Administration officials have stressed the importance of supporting small businesses amid the global AI race between the U.S. and China. #
With the U.S. seeking to maintain its status as the globe’s artificial intelligence superpower, the Trump administration has been looking to support initiatives that can drive innovation and economic growth across the nation’s small businesses.
The national AI legislative framework released by the White House last month included a pillar stating that the development of emerging technologies “should strengthen American communities and small businesses through economic growth and energy dominance.”
The Small Business Administration has also been working to harness AI’s capabilities when it comes to driving innovation and growth across the country, with agency officials seeing the technology as increasingly critical for smaller companies.
During a June 9 Axios event, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said AI “is going to be a powerful engine for fueling growth on Main Street, for fueling job creation.”
“Winning the AI arms race is absolutely vital,” she added. “If China wins, this is going to be really problematic for the entire country, but particularly for Main Street.”
Earlier this month, AI firm Perplexity announced the launch of the Main Street AI Accelerator in collaboration with the SBA to help support small businesses looking to harness the technologies.
The $25 million initiative is offering $250 Perplexity Computer credits to up to 100,000 small businesses that are recipients of SBA’s 7(a)- or 504-backed loans. Computer is the name of the company’s unified system that it said “connects to 400+ tools that growing businesses already run on, including Intuit QuickBooks, Intuit Mailchimp, Shopify, and Stripe.” Perplexity said the $250 credit is a nod to America’s 250th anniversary.
SBA did not respond to multiple requests for comment, although Perplexity said it is the first time an AI firm has launched such a program with the agency.
In an interview with Nextgov/FCW, Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said the partnership with SBA was “very organic” because the agency was already using Perplexity Enterprise internally.
“When you talk to small business owners, one of the biggest bottlenecks for them is actually they can't hire enough people to grow their business,” Shevelenko said, adding that Perplexity’s Computer AI system and enhanced access to the capabilities is like if a small business “just got 100 digital co-workers.”
Shevelenko said the company is also in the process of investing “in kind of what we call concierge onboarding for these small businesses, where they get hands-on training on how to actually use Computer.”
He added that “if you just give people a little bit of a boost as they're getting started [with their businesses], then we see huge dividends to that.”