Most Owners Use AI. Few Have Built It Into Their Work. Goldman Moves.
Most small business owners have now tried AI. Far fewer have made it part of how their business actually runs. A new Goldman Sachs initiative, announced on October 22, targets that gap, and the survey numbers behind it are worth a close look.
What happened
Goldman Sachs launched the Small Business AI Institute as part of a $500 million expansion of its 10,000 Small Businesses program. Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI are partners. The announced plans include an applied-AI learning series and alumni workshops from Anthropic, and Google's AI Professional Certificate for almost 20,000 owners and employees, with three months of Google AI Pro at no cost. Meta will offer tools and training through Muse for Small Business, and OpenAI will run workshops with community-college partners. These are planned commitments, not demonstrated results.
Goldman's own survey of more than 2,400 program graduates found that 86% use AI, up from 56% in 2024. Only 15% said AI is fully integrated into core operations. Those figures describe Goldman's alumni, not small businesses nationwide, and they are self-reported. Owners pointed to limited technical expertise, difficulty choosing tools, and data privacy worries. Goldman's CEO also said that very little of what the bank does requires the most advanced models.
Why it matters
The bottleneck described here is not access to AI. It is knowing which task to hand over, which tool fits, how to protect client information, and how to judge whether the output is good. Those are questions of professional judgment, and experienced practitioners tend to be well placed to answer them.
For consultants, coaches, educators and service-business owners, the survey suggests that plenty of people are experimenting but stalling before the work becomes routine. That is useful context if you advise others, and a reminder to ask whether your own practice has moved past experimenting. Check the program's own pages for eligibility before assuming any of the free training applies to you.
The Experience Advantage
This week, pick one recurring task in your practice, such as client follow-up emails or session summaries. Write down the steps you take, the rules you apply, and what a good result looks like. Then give that written process to an AI assistant, using sample material with no confidential client details, and compare its output with your own. A clear written process is what separates a one-off experiment from a routine you can rely on.
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Explore Skills2Sell AcademyThis article was researched and drafted with AI assistance and published under the editorial standards of this website. It summarizes the linked sources and is not personal advice. Please check the original sources before acting on any detail.