Everyone’s afraid that AI is going to kill jobs. It’s one of the first topics of conversation that comes up when we tell people we’ve built an AI platform. But it’s not a universal truth. AI implementation from the top-down in big corporates is definitely going to eliminate jobs – that's already happening, and it's all anyone talks about.

But SMEs represent 90% of the world’s companies and 70% of all employment. For SME's, ground-up usage of AI is a massive accelerant. AI can result in a net jobs gain, because AI can help more SMEs reach the point of viability. They stand to gain far more than large multi-nationals from the wave of AI (multi-nationals have FUBAR mode to contend with)

If we put AI in the hands of SMEs and make it easy for them to use, AI can drive enormous economic empowerment and create jobs, and we’re already seeing how, with NOAN’s AI platform for small businesses. NOAN’s position is simple: AI is going to create jobs, if it’s used the right way.

AI WILL HELP SMALL COMPANIES THRIVE

Failing SMEs are a far greater risk to net job creation than anything wrought by generative AI. More successful SMEs means more jobs – that's a fact. When we explain how transformative NOAN is for SMEs, we are having a conversation about how we enable small businesses to add huge capacity to their business without adding cost, right at the point where cost would cripple them.

There is a point in any business, early on, where the owner is hugely overwhelmed. There is enough work for five people. There is barely enough money for one salary. If they can somehow climb this mountain of work and gain traction they have the potential to become a successful company and hire a team. But right now, spending money to hire might see them go under, and never hire anyone.

When we tell people that NOAN means they can do a lot of this work without hiring – people focus on that point in time – the ‘not hiring’ moment. We’re focused on making the company a success so that it can hire the next five people, and begin their growth story.

READ: How NOAN helped the Family Edit build a business based on trust

AI WILL CREATE MORE LOWER-PAID JOBS

Another part of the AI doomer conversation is that lower-tier jobs will disappear. Not universally true. The saying goes that LMs are like an electric bike for your mind. Give an AI tool like NOAN to a junior staffer and you’re effectively giving them a superpower that allows them turn out the work of someone with five years’ more experience, in half the time. For a business owner, they can afford to hire that junior, cheaper staffer sooner, and get the results of a much more expensive hire from them, potentially. With the right AI tools, opportunities will emerge for lower-skilled workers to move into knowledge jobs that were once unavailable to them. 

AI WILL ENABLE EXPERIMENTATION

Our platform is being used by people who are preparing to turn their side hustle into a profitable reality, and by existing businesses looking to grow or launch new offerings. Several NOAN users are finding that our platform reduces the cost and risk of developing an idea to the point of launching it as a business. Fear of failure, or of what it would take to make something a success, is a major reason behind people deciding not to break out and launch something new. With NOAN you can quickly work through all aspects of taking a product to market, at a negligible cost.

Intelligently deployed AI solutions like NOAN make it safe and easy to map out ideas, create business plans and get to launch-ready. No costly consultancy, only a fraction of the time typically required to build out a full plan. NOAN makes standing up a viable business quicker and cheaper than ever. 

AI IS CUSTOM BY DEFAULT, 24/7 BY DEFAULT, ON-DEMAND BY DEFAULT

This is a huge aspect for busy, time-poor entrepreneurs. With all the best will in the world, agencies, government and local groups deliver one-size-fits-all support solutions, which small businesses then have to fit into their schedule, and interpret through the lens of their own audiences, products and goals. 

Traditional formats like webinars and in-person courses are the linear TV of the business support world. Great if you can be there, but not tailored to the structure of your day, nor the shape of your business. What we’re able to do with NOAN is engage a business owner in an ongoing dialogue, where their answers shape the output and strategic guidance. It’s on-demand, more like a sophisticated choose-you-own-adventure experience. The strategic suggestions and content are co-developed WITH the AI, so it’s like having an in-person consultant at your beck and call, day and night, for long sessions or short sessions.

That kind of fluidity and consistency is a game-changer for a small business owner trying to cobble together supports from the community around them.

We’re here to drive economic empowerment, and we think that NOAN can be the future of business-building. And our users agree.