Ask most entrepreneurs what’s standing in the way of growth, and you’ll hear a familiar list of challenges.
Hiring is expensive. Data is scattered across multiple systems. Building custom software often requires significant time and money. And finding qualified candidates has become more difficult as AI-generated resumes flood the market. That’s why many business owners are turning to artificial intelligence—not to replace employees, but to solve specific business problems that cost time, money, and productivity.
While much of the conversation around AI focuses on what the technology might do in the future, entrepreneurs are already using it today to improve efficiency, make better decisions, and scale their businesses faster.
Here are four growth challenges founders are solving with AI right now.
How Can I Spend Less Time Managing Data and More Time Growing My Business?
Many entrepreneurs don’t have a data problem. They have a time problem. Sales data lives in one platform. Inventory data lives in another. Marketing performance is somewhere else entirely. Bringing everything together often requires hours of manual work every week. Eric Thomasian, owner of Amalfi Market, faced that challenge while managing sales across Shopify, Amazon and Faire. “We run across Shopify, Amazon, and Faire, and I used to spend hours every week stitching those systems together by hand just to understand my own numbers,” Thomasian said.
After implementing Starch, an AI platform that connects business applications and performs tasks through natural-language prompts, much of that work became automated. With Starch, I describe what I need in plain English, and it pulls everything together,” he said. The system also uncovered a Google Ads attribution issue that had gone unnoticed. “It built a combined inventory and sales report across Amazon and Shopify that beat what I’d been doing manually, and it caught a major attribution issue in our Google Ads that I’d missed entirely,” Thomasian said. “For a business my size, that’s the difference between guessing and actually knowing where to spend. It’s like having an analyst on staff without the headcount.”
For many small businesses, hiring a dedicated analyst isn’t realistic. AI is increasingly helping bridge that gap by giving business owners access to insights that can improve decision-making without adding payroll costs.
How Can Small Businesses Scale Without Adding More Staff?
One of the biggest misconceptions in business is that growth always requires more employees. Sometimes growth comes from helping existing teams work more efficiently. That’s what Ryan Grant, president of NEO Home Loans, found after implementing Tinman, Better.com’s AI-powered mortgage platform. “Tinman is removing the friction from our system and is unlocking something we always knew the NEO Home Loans team was capable of,” Grant said. “The results speak for themselves; this level of scale isn’t possible on legacy mortgage tech. What Better has built is a platform where production grows through AI-driven efficiency, not burnout.”
According to Leah Price, chief operating officer at Better.com, lenders using the platform saw significant productivity gains between 2024 and 2025. Loan officers closed 91% more loans, processors handled 17% more volume, and underwriters managed nearly 50% more loans. “The people haven’t changed, only the technology has,” Price said. “That’s a genuine equalizer, especially for regional and community banks. They’ve always won the community relationships the big non-banks can’t buy, and now they have the infrastructure to match it.”
Similar productivity-focused AI initiatives are emerging across industries as companies seek ways to grow without significantly increasing payroll costs. For many business owners, improving efficiency may offer a faster path to growth than expanding headcount.
How Can Employers Hire Faster in the Age of AI?
Artificial intelligence has made creating a polished resume easier than ever. Unfortunately for employers, it has also made it harder to identify the strongest candidates. Recruiting veteran Shane Sharp Sr. saw the challenge firsthand and built Apex Talent Pipeline to help employers cut through the noise. “Apex Talent Pipeline, built by me on the Anything.com platform, has been a game-changer for small and mid-sized businesses struggling with noisy, AI-polished resumes,” Sharp said. “It restores truth to talent acquisition through rich verified profiles, AI triage, and Universal Talent Matching.”
According to Sharp, the platform is already helping businesses reduce hiring timelines and improve recruiting efficiency. One client, Monica Murdock, chief financial officer at BMTGA in Atlanta, used the platform to fill an operations associate role. Another client identified a contractor within 24 hours and completed placement within 72 hours. “These outcomes reflect what we’re seeing across clients: faster time-to-hire, major cost reductions, and better operational bandwidth so leaders can focus on growth instead of drowning in bad resumes,” Sharp said.
Hiring delays can be expensive for growing businesses. Every week a critical role remains open can slow revenue growth, increase pressure on existing employees, and create operational bottlenecks. Tools that help employers identify qualified candidates more quickly may become increasingly valuable as AI-generated applications continue to rise.
How Can Non-Technical Founders Build Software Products?
Not every entrepreneur with a great software idea knows how to write code. Historically, that meant finding a technical co-founder, hiring developers, or investing significant resources before bringing a product to market. Anthony Mejia found another path. The Northern California fire chief used Anything.com to build the IC Mobile Command Board, an iPad application designed to help fire departments track crews during emergency incidents.
The application launched in February and is now being sold to departments across the country. “As the founder of a tech company built for first responders, speed, reliability, and complex infrastructure are non-negotiable,” Mejia said. “The Anything platform has been the absolute engine behind the growth, development, and marketing of IC Mobile LLC.” He credits the platform with helping accelerate both product development and business growth.
“Anything hasn’t just supported our operations, it has fundamentally accelerated our revenue and market reach,” Mejia said. Mejia’s experience reflects a broader trend. Entrepreneurs with deep industry expertise are increasingly using AI tools to build software solutions without the traditional costs and complexity associated with software development. As AI lowers technical barriers, more founders may find opportunities to turn industry knowledge into scalable products.
What’s the Real ROI of AI for Entrepreneurs?
The common thread across the ROI from these AI examples isn’t replacing people. It’s helping businesses operate more efficiently.
- Time saved pulling reports.
- Time saved processing paperwork.
- Time saved screening resumes.
- Time saved building products.
For entrepreneurs, time is often the most valuable—and most limited—resource they have.
The businesses seeing the greatest returns from AI aren’t necessarily using it to eliminate jobs. They’re using it to reduce repetitive work, improve decision-making, and enable employees to focus on higher-value activities that directly contribute to growth. As AI tools become more accessible, the question for many business owners is no longer whether the technology can help them grow.
It’s how quickly they can put it to work.
Image Credit: Markus Winkler; Pexels
