A prominent capital markets firm is hailing artificial intelligence as the starting point for a new era of American entrepreneurship.
“Automation can make certain tasks less labor-intensive, but in an extraordinarily entrepreneurial economy, it can also widen the range of viable enterprises,” a July 4 memo from Frank Fleit, head of macro strategy at Citadel Securities, says, describing the “dynamism” that offsets the risk of job losses to AI.
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The memo went on to argue that AI has the potential to lower barriers to entry while also creating a new class of entrepreneurs who will be the first to jump into AI.
“AI may have its greatest benefit by exacerbating America’s hustle culture,” the magazine said.
America’s small business boom
In the years since the pandemic, the U.S. has been experiencing a small business boom. The number of new business applications reached 5.6 million (2) in 2025. By comparison, there were 3.5 million claims in 2019, according to Census Bureau data. (3)
Economists now say AI is fueling the boom by allowing workers to leave their employers and start their own businesses, but AI has already given rise to a new label: sole proprietorship (4).
“Never before have we created so much business,” Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, told Bloomberg (5). “We see AI playing a huge role.”
Professions exposed to AI replacement, such as lawyers, advertisers, and certain white-collar jobs, are actually paving the way for AI adoption (6). Some analysts say the adoption of AI will reduce barriers to entry as large language models can perform tasks such as perfecting business plans and enhancing social media reach that connects business owners with new customers (4).
“There appears to be a positive correlation between new business creation and sector-level AI exposure,” Fleit said in an analyst note. He continued: “In other words, the sectors most exposed to AI are also seeing the strongest shaping impulses.”
Small businesses have long been a major driver of employment in the United States. According to the Small Business Administration (7), approximately 46% of American workers are employed by small businesses. Currently, approximately 30 million self-employed individuals account for nearly (8) 7% of economic activity in the United States, and that number is expected to increase in the coming years.
