How Will AI Affect Local Businesses

Over the past eight years, I’ve talked to thousands of local business owners. They often express frustration about their business's operating system. Each of these businesses has slightly different procedures and workflows to match specific business demands.

For now, the best these owners can do is rely on software and smart spreadsheets to build workflows that match their needs.

In theory, AI will enable every small business to create a custom software stack. This could include bespoke POS systems built on top of payment infrastructure or online ordering flows spun up in hours using a chatbot sophisticated enough to understand customer needs, design a software implementation, and push it to production.

This is already happening in the enterprise. It presents a major existential crisis for legacy software providers and will completely rewrite the SaaS landscape.

In SMB SaaS, the order of magnitude shift will take longer; however, most local brands will be able to emulate Crumbl: building their own tech stack completely customized to their business needs.