AI may be helping more people start their own businesses, but without many employees
Fortune • • general
Key Points:
- A Bank of America Institute report found a 15.1% year-over-year increase in "high propensity businesses" likely to hire employees in January, despite a 4.4% decline in business applications explicitly planning to hire.
- Small businesses are making record investments in tech services, including AI, with spending up 14% year over year, particularly in retail and manufacturing sectors, potentially driving a productivity push.
- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted stalled private sector hiring, with zero net job creation and 92,000 positions cut in February, while layoffs linked to AI accounted for about 8% of job cut announcements in 2026.
- Some startups are reducing engineering teams by about one-third due to AI tools enabling
