Small business takeaway
- Five startups show that the next wave of AI is practical, not flashy: It’s about tech tools that plug into everyday small-business workflows and compound gains in sales, service, and efficiency. Here’s what that looks like on the ground: Voice analysis turns real customer conversations into employee frontline training; digital receipts and voice messages use the in-store checkout moment to capture feedback and drive customer loyalty; merchandise demand forecasting and product co-creation get faster; and new tools help small brands gather more reviews, then share them easily across multiple sales platforms.
The founders of tech companies Ethosphere, ShopSight, Slip, Voicebox, and Wholescale have big ideas about how to use artificial intelligence to solve everyday business problems. But they also are thinking small, with solutions that can be tailored to meet the needs of small businesses.
These companies were among the 50 startups chosen for the prestigious Innovators Showcase at the 2026 National Retail Federation convention by more than 20 industry leaders, venture capitalists, and technology accelerators.
All five are focused on issues that are top of mind for small businesses. Three are leaning into physical retail, with solutions for in-store and in-person business challenges. Three are addressing the need for businesses — particularly new brands and stores — to generate and capitalize on customer feedback. And all are cultivating small business users, with pricing options tailored to encourage SMBs to test these new solutions.
Their focus on applications that work for small businesses, as well as large, reflects how AI tools are leveling the playing field and enabling small businesses and brands to compete against the big players.
A recent report by NielsenIQ (NIQ) and Kearney found that over the past three years, niche brands grew market share by 1.5 percentage points while large and midsize brands declined. Innovation and discoverability now matter more than size, according to the report.
“The winners will be those who combine AI-driven speed with deep consumer understanding, agentic systems proficiency, and disciplined measurement,” Marta Cyhan-Bowles, Chief Communications Officer and Global Head of Marketing of NIQ, said in releasing the report.
The report echoes what the founders of these startups are saying, that AI is making actions such as concept testing or consumer research that used to require extensive investment affordable for small companies.
The five startup founders shared with CO— what motivated them to create their companies and how their solutions are designed to benefit businesses both large and small.
Their focus on applications that work for small businesses, as well as large, reflects how AI tools are leveling the playing field and enabling small businesses and brands to compete against the big players.
Ethosphere founder: Using voice-trained AI to create personalized training for store employees from ‘high-end jewelry stores to quick-serve restaurants’
Evan Smith spent six years as an executive at Starbucks, most recently as vice-president for technology, strategy, and business development, before starting Ethosphere.
Smith’s years at Starbucks revealed that “the greatest predictor of a high-performing store is a high-performing manager,” he said.
Good managers typically say that the most important thing they do is coach and teach employees, “and in the same breath they’ll tell you they don’t have time to do it,” Smith told CO—.
Against that backdrop, Ethosphere uses AI to analyze employee interactions with customers, provide suggestions, and identify workers who need more coaching. It uses rapidly improving advances in AI’s ability to interpret and analyze voice to accomplish that.
Employees wear a microphone that’s trained with AI to recognize the employee’s voice and capture the employee’s side of in-store conversations with customers. Those conversations are then analyzed to see how the worker performed on key benchmarks, such as greeting a customer or suggesting products. The manager can track employee performance on the Ethosphere dashboard, and employees can use the dashboard to track their performance and get coaching suggestions.
Smith sees great potential for Ethosphere to help SMBs and a business with three or four stores, for example. Companies of that size, he said, often don’t have a manager on duty all the time in each location.
Ethosphere can show a manager handling multiple stores, which store employees need the most coaching, and where he or she should be spending the most time.
Smith said he’s seeing interest in Ethosphere from a wide range of businesses that depend on well-trained employees — “anywhere from high-end jewelry to quick-serve restaurants and everything in between.” He also heard from companies interested in Ethosphere’s ability to support and coach remote sales teams.
[Read more: How the New Era of AI Will Impact Consumer-Driven Companies Large and Small in 2026]
ShopSight founder: Turning real-time shopper feedback into actionable insights about what consumers want to buy
ShopSight Founder and CEO Nick Davis wanted to leverage his background in forecasting and future technologies to help retailers and brands “see faster what’s coming,” and predict consumer trends more accurately.
The ShopSight platform serves multiple functions. It lets consumers design new products using generative AI, it allows brands to get real-time feedback from consumers about possible product launches, it helps shoppers find and buy what they’re searching for, and the platform provides merchants with data they need to predict demand and make decisions.
Brands can post design challenges or surveys on the ShopSight website or use the platform in other ways to gather feedback.
As of the beginning of 2026, over 10,000 consumers have used the platform, and more than 75 brands are on the platform.
In one case, a brand that was seeking information about beauty trends used an influencer who asked her followers to play a game on ShopSight that revealed their beauty product and retailer preferences. Her post got 400 responses within 36 hours.
The post, Davis said, generated statistically valid data within two days that normally would have taken weeks and cost the brand several hundreds of thousands of dollars for surveys and polls.
ShopSight offers tier packages geared to small and medium businesses where they can post one of the survey or design challenges for $950.
Slip founder: Replacing in-store paper receipts with customized digital touchpoints: ‘People forget that 80% of retail happens in stores’
Slip was born when Founder and CEO Tash Grossman decided to use new age tech to update something stores have been using for 150 years – the printed cash register receipt.
The continuing importance of in-person shopping is “so overlooked – it’s a personal passion of mine,” Grossman told CO—. “People forget that 80% of retail happens in stores,” she said.
The London-based startup provides stores with a way to offer customers an easy-to-access digital receipt that can include images and videos and serves as an interactive point of connection with the shopper.
Customers can scan a QR code at checkout to get the receipt or have it delivered via text message or email. The receipt can include links to join a store’s loyalty program or leave a review, provide information about other products and discount offers, or even serve as a retail media channel for marketing.
A European merchant that used Slip saw a 35% download rate when it included a link to its loyalty program in a Slip receipt.
The messages on Slip receipts can be personalized to individual customers and updated easily by the retailer depending on its priorities for the month – whether that’s generating reviews, boosting loyalty memberships, or sharing information about the brand’s history and values.
“The first digital touchpoint that a physical store customer has is such a valuable one,” Grossman said. “Instead of just a PDF-generated invoice or ‘Thanks for shopping, here’s what you bought,’ it becomes a contextual marketing moment with the customer,” Grossman said.
Voicebox: Using AI to enable customers to communicate more easily and help retail associates ‘solve a problem more intelligently’
Voicebox is giving in-store shoppers a new way to leave instant feedback or request help and is using AI to help retailers respond effectively. The platform also can be used as a way for brands to survey customers or seek feedback.
Voicebox in-store touchpoints – either a QR code or an NFC (near-field-communication) tag connect customers to Voicebox via their mobile phones and allow them to send a voice message to the retailer. AI interprets the message and if an immediate response is needed by a store employee, it alerts the employee. Customers can also leave reviews and comments about their experience that create useful data for the retailer.
“Even people that are very busy can speak for two minutes,” Karan M. Gupta, CEO of Voicebox, told CO—. In those two minutes, he said, “they can tell you so much detail.”
Gupta previously was Head of Engineering for The RealReal and Chief Technology Officer for automobile e-commerce site Shift.
Voicebox is also designed to give retailers a way to deal with complaints more efficiently. The customer leaves a voice message rather than talking to an employee in real time, giving the retailer the ability to make sure it delivers the best response.
“Customers are familiar with voice messages. They use them with friends and family all the time. They know not to expect a real-time response,” Gupta said. “The biggest benefit I see to companies is making your staff much more effective and giving them time to solve a problem more intelligently,” he said, unlike “when you’re trying to solve a problem in real time and the customer’s already emotional.”
Beyond customer complaints, Gupta said Voicebox is particularly useful for small brick-and-mortar and online brands because it analyzes what customers are saying to provide insights on where to advertise, useful marketing messages, or ways to improve product descriptions. Pricing is based on the number of messages expected per month, with options for small retailers.
Wholescale founder: Helping brands monetize customer reviews across sales channels: ‘AI agents look at review data when they’re surfacing different suggestions’
David Rapps saw the critical role reviews play in driving sales when he helped launch the iFLY luggage brand. The strategy he used for iFLY propelled that brand to become Walmart Supplier of the Year within three years.
His new startup, Wholescale, was created to help other consumer companies unlock similar growth at a time when AI is making reviews even more important.
“In the last year, especially with AI, there’s a huge focus on reviews,” he told CO—. “Over 95% of shoppers rely on reviews in some way, shape, or form. It drives algorithm rankings in a material way. And AI agents look at review data when they’re surfacing different suggestions.”
Most brands have two fundamental problems with reviews, Rapps told CO—. They aren’t collecting enough reviews, or they don’t have a good way to share their reviews with multiple marketplaces where they are selling products.
Wholescale has found that one of the most effective ways for brands to collect reviews is through a QR code on the garment or packaging that includes a review link, along with information such as care-and-use instructions or warranty registration. The link might also include content related to the product or discounts for future purchases.
Three common ways to collect reviews all present problems, Rapps said. Email requests often don’t get opened, and response rates are way down. Review links on a brand’s website also are frequently ignored.
“People don’t go out of their way to voluntarily leave reviews on websites, and if they do, it’s because they’re upset,” he said.
The third way, sampling – sending free samples to generate reviews – can be cost-prohibitive, especially for small businesses.
With so many retailers creating marketplaces to sell third-party brands, those brands need an effective way to distribute their reviews to multiple marketplaces.
Wholescale’s technology enables it to “act as a bridge to push review into the retailer landscape,” Rapps said.
Wholescale’s Review Hub product pricing starts as low as $45 a month and is intended to be affordable for even the smallest brands.
“How do you get people to trust that your product is worth clicking on, let alone buying? It’s so difficult to stand out, and the No.1 way to do that is to have ratings and reviews. It’s a must-have if you’re in the consumer products space,” Rapps said.
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