For one small business, AI was key to a quick start and expansion

Here Now Health isn’t an AI company, but artificial intelligence played a central role in turning founder Michelle Turner’s idea into a working mental health platform for foster children. From her home in Virginia Beach, Turner used AI tools to learn startup fundamentals, shape a business plan, and refine a pitch for early investors. The result: launched in January 2025, the company now employs 16 people and is certified in three states to deliver Medicaid-funded counseling for children entering the foster system—a need Turner recognized through her own experience as a foster parent.

Turner describes AI as a daily coach that helped her close gaps in expertise and confidence typically faced by first-time founders. Instead of navigating a maze of courses, consultants, and costly services, she iterated quickly with AI to pressure-test her strategy, clarify financial assumptions, and sharpen messaging for investors.

How AI shortened the startup runway

For small businesses, AI has become a force multiplier. Turner used it to research the market, draft clinical workflows aligned with regulations, and customize presentations for different audiences—from social workers to investors. It helped her model staffing plans, forecast costs, and outline compliance steps for Medicaid certification. Tasks that once required weeks of specialized help became weekend projects, giving her the speed to win early backing and move into operations.

This pattern is spreading beyond tech. Entrepreneurs in services, retail, and healthcare are using AI to compress timelines and lower startup costs. The playbook is pragmatic: automate the basics, outsource specialized writing and analysis to AI, and spend human time on relationships, execution, and care quality.

The broader economic shift

AI’s rapid diffusion is now a defining feature of the U.S. economy and a central topic for policymakers. Officials are studying how it may lift productivity—allowing faster growth with less inflation—while also reshaping labor demand. Competing narratives have emerged. One emphasizes scarcity: heavy investment in data centers and chips is boosting demand for capital, electricity, and skilled labor, sometimes pushing costs higher. The other envisions abundance: breakthroughs that unlock new efficiencies, innovation, and growth beyond the modest rates of recent years.

Like the early internet era, different AI models and platforms are vying for adoption. But today’s tools go beyond search and shopping; they draft code, summarize complex documents, simulate operations, and tutor on demand. The effect is most visible in how quickly individuals and small teams can now accomplish what once required larger organizations.

Lower barriers, faster scaling

Advisers who work with early-stage founders say AI is reducing both the time and money needed to get from idea to traction. It’s not about building AI-first products; it’s about using AI behind the scenes to standardize processes, improve service quality, and reach customers more efficiently. For many small firms, the payoff is the ability to hire sooner, expand into new regions, and deliver more consistent results without a bloated back office.

Jobs: reallocation more than replacement?

Public debate often centers on job loss, especially in clerical and back-office roles where automation is advancing. Yet there’s a countervailing trend: rising new business formations and faster scaling among small firms using AI. As these companies grow, they create roles in operations, sales, compliance, and customer service—even as some administrative tasks shrink or shift.

Business leaders also report that AI can help stretch scarce talent, particularly in skilled trades and specialized services. In sectors that still struggle to hire, AI tools boost productivity and reduce bottlenecks. The risk, however, is uneven impact: some white-collar roles face greater exposure, while others are complemented and upgraded.

Who may be most vulnerable

Researchers warn that disruption could concentrate among workers whose next logical career step is into roles highly exposed to AI automation. That includes millions without four-year degrees who have traditionally advanced through experience. If those “next steps” narrow, people may become stuck in lower-wage jobs with fewer paths upward. The exposure isn’t confined to one region; it spans hubs in Florida, the Northeast, Texas, and California—areas dense with administrative and professional services.

Policy and the path ahead

For the Federal Reserve and other policymakers, the key questions are outcome and pace. In the short run, AI investment may lift certain costs and reconfigure hiring. Over the longer term, sustained productivity gains could support faster growth with less inflation. Leaders emphasize a dual reality: AI is likely to leave the economy better off overall, but the transition will be disruptive for many workers and firms.

A middle path, in practice

Here Now Health sits in that middle ground. It isn’t selling AI; it’s using AI to deliver traditional services better and faster. Turner’s experience shows how the technology can democratize expertise, help founders clear early hurdles, and channel resources toward human work that matters—in this case, mental health support for foster children at a critical moment in their lives.

The story doesn’t end the debate over AI’s broader economic effects. But it illustrates a hopeful thread: when used thoughtfully, AI can compress the distance between a good idea and a working solution, opening doors for entrepreneurs who once lacked the time, capital, or credentials to compete.