SMB Interviews: 100% Awareness, Excitement about AI
The small business world has probably never embraced a new technology as quickly or enthusiastically as they have with AI.
Owners and Verticals
To date we've interviewed* 14 business owners and operators across a range of verticals, business sizes and locations. Among other questions, we ask them what their companies do, how large they are, how they promote themselves and acquire customers (and what's working), what software tools they use and whether they've tried or are using AI in any capacity. Each of their answers leads to multiple follow-ups but the interviews follow generally the same overall structure.
We thought it would be helpful to present some of the early common themes and findings. The information in this article comes from the following businesses:
- Commercial Construction (employees: 20, Tucson, Arizona)
- Residential Construction (employees: 50, Chicago, Illinois)
- Commercial Pool Construction (employees: 8, Tampa, Florida)
- Financial Services and Loans (employees: 89, Northern California)
- Medical Marijuana Dispensary (employees: <5, near Portland, Maine)
- Web Design and Marketing (employees: 11, Temecula, California)
- Disability Advocacy Non-Profit (employees: 6, Chicago, Illinois)
- Closed Captioning Vendor (sole proprietor, St. Louis, Missouri)
- Restaurant (employees: 11, Charlotte, North Carolina)
- Residential Landscaping (employees: 3, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
