I grew up watching my parents build small businesses from scratch. I remember the pride and pressure that came with staking our future on our efforts. That feeling will stay with you.
That’s why I believe so strongly in small businesses, and why I think they deserve the same tools that large companies take for granted. This belief shapes my thinking about how New York should approach AI.
Every major change in technology comes wrapped in the same anxiety. Personal computers, smartphones, automation: each had the same concern that we would need more than we could get. But the cell phone in our pocket and the software that redirects us to avoid traffic jams are now background noise, tools we can never let go of. The uncertainty was real. In hindsight, that wasn’t all there was to it.
New York state is at a similar tipping point regarding AI, with leaders taking statewide office this year inheriting the choice between managing AI as a source of public anxiety or leading it as a source of economic opportunity. Only one person can build the future of a nation.
The basis for urgency is not hypothetical. New York City’s startup ecosystem is currently ranked second in the world after Silicon Valley, with an ecosystem value of approximately $621 billion. This growth is largely driven by AI. It’s a magnet for tens of thousands of jobs and capital that previously flowed almost exclusively to California.
But the current discussion among New York’s leaders, and the one that is likely to dominate next term, is narrower and more disturbing, focusing on job losses and the data centers being built to power it all. These are legitimate questions, and leaders need real answers about energy costs and workforce transition. What’s missing is what AI is already doing for the small businesses that form the backbone of New York’s economy.
For most of these companies, AI is a back-office tool that automates invoicing, a scheduling assistant that allows a five-person store to run like an eight-person store, and a customer service layer that allows small businesses to compete with chains with call centers. It’s the difference between surviving and thriving and losing your job. Concerns that AI will shrink the labor market will reverse Main Street mechanisms. It gives small businesses leverage that previously belonged only to large corporations.
But this doesn’t happen automatically. New York’s advantage is real, but not guaranteed. That advantage will be undermined if the next wave of leadership treats AI as a mandate to regulate rather than an engine to build responsibly. The job is to develop real strategies to help small and medium-sized businesses implement these tools. This is the same way leaders in the past stopped fighting with desk computers and made sure every employee had access to one.
It’s no coincidence that New York has become the second largest startup hub in the United States. Maintaining that position and ensuring the benefits reach Main Street, not just Midtown, are the AI policy questions New York’s next leaders will have to answer.
Engineer Jimmy Hatzell is the co-founder and CEO of Hatz AI.
