Empowering 33 Million SMBs with AI Agents

Large enterprises and Silicon Valley tech giants are rapidly adopting advanced AI, reaping gains in efficiency, customer engagement, and innovation. Yet the 33 million small and medium-sized businesses SMBs in the United States risk being left behind. Most SMBs lack the dedicated AI engineers or sprawling R&D budgets of Fortune 500 companies, making it difficult to implement the latest AI tools.

SMBs: Backbone of the U.S. Economy

SMBs are far from “small” in their economic impact. There are approximately 33.2 million small businesses in America, accounting for 99.9% of all U.S. firms. These businesses generate roughly 43.5% of U.S. GDP and employ about 46% of all private-sector workers, nearly half of the nation’s workforce. SMBs are also dynamic exporters, representing 97.3% of all exporters and about 32.6% of U.S. export value. By almost any measure, small and mid-sized businesses form a critical pillar of the economy, driving innovation, job creation, and community development.

Despite their importance, SMBs often operate with resource constraints and thinner margins. They do not have the luxury of large innovation labs or specialized tech teams. Empowering SMBs with advanced AI is not just a nice-to-have. it’s an economic imperative. If nearly half of the workforce and ~44% of GDP is tied to SMB performance, providing these firms equal access to productivity-enhancing technology could have a profound impact on overall economic growth and competitiveness. Conversely, allowing an “AI divide” to persist – where big companies accelerate ahead while smaller ones struggle – could stifle innovation and widen inequality in many industries. SMBs have long been engines of growth, and in the AI era, they must not be left behind.

The AI Gap: Enterprises vs. SMBs

Large enterprises have been quick to invest in AI, leveraging their greater financial and technical resources to deploy machine learning models, automation, and data-driven decision systems. In big companies, it’s now common to have dedicated data science teams and AI platforms improving everything from supply chains to customer service. In fact, according to McKinsey’s 2023 global survey, about 78% of organizations report using AI in at least one function. Fortune 500 corporations are integrating AI agents at scale. For example, using AI chatbots to handle customer inquiries 24/7, or employing predictive analytics to drive marketing campaigns. These investments give large enterprises a growing competitive edge in efficiency and personalization.

Meanwhile, many SMBs lag behind in AI adoption, not for lack of interest, but due to structural barriers. Surveys consistently show that small businesses face significant hurdles in implementing AI solutions. The biggest obstacle is often a lack of expertise and knowledge: in one U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey, 77% of small businesses not yet using AI cited insufficient understanding of AI or uncertainty about its benefits as the main reason for not integrating the technology. Simply put, many SMB owners and managers aren’t sure where to start with AI. They may not fully grasp how it applies to their business, or they lack staff with AI technical skills. This knowledge gap is compounded by concerns over cost and resources. Nearly 60% of small businesses say cost is a significant barrier to adopting new technologies like AI. Unlike a Fortune 500 firm, a 50-person or 200-person business often cannot afford to hire PhD-level AI researchers or spend millions on experimental projects.

Even so, the situation is beginning to change. AI awareness is rising rapidly among SMBs, especially with the advent of more accessible generative AI tools in the past two years. In 2024, a Verizon survey found that 39% of SMBs are now using AI, up from just 14% in 2023 – more than doubling AI adoption in one year. This surge is largely due to the popularity of user-friendly AI. Increased familiarity is whetting appetites: 83% of small business owners who use AI say it’s been helpful for improving their operations and decision-making. However, there’s a big difference between experimenting with an AI copywriting tool and fully integrating AI into business workflows. Most SMBs still lack custom AI systems deeply embedded in their processes. The AI gap – where large firms implement sophisticated AI and most SMBs do not – remains wide when it comes to deployed, enterprise-grade solutions.

The consequences of this gap could be severe. As one policy analysis noted, smaller organizations lag behind larger counterparts in AI adoption due to resource constraints, which risks exacerbating competitive inequalities. If large companies use AI to cut costs and personalize at scale while small firms struggle manually, big players will further consolidate market share at the expense of local businesses. To maintain a vibrant, competitive marketplace, SMBs need the tools to fight on a level technological playing field. They need AI that doesn’t require an army of developers to deploy. They need AI that is accessible, affordable, and effective for a 50-person company just as it is for a 50,000-person company. The next section examines why current AI vendors have largely failed to deliver on this need.

Challenges in the Current AI Vendor Landscape

Ironically, even as AI becomes more prevalent, most AI agent solutions on the market aren’t designed with small businesses in mind. A scan of the current vendor landscape shows a proliferation of AI platforms and tools, but they tend to fall into two categories – neither of which serve the typical SMB well:

• Developer Tools and APIs: A host of AI companies sell their technology as developer-centric tools or cloud APIs. For example, Deepgram offers AI speech-to-text via API, Cartesia provides real-time voice AI and voice cloning tools, Bland.ai sells an AI phone call API, Voiceflow provides a no-code platform for designing chat/voice bots, and ChatBotKit offers SDKs for building chat interfaces. These products can be powerful – if you have a developer to implement them. Bland AI’s own mission statement illustrates this focus: their goal is “to empower developers to create excellent voice experiences” via an easy-to-integrate call API. Likewise, Deepgram touts its “speech-to-text and speech-to-speech APIs” for building voice applications. In short, the assumed user is a software engineer or technical team who will take these building blocks and integrate them into a custom solution.
• Enterprise Platforms and Consultancies: On the other end, there are big-platform AI solutions (from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.) and consulting firms that deliver AI projects. These often come with high price tags and complexity more suitable for large enterprise clients. A small business considering these options might see “out-of-the-box” AI products that still cost six or seven figures to deploy, or generic AI services that don’t fit their niche needs. As the founder of Powered_by observed, when SMBs think about AI, they usually see either “costly in-house builds or deeply expensive enterprise solutions”, with nothing in between.

For most SMBs, neither approach is viable. They likely do not have software engineers on staff who can spend weeks integrating an AI API or building a chatbot from scratch. Hiring AI talent is expensive and competitive – out of reach for a company whose IT team might just be one person managing the website and email. Indeed, more than half of SMBs not using AI say a lack of in-house AI expertise is a major challenge to implementation. On the other hand, buying a complex enterprise AI system or engaging a major consultancy is usually far beyond an SMB’s budget. The result is that many small businesses simply shelve their AI ambitions, even as they watch larger competitors sprint ahead.

Even supposedly “easy” solutions often require significant effort. Take “no-code” AI platforms: Voiceflow, for instance, lets users design conversational agents with a visual interface, which is great – but someone still has to strategize the conversation flow, train the AI, integrate it with the company’s data, and maintain it. That’s a project that smaller companies might not have time or skills for. The bottom line is that SMBs are underserved in the AI market. There’s a clear gap between what they need – fully functional AI solutions they can plug into their business – and what vendors are selling – toolkits requiring further development. This gap represents both a challenge and a tremendous opportunity for innovation.

Bridging the Gap: Turn-Key AI Agents

Imagine if a small business could deploy an AI customer service representative or sales assistant as easily as installing an app, all without writing code or hiring a new team. This is the vision behind Powered_by, a new kind of AI solutions provider that acts as a “fully built” AI agency for SMBs. Powered_by was founded explicitly to democratize access to advanced AI agent technology to small and medium-sized businesses.” SMBs have the right to use the same advanced AI systems currently deployed across the Fortune 500. Instead of offering just a piece of the puzzle like an API or a DIY toolkit, we deliver end-to-end, turn-key AI agents tailored to each client’s needs.

What makes Powered_by stand out is its holistic, multi-channel approach. The company designs and builds custom AI agent systems that cover voice calls, phone systems, email interactions, SMS texting, and even digital avatar interfaces, stacking all these capabilities together into one seamless experience. In other words, an SMB can get a ready-made AI “staff member” that can speak on the phone, respond to emails, handle text messages, and engage customers on a website via a digital avatar, all integrated with the business’s workflows. This is a stark contrast to piecemeal solutions. For a busy small business owner, having a single integrated AI agent that works across channels can be game-changing – it’s like hiring an employee who is omnipresent on phone, text, and online, but available 24/7 and infinitely scalable.

Importantly, we handle the heavy lifting behind the scenes. The company’s team consists of seasoned AI builders and engineers with deep expertise in machine intelligence, natural language processing (NLP), speech synthesis, and multi-channel communication systems. We leverage state-of-the-art AI models and then do the custom training and integration required for each client. From the client’s perspective, this means they don’t need to worry about how it works – they get a fully operational AI agent solution delivered. By simplifying and adapting world-class AI models to each business’s unique goals and tech stack, Powered_by provides a fully tailored, turnkey solution that a non-technical business owner can effectively use.

The value proposition is that SMBs don’t need to hire an AI engineering team or write a single line of code to deploy enterprise-grade AI capabilities. Powered_by’s experts guide customers step-by-step, delivering “customized, human-like AI solutions that fit their budget, timeline, and brand”. This client-centric approach means the AI agent isn’t a one-size-fits-all bot, but something configured to the company’s specific needs. And unlike generic AI software, these agents are deeply integrated into the client’s workflows and systems. For example, we can tie the agents tied into your Salesforce or Hubspot CRM to pull customer data, or connect to you phone line to make/receive calls.

By serving as a dedicated “AI agency” for the client, Powered_by acts as the driver and mechanic of the AI system, not just a vendor handing over keys and walking away. This service model is crucial for SMBs, which may have limited IT support. It means the small business gets ongoing help – the AI agent is properly set up, trained on the business’s data, and continuously improved and maintained by experts. In effect, Powered_by is offering AI-as-a-service, customized for each SMB.

This approach is transformative. It directly addresses the pain points SMBs have with typical AI offerings: if lack of expertise is a barrier, we provide the expertise. If high cost is a barrier, we aim to be cost-effective by tailoring to budget and sharing technology across clients. If integration is hard, we do the integration for you. The mission-driven philosophy is clear:

We’re on a mission to democratize access to the most advanced AI agent systems for any organization, no matter its size, industry, or budget.

By bridging the gap between cutting-edge AI and the practical needs of SMBs, companies like Powered_by could unlock AI’s benefits for millions of businesses that have thus far been left out.

SMBs and the Next AI Revolution

From an investor’s perspective, the convergence of SMB needs with AI capabilities represents a vast, largely untapped market opportunity. The U.S. has 33 million SMBs, and globally the SMB segment contributes about 50% of GDP. Yet, compared to the enterprise market, the penetration of advanced AI solutions into SMBs is still in its infancy. As discussed, only around 4 in 10 U.S. SMBs even report using AI in any form as of 2024 – and far fewer have fully integrated AI systems. This is poised to change dramatically in the coming years. Analysts predict that by 2027, 50% of SMBs will significantly adjust their IT budgets to factor in AI adoption. Many small companies are reaching a tipping point where AI is shifting from a buzzword to a budgeted line item, much like cloud computing became essential in the last decade. In 2025, for example, over half of SMBs worldwide plan to increase spending on generative AI agent solutions, with a portion even willing to invest up to $1 million on such technologies.

The aggregate spending potential is enormous. If even a fraction of the 33 million U.S. SMBs begin investing in AI solutions, we are looking at tens of billions of dollars in new technology spending. Consider a conservative scenario: 10% of U.S. SMBs (i.e. 3.3 million businesses) adopt an AI agent or similar solution, and spend an average of $5,000 per year on it – that’s ~$16.5 billion annually in revenue opportunity. And 10% adoption is just scratching the surface, given the rapid uptick in AI awareness. Some surveys show an even greater hunger for AI among small businesses; for instance, in one poll 41% of SMBs said they plan to expand AI use across more areas of their business in the next 2-3 years.

One study found AI-powered automation can raise productivity by up to 40%, which for a small company might be the difference between merely surviving and thriving. Investors who back companies facilitating AI adoption in SMBs stand to benefit not only from the sheer scale of the SMB market but also from the strong value proposition: these technologies directly address critical needs that have tangible ROI for small businesses. In other words, delivering AI to SMBs isn’t a solution in search of a problem – it targets pain points that SMB owners themselves are keen to solve.

The market opportunity can be described as bringing the Fortune 500 level AI agent technology to the Fortune 5 Million (roughly the number of SMB employers). Democratizing AI is not just a social good; it’s smart business. The companies that crack the code on how to serve the small business segment with AI stand to unlock a wave of new demand. As AI technology matures and becomes more commoditized, distribution and accessibility become critical – and SMBs represent the next frontier of growth for AI adoption.

Embracing an AI-Powered Future for SMBs

The evidence is clear: SMBs are too important to the economy to be left fighting with one hand tied behind their back in the technology race. They deserve the same access to cutting-edge AI as any large enterprise, and enabling this access will unleash innovation and productivity across all levels of business. With AI agents becoming more accessible by the day, we are at a pivotal moment.

Visionary small business founders should see AI not as a distant, enterprise-only tool, but as a here-and-now opportunity to supercharge their operations. From automating routine customer inquiries to personalizing marketing at scale, AI can be a force multiplier for a 50-person company just as much as for a 50,000-person company. The tools and partners are emerging to make this feasible without requiring advanced technical skills or prohibitive costs.

Companies like Powered_by exemplify the new breed of AI solution tailored for SMB success – providing fully built agents and hands-on support, so that even a non-technical business owner can deploy the most advanced AI with confidence. An auto dealership in the Midwest or a boutique hotel chain can now leverage AI agents that speak and act with the sophistication of a Silicon Valley tech firm’s solution. This equalization of technology can level the playing field between Davids and Goliaths in the market.

The message to SMB leaders is: the AI revolution is for you, too. Early adopters among small and mid-sized businesses will gain a competitive edge, improve customer satisfaction, and free their human teams to focus on higher-value work. Those who hesitate risk falling further behind as AI-driven services become the norm.

For investors and stakeholders, the call to action is equally urgent and optimistic. Backing the democratization of AI – investing in platforms and companies that bring AI to the 33 million SMBs – is not only a socially constructive choice but also a savvy business decision. The growth runway in this segment is immense, and the impact of empowering SMBs with AI agents will be felt across local communities and the broader economy. Every dollar of efficiency gained by a small business through AI can translate into better prices, improved products, or new jobs. By supporting ventures that bridge the AI gap, investors enable millions of entrepreneurs to participate in the AI-driven future, fueling widespread economic growth.

The future of AI should belong to everyone. From the startup in a garage to the family-run restaurant to the regional manufacturer. SMBs have always been adaptable and resilient, and with equitable access to AI, they can continue to be engines of innovation and prosperity. It’s time to break the notion that sophisticated technology is the exclusive realm of tech giants. The same AI that powers a Fortune 500 company’s customer support can power a local retailer’s sales agent. The same machine learning that optimizes a national supply chain can help a small wholesale business manage inventory. Democratizing AI is both an economic equalizer and a catalyst for new growth. By embracing turn-key AI solutions and partnerships, SMBs can transform into AI-enhanced businesses overnight – and in doing so, secure their place in the new economy. The playing field is being leveled; the tools are at hand. It’s now up to forward-thinking small business owners and bold investors to seize the moment and ensure that AI’s rising tide truly lifts all boats.

If you are more curious or even ready to start evaluating AI agents within your business, we invite you to schedule a 30-minute free consultation with the Powered_by solutions design team to dive deeper.