Small business leaders from across the country convened for the U.S. Chamber’s Small Business Council Fall Fly-In, where they had opportunities to discuss key challenges facing their businesses, network with peers, share insights, and advocate for policies that help Main Street thrive.
During the week, Council members visited Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers and staff from House and Senate offices to share stories on how artificial intelligence (AI) is improving their operations, workforce, and productivity. Council members also stressed to lawmakers the need for a national framework—not a patchwork of 50 different rules—and advocated for policies that keep AI accessible for small businesses.
“AI's greatest value is its ability to help smaller businesses move faster, make more informed decisions, and compete more effectively,” said Larry Kidd, CEO of :hire. “Rather than replacing human expertise, AI helps quickly organize information, compare options, identify risks, and improve productivity, allowing small and mid-sized businesses to access capabilities that were once reserved for larger organizations.”
Traci Tapani, Co-President, Wyoming Machine, said her company has been using AI to save time and compete, and gave one example of how her company is leveraging the technology.
“I recently used AI to transform a scanned copy of a seven-year-old paper shipping document into a fully editable Excel file in about a minute. What would have taken roughly an hour to recreate manually became a strong first draft in seconds, highlighting one of AI’s most practical benefits: Eliminating tedious, time-consuming tasks so businesses can focus their time and expertise where it matters most,” said Tapani.
Michael Canty, President/CEO, Alloy Precision Technologies, Inc., based in Ohio, says that his small business uses various AI tools to complete tasks efficiently across multiple departments.
“Alloy uses AI in every department for a wide, and growing, set of uses,” Canty said. “Our supply chain team uses AI to find and qualify vendors. Sales and marketing uses AI to research competitors and better understand and service customers. Our Finance/IT teams use it for reports, grant writing, programming, operations, and much more. Our H.R. department uses AI in recruitment.”
Canty says Alloy also uses AI in their plant for automated machine learning and as a governance and predictive overlay for its new production analytics software company called Production Pulse LLC.
Other participants in the Fall Fly-In shared their real-life stories about how AI is super-charging their small businesses:
- Brendan McCluskey, President and Founder of Trident Builders, is working with Johns Hopkins University to develop an AI tool that will boost onsite productivity and help close the skills gap with new workers.
- Phillip Preston, President of PolyScience, explained how AI is helping his staff provide highly technical support by scrubbing through his top engineers’ emails and empowering those engineers to focus on developing new solutions.
- Chris Barber, Chief Nerd at Cheaper than a Geek, outlined how he’s been using AI for a decade and how instrumental AI has been for his customers in combating hackers.
- Julianne Weiner, COO of Sonic Promos, described how AI is able to quickly generate a proposal to a 90% complete draft, saving many hours of employee time.
Digging into the data behind these stories, new findings from the Chamber's Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC) report Empowering Small Business: The Impact of Technology on U.S. Small Business finds that small businesses are implementing AI to tackle problems, increase productivity, and add (not reduce) jobs.
Key findings from the report include:
- U.S. small businesses run on technology: Nearly 100% of small businesses report using at least one technology platform at work.
- High-rate technology adoption is accelerating: 41% now use more than six platforms, up nine points from 2025 and nearly three times the 2022 level.
- Using AI puts small businesses ahead: Small businesses using AI outpace non-AI enabled businesses and are at least seven points more likely to report sales, profit, and workforce growth.
- AI is a job growth engine for small businesses: 47% say AI is creating jobs today, while 6% say it is enabling headcount reductions.
- AI has become operationally important: 78% of users say limiting access would slow growth, and 75% say it would hurt their bottom line.
You can read more on the fifth Empowering Small Business report here.
