AI & Automation

How many US businesses use artificial intelligence, how that changed in a year, what they use it for and what it does to jobs, from the Census Bureau and the Small Business Administration.

AI now helps agents show homes remotely, prepare listing photos, write the copy, keep up with buyers and get a deal to closing, each job with its own tools and its own way of charging.

Bots or no bots, free minutes, languages and price: where the apps that write up client calls differ.

Owners are handing bookkeeping, email, meeting notes and scheduling to AI, often inside software they already pay for.

Tools that pass information from one app to the next let a business of one run forms, bookings and follow-ups without copying anything by hand.

ASPIRE 2026 is a free October 21 New York conference with 24 sessions on AI, productivity, costs and cybersecurity for SMB leaders.

LPP Logistics runs more than 1,600 Geekplus robots across two fulfillment centers in Poland, with 99% measured efficiency gains, Geekplus says.

AutoTrust AI JEV-27B is an open-weights model for self-hosted AI agent decisions, trained on one NVIDIA B200 in about 9.2 hours.

Small banks lead SMB AI use, SAS and IDC find, but 39% cite infrastructure limits and 40% name governance concerns.

WhisPrompt AI Workflow Controller launches on Kickstarter September 29 with voice and one-handed controls for AI tasks.

GeoIntelX AI platform supports NewMed Energy’s natural gas exploration teams with centralized, searchable geological project data.

rubi AI Mentor gives junior lawyers and law students skills practice, feedback, mentorship, and interview preparation in one platform.

ABnet Solutions Aggregation framework focuses on AI infrastructure, platform orchestration and FinOps for resellers and enterprise clients.

EAIGLE and Loblaw gate automation is expanding across distribution centers to improve yard operations and freight data accuracy.

Sightline OS says Bonchon's distributor fill rate rose 1.1% to 99.3% across more than 150 restaurants after it implemented the platform.

Hexaware backs the Project NANDA Fellowship, a three-month remote program for developers building open-source AI agent infrastructure.

Collective Compass gives financial advisors private-company research, planning tools and confidential execution support for pre-IPO equity.

Chandigarh University AI-powered cybersecurity platform won ₹3 lakh for analyzing suspicious Android apps, APKs and malware.

Bonipak deploys OneTrack AiOn across farming, cooling, and transportation operations to connect data and help teams build tools.

Gusto finds small businesses adopting AI grew headcount about 7% more than comparable non-adopters in the year after adoption.