AI and Your Team: Changing How People Work, Not Who Works
New York Fed research finds small businesses using AI are more likely to expect to add jobs, not cut them. The hard part is the people side: training, roles and buy-in.
George Fassett, Jr. · October 10, 2026
In an October 8 Liberty Street Economics post, New York Fed researchers used the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey to find that small businesses using AI are significantly more likely than non-users to expect increased employment and revenue over the next year.
That runs against the headline fear. For most small businesses, AI is changing what people do, not whether they are needed.
The Real Work Is the People Side
Tools are easy to buy. Getting a team to change how it works is not. Most AI rollouts stall for human reasons:
- People fear for their jobs and quietly avoid the tool.
- Nobody owns it. It is everyone's experiment and no one's job.
- No rules. Staff paste customer data into free tools because no one said not to.
What Works
- Say plainly what AI is for. Name the tasks it will take on and the work you want people to spend that time on.
- Train on real work. Use the team's own emails, quotes and reports, not generic demos.
- Redesign roles on purpose. If a task disappears, decide what replaces it.
- Set a simple usage policy. What data can and cannot go into which tools.
- Measure it. Pick one or two numbers, like turnaround time or quotes sent, and track them.
We know tech, and we know people. Both have to change together. See business growth consulting, or talk with George.
The method behind this
Process Before AI: The rule that a process is mapped and fixed before it is automated. Software and AI speed up whatever process they are given, including a broken one, so automation comes after the process is sound.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does AI reduce jobs at small businesses?
- New York Fed research published in October 2026, using the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, found small businesses using AI were significantly more likely than non-users to expect increased employment and revenue over the next year.
- How do you get employees to adopt AI?
- Be clear about which tasks AI will handle, train on the team's real work, redesign roles deliberately, set a simple data usage policy, and measure one or two outcomes.