how to use AI powered drones, AI powered 3D makers and AI powered robotic dogs to check dangerous areas. Small businesses in retail and restaurants will want to lean into AI powered reporting and AI powered bookkeeping solutions. Small businesses who provide professional services will want to learn how to use AI powered scheduling platforms and AI powered billing applications. Small manufacturers will want AI powered job costing applications to predict profitability and AI powered sensors on their machines to alert them when maintenance is due.
Who’s going to teach small businesses this important stuff? The bureaucrat from the SBA? A U.S. Senator? I don’t think so. This knowledge must be shared by the software vendors. And small business owners have a responsibility to reach out to those providing the core technologies that they use to run their business in order to better understand what AI functionality their software partners are introducing to help them run their businesses more profitably. The SBA can never do that.
How The Government Can Help Small Businesses With AI
Passing a bill to expand the SBA’s AI training is unrealistic. It’s like asking the SBA to expand their nuclear engineering training or to teach small business owners how to write a best-selling novel. No offense to the SBA, but the agency is under-resourced and under-staffed as it is. And the existing staff they have is no more familiar with today’s AI technology than most of our elected representatives.
So what’s the answer? The government should be getting out of the way. If a small business owner isn’t smart enough to realize the importance of this technology then they’re going to have a challenge playing ball against a competitor who does. That’s the free market and there will be winners and losers.
My small business sells business software. I’m of a belief that, instead of selling other makers’ software in the future, my team will have the opportunity to use new AI tools to build better applications more affordably. Maybe I’m wrong but at least I’m paying attention. We’re learning on our own. All business owners need to be doing the same. There is no government agency that is going to do this for us. I can’t even imagine considering this option.
My advice to government officials? If you want to help small businesses compete in the AI era, the best move isn’t more programming. It’s less friction — fewer regulatory burdens, faster permitting, clearer tax rules and policies that encourage private innovation. Leave the AI training to the software vendors and their customers.
