Corporate America may be using AI to cut jobs, but small businesses are using it to keep them

Small businesses are using AI to augment workers rather than replace them, according to a report by The Guardian. A window and door company owner invested $10,000 in an AI application that listens to sales conversations and automatically generates quotes, reducing paperwork and errors while allowing salespeople to serve more customers.

Corporate America may be using AI to cut jobs, but small businesses are using it to keep them By Gene MarksSource: The Guardian Technology https://www.theguardian.com/us/technology Reports of wide-scale replacement of workers by AI are overblown. Small businesses use it to help workers I recently met the owner of a company that sells windows and doors. He told me he invested about $10,000 in an AI https://www.theguardian.com/technology/artificialintelligenceai application that is used by his salespeople in his showroom. The application listens to the conversations between the salesperson and the prospective customer and then automatically creates a quote for the salesperson to review and send. “It allows my salespeople to talk to more customers and spend less time doing paperwork,” he said. “And it cuts down on errors.” Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/26/small-businesses-ai Get AI news in your inbox Daily digest of what matters in AI.