Like many business professionals, I am interested in artificial intelligence (AI) and recently asked ChatGPT for quotes from tech leaders about AI's importance for businesses. It provided a quote from Apple’s Tim Cook saying, “AI is already making businesses more efficient, more responsive, and more personalized. It’s a growth driver. ” However, when I asked ChatGPT for the source, it admitted no verified origin existed for that quote. This lack of clarity aligns with findings from a recent survey by software platform Orgvue of over 1, 000 business leaders. More than half who laid off employees expecting AI to replace them now regret the decision. Firing employees based on assumptions AI will take over jobs by 2025 is premature and reflects a poor understanding of current AI capabilities. Many small and mid-sized business managers should reconsider this belief. Currently, generative AI primarily enhances search functions, allowing users to quickly receive answers to questions like choosing hotels, fixing appliances, or translating languages. These chatbots are improving but are far from replacing employees. Research on AI’s labor market impact in Denmark, analyzing 11 occupations across 25, 000 workers in 7, 000 workplaces during 2023 and 2024, found no significant effects on earnings or hours worked. Employers are encouraging AI use, but it hasn’t yet influenced economic outcomes. In most workplaces, especially among the 33 million US small business owners, AI is not integrated into core operations.

While business owners desire AI to handle accounting, CRM, inventory, orders, and payroll, current technology doesn’t support this. Three key reasons explain this gap: First, the technology is immature and performs poorly. Although companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Intuit are introducing AI features for tasks like accounts payable and email marketing, these tools remain limited, unreliable, and insufficiently trusted to operate autonomously. Second, implementing AI requires sharing data and intellectual property with major providers such as Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI, but businesses worry about data security and misuse despite assurances. Third, developing AI systems is costly. Large corporations like Klarna, Meta, and JP Morgan invest tens or hundreds of millions into building internal AI platforms that replace workers or perform complex tasks, but such investments are beyond the reach of most smaller firms. Additionally, small companies face data scattered across multiple systems and lack AI expertise to build reliable models, especially given the risks of outdated or inaccurate information. Looking ahead, significant AI advancements are inevitable. Current systems will grow more accurate and reliable; businesses will eventually accept privacy trade-offs for AI benefits; future AI platforms will validate data quality before proceeding with tasks. In time, robots from companies like Boston Dynamics will take over roles in construction and manufacturing; drones will manage deliveries and inventory; autonomous trucks, forklifts, and lifelike bots will interact with customers. However, these developments remain years away. The most savvy clients recognize this and wait patiently, while others, like many from the Orgvue survey, were misled into believing such capabilities are already available—which they are not.