For small businesses in the United States, economic uncertainty is often one of the biggest risks. However, according to Goldman Sachs... A recent survey revealed a surprising level of optimism among many small businesses regarding the coming year. The source of this optimism is: artificial intelligence. (AI).
This conclusion was reached by Goldman Sachs after surveying approximately 1,400 small business owners. The bank shared these findings with the media ahead of its "10,000 Small Businesses Summit" this week in Washington , D.C.
The survey results show that most small business owners (78%) said they are optimistic about next year despite their concerns (rising costs, economic uncertainty, and access to affordable funding), and almost all business owners using artificial intelligence (94%) said that AI has had a positive impact on their business.
Khari Parker, co-founder of the Baltimore-based restaurant chain Connie's Chicken and Waffles and a small business owner, said in an interview, "It saves us so many hours every day."
Parker says that in his three restaurants in the Baltimore area, AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude are used for a variety of tasks, from designing menus and flyers to creating recruitment materials and training staff.
Moreover, these models even play a significant role in predicting supply orders, proving crucial when Parker and his business partners disagree.
“I will absolutely not see it (AI) replace team members,” he added. Currently, large companies across industries, from technology and finance to retail, are saying that artificial intelligence will reshape their workforce. But the extent to which AI has slowed the job market this year is still a subject of heated debate.
Unemployment rates for college graduates have been rising this year due to a slowdown in hiring for certain white-collar positions. This includes companies like Amazon . Walmart JPMorgan Chase Several large U.S. companies, including Meta, have recently stated that they hope to achieve revenue growth without increasing staff, and in some cases, even need to lay off employees.
Goldman Sachs economists previously warned that artificial intelligence could cause "transitional friction" in the future job market. However, according to the bank's small business survey, 81% of small business owners said that artificial intelligence has not replaced their employees, but rather enhanced their capabilities.
This is crucial because small businesses, as a collective, employ more workers than any other business in the private sector. Furthermore, three-quarters of the small business owners surveyed said they plan to expand their businesses in the next 12 months, despite rising costs and concerns about the future of the U.S. economy.
A similar number of respondents said that integrating artificial intelligence into their businesses would be essential in the next five years, but only 12% said they had already done so.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon recently stated that artificial intelligence (AI) doesn't mean he needs fewer employees, but rather better ones. This is Solomon's assessment of the impact of AI on banking. The industry has made a clear statement regarding employment, namely that AI only screens "high-value talent" and will not cause bankers to lose their jobs.
He emphasized that the core value of AI is to improve efficiency rather than lay off employees: "Giving AI tools to smart people will make them more efficient. The way analysts, partners, and investment bankers work will change, but with increased productivity, we can expand our business and thus need more high-value talent."
(Article source: CLS)
