Coffee shop owner talking to employees
getty
Free artificial intelligence training for small businesses is now available nationwide, and new AI tools built specifically for small businesses were released this month. Two organizations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Anthropic, each moved to lower barriers for small business owners considering adopting AI, releasing data showing a sustained increase in small business creation across the United States.
On May 13, Anthropic launched Claude for Small Business, an agent integration suite that connects platforms such as QuickBooks, Canva, PayPal, HubSpot, and Google Workspace directly to Claude. This package includes 15 ready-to-run workflows across finance, operations, sales, marketing, and customer service, designed to streamline tasks for lean teams without requiring full automation.
In late April, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Chamber Foundation launched Small Business B(AI)sics, a free national AI training program for small business owners. The program, announced on April 29 and supported by a $5 million grant from Google.org, offers courses designed to help entrepreneurs understand and integrate AI into their daily work. Its target audience spans all of America’s small and medium-sized businesses, from retail stores and restaurants to service providers and independent contractors.
Shanique Street, executive director of resilient communities at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, said that while free AI courses come directly from technology companies, B(AI)sics is built specifically for small business owners and starts with the basics.
Mike Morello, chief digital officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says small business owners are ready. “Small and medium-sized businesses are keen to understand how AI can help them save time, acquire new customers, and stay competitive.” Google.org’s financial support removes cost, which has been a major barrier for owners who are interested but lack the budget for courses and consultants. This move shows that big tech companies view AI literacy in small and medium-sized businesses as a strategic priority, not just a philanthropic move.
What does AI implementation mean for small and medium-sized business owners?
Hulagu Kalebjian, owner of Henry’s House of Coffee in San Francisco, has been using AI since ChatGPT launched in 2023, providing a window into what active adoption could look like without a technology team or formal training.
“AI has already helped my business tremendously,” Kalebjian says. “I was an early adopter of ChatGPT back in 2023 when it first came out.”
His applications span marketing and operations. “This allowed us to automate a weekly coffee email called ‘The Sunday Pour’ that goes out every Sunday,” he says. “We also helped create a water spray system for coffee grinders that automatically sprays a small amount of water onto the coffee beans just before they are ground. This dissipates static electricity.” He recorded the process on video in early 2024.
But AI doesn’t change the broader pressures of running a small business. Kalebjian said the rising costs of coffee beans, paper cups and food are a daily reality. “It’s scary not knowing when things will get better.”
His experience is still not the norm, and that’s exactly the gap that both the Chamber’s program and Anthropic’s tools are designed to fill.
Why the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises will rapidly increase in 2025
Both initiatives come with data showing a significant and sustained increase in small business activity. The State of Design and Manufacturing Report, released last month by Autodesk and conducted by research firm GlobalData, found that private and small businesses in the design and manufacturing economy, which spans architecture, engineering, construction, design, manufacturing and media, will grow 10% in 2025, nearly 35% faster than the rest of the small business economy.
These industries are built on the specialized skills that professionals have historically developed within large corporations, from architecture studios and engineering consultants to manufacturing and production companies. The fact that individual and microenterprises in these sectors outperform the broader small business economy suggests that skilled professionals are increasingly confident that they can operate independently without the infrastructure of large employers.
Nearly one in five professionals in these industries say they are considering starting a business in 2026, six percentage points higher than the rest of the workforce and three times the rate of those who actually started a business in 2025. The gap between intentions and actions has narrowed significantly in 2025.
The report attributes this shift, in part, to AI tools that are now allowing smaller teams to take on tasks that previously required significantly more staff and overhead. For example, small construction firms can now work on large-scale affordable housing projects with lean teams in a way that was not possible just a few years ago.
Why small businesses are still lagging behind in AI adoption
While the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises is accelerating, the adoption of strategic AI in small and medium-sized enterprises has not kept up. SMBs are closing the gap faster than in previous technology cycles, and the gap in overall AI usage between SMBs and large enterprises has narrowed sharply starting in 2024. However, significant delays remain in training, integration, and planning. Small business owners who simultaneously manage operations, sales, and customer relationships have little time to move from interest to action without outside support.
B(AI)sics is designed to address that gap. Rather than asking small business owners to train themselves, the chamber seeks to bring training directly to communities across the country through in-person sessions that connect participants with sector-specific experts and peers tackling the same questions. The program aims to reach 40,000 small business owners over the next three years, Street said.
2 reports, 1 shift
Taken together, Autodesk’s data and the wave of new tools and training programs reflect two aspects of the same change occurring across small and medium-sized businesses in America. Meanwhile, more professionals are starting their own companies than at any point in recent history, especially in industries that AI is actively reshaping. However, access to training and tools remains uneven and concentrated among companies with the resources and technical capabilities to demand it.
Autodesk’s Design and Make data shows what’s possible when skilled professionals have access to AI tools that extend what small teams can accomplish. Anthropic’s new integration with the Chamber’s programs is a direct attempt to extend that potential to a broader range of executives, across more industries, more communities, and in more ways than one.
