Can artificial intelligence meet the needs of small businesses? Some push to find out.
The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce has been convening an annual meeting of local business leaders since the 1800s, but the most recent meeting had a decidedly modern theme: artificial intelligence.The goal was to demystify technology for the Chamber's approximately 2,000 members, especially small businesses.“My sense is not that people are wary,” said Ralph Schulz, the chamber's chief executive. “It's just not clear its potential use for them.”When generative AI entered public consciousness in late 2022, it captured the imagination of businesses and workers with its ability to answer questions, compose paragraphs, write code, and create images. Analysts predicted that technology would transform the economy by driving a boom in productivity.Yet so far the impact has been l...