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Small business owners weigh AI, cybersecurity and growth
Evidence tier: A1 Evidence type: Auto-discovered official publication Source: Mastercard Newsroom Official publication date: 2026-06-29 Captured: 2026-07-16T20:30:34.088Z
Sentiments at the expo seemed to offer equal parts of both anxiety and optimism, a hallmark of the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur.
“Do you know that a record number of small businesses have started over the past few years all across the country?,” asked Phil Krough, founder of Source It Local, an online marketplace that connects shoppers with nearby artisans. “This is one of the best times for small businesses in history,” he declared. “AI can do a lot of work for small businesses now. With better international shipping, you don’t need a brick-and-mortar space to survive anymore. As an entrepreneur, you can live in a digital space.”
Surprisingly, despite the many conversations about AI’s impact on jobs saturating the news and social media, most of the entrepreneurs at the expo weren’t worried about computers taking over their jobs. This is, in part, because many of them are their own bosses. They consider AI, at its best, like another staff member that helps them sort through data and save time on administrative tasks so they can concentrate on the real work of their businesses.
“You can use AI to do cool things,” said Dan Chamberlain, the principal of CDC Marketing in Elgin, Illinois. ”But you need people to run a small business.”
But that confidence has its limits, reflected in the most recent study by the Fed’s Small Business Credit Survey. In the report, 76% of owners of businesses with more than $10 million in annual revenue believed they were in a “good,” “very good” or “excellent” financial position. By contrast, only 26% of owners of businesses with annual revenue below $100,000 felt the same. And these challenges seem likely to continue for a while amid economic upheaval.
The tension between ambition and uncertainty is showing up globally, too. Nearly a third of small and medium-size business owners globally cite economic and market conditions as their top challenge, according to upcoming research by Mastercard. A survey of more than 6,600 owners revealed that rising costs (56%), competition (51%) and economic pressure (49%) are the dominant pressures.
Mastercard