by Jay Norris, Founder and CEO of ThoughtPartnr
Thirty years ago, the internet revolutionized the way companies large and small do business. A handful mastered the online landscape quicker than others. Ubiquitous brands / Household names such as Amazon and Netflix started small, then grew to become some of the world’s most valuable brands.
No small- or medium-sized business today wants to get left out of the AI revolution. Compared to the dot-com boom, the shift currently underway will be no less monumental in terms of sorting out tomorrow’s winners and losers. But connecting business leaders to the solutions that will help them is a challenge.
Here’s where the gaps will form.
Small vs. large
A wealth of available AI solutions can help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Various surveys suggest a discrepancy between the gains realized by firms that have fully embraced AI tools, and those who have not. Some SMBs have charted a “do it alone” path, rather than seek out training on how to truly take advantage of new tools to maximize business productivity and increase growth. A survey published by Business.com in July showed only 52 percent of companies using AI are training their employees in the technology.
A 2025 survey published by the SBE Council reports that 88 percent of small businesses used AI tools. Of those, 73 percent say these tools have been important to their competitiveness and growth over the past year. Yet, that means millions of businesses have not taken advantage of possible time- and money-saving digital tools that could be vital to their financial outlook. And a gap between revenues and AI adoption is already forming.
A 2023 SBEC survey showed how AI adoption is associated with higher revenues: 86 percent of businesses with more than $1 million in revenue were using AI, compared to 81 percent of businesses with $500,000 to $1 million, 76 percent of businesses with $100,000 to $500,000, and 66 percent of businesses with less than $100,000. A separate 2025 survey conducted in G7 member countries and Brazil mirrored the same trend among small businesses overseas.
This effect is not surprising. Higher-revenue businesses have the resources and connections at their disposal to seek out (and even develop their own) AI-based solutions to minimize or eliminate inefficiencies specific to their business model. But size alone is not the only factor that correlates with AI adoption.
Digital native vs. brick-and-mortar
Founded in late 2021, the genAI startup Midjourney was reportedly pulling in more than $200 million in revenue within two years. Remarkably, it did so without venture capital investment — or more than 11 employees. In any era, that kind of growth rarely arrives so quickly.
Turning back to the dot-com boom, imagine a company that bought a domain name in 1995 and programmed the site to become an ecommerce engine somewhere along the way. That company would not have seen millions in online sales in a matter of months, or perhaps even a year. Any ROI goals would not become realistic until its core customers were comfortable enough using a computer to regularly buy products off the site.
Thousands of brick-and-mortar companies made that transition a generation ago. By now, some have taken the majority of their business offline. Yet amazingly, some still aren’t harnessing those first-generation tools on a rudimentary level. Independent restaurant owners who aren’t utilizing DoorDash or Uber Eats, for example, are potentially closing off 40 to 50 percent of their revenue — and losing market share to younger restaurateurs who rent a kitchen and focus only on delivery. The food delivery startup “Wonder,” founded by entrepreneur Marc Lore, is a rapidly growing virtual food hall that offers the efficiencies of a ghost kitchen with dine-in, pick-up, and delivery options.
Small- and medium-sized businesses that are not digitally native need to be aware of the competitive advantages that smaller, newer businesses have at their disposal. They might not have your industry connections, expertise, or brand recognition in a particular geographic region. But what they lack in experience, they can potentially compensate for with the freedom that comes with lower overhead, a willingness to take risks, and an adaptable mindset toward younger customers who are more digitally savvy.
Local vs. national/international
There are approximately 35 million small businesses in the U.S. In 2021, they combined to bring in more than $16.2 trillion in revenue, according to the most recent Census data. A small staff doesn’t always equate to small revenues, but too often these business owners live in a vacuum. They’re only exposed to other professionals in their regional sphere of influence.
Business leaders who aren’t expanding their professional networks beyond their region are vulnerable to ignoring AI solutions relevant to their model. Large businesses who have cracked their industry’s code in multiple states or countries — battle-tested perhaps by various rules and regulations — have better access to time- and money-saving tools that can optimize processes for smaller business units around the world.
Consider hospitality tech: tools designed to help independent hotels keep up with larger chains by pairing AI solutions with processes basic to every industry operator. Strong branding, facilities, and customer service can help a hotelier grow to become a dominant force in their region, but without adopting the most effective and efficient technologies, it’s easy for them to squander revenue via unnecessary expenses.
Examples like this exist within many verticals. They’re all part of the new digital divide emerging between businesses that are integrating AI into their workflows to streamline operations, and those that are not. The information gaps forming between businesses large and small, digital and brick-and-mortar, regional and local, will tell the story of growth over the next decade.
Jay Norris is the CEO of ThoughtPartnr and Chairman of the Technology and Innovation Council for the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. He is a tech entrepreneur and AI catalyst for small and medium-sized businesses, connecting leaders with cutting edge AI innovations and practical AI-driven solutions while fostering human connection through mentorship and community engagement.
