Hey. Hope you had a great week and are excited for the Fourth of July weekend! Hopefully, you get some time off to rest and relax with friends and family.
Every week I dig through the noise to find AI updates that actually matter to small business owners. Let's jump in.
AI Is Becoming Less Expensive—and That's Good News for Small Businesses
Google announced several new Gemini AI models this week, including Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and updates to its Flash models.
While the product names may not mean much to most business owners, the bigger story certainly does.
Google is making its AI models faster to run, less expensive, and easier for software companies to build into their products. In other words, AI is becoming cheaper behind the scenes.
Why This Matters
Over the past couple of years, businesses have been asked to pay extra for AI features or subscribe to separate AI tools.
That may start to change.
As companies like Google continue lowering the cost of AI, we'll likely see more AI features built directly into the software businesses already use every day—whether that's accounting software, CRMs, scheduling platforms, email marketing tools, or customer support systems.
Instead of wondering which AI tool to buy next, many small businesses may simply discover that the software they're already paying for keeps getting smarter.
Building Digital Experiences Is Getting Much Easier
CommerceTools announced new AI capabilities designed to dramatically reduce the time it takes to build online shopping experiences.
While CommerceTools primarily serves large enterprise companies, I think the bigger takeaway applies to businesses of every size.
AI is continuing to remove technical barriers that once required developers, designers, and months of work.
Creating customer portals, membership sites, online stores, appointment systems, and personalized customer experiences is becoming faster and more accessible.
Why This Matters
This is another example of AI lowering the cost of doing business.
Not because websites suddenly build themselves, but because much of the repetitive technical work is being automated.
That means businesses can spend less time waiting for development projects and more time testing ideas, improving customer experiences, and getting new services in front of customers.
I don't think AI will replace web developers anytime soon.
But it is changing what they spend their time building, and it's making many digital projects far more achievable for small businesses.
The Bigger Trend
These two announcements tell the same story. AI isn't just getting smarter. It's becoming cheaper, faster, and easier for software companies to integrate into the products businesses already use.
That's important because most small business owners don't want another platform to learn. They want the tools they already rely on to become more helpful.
Over the next few years, I think that's exactly what we're going to see.
Less "Here's another AI app."
More "Your existing software can now do this for you."
And that's the most practical use of AI yet.
That’s it for this week—hopefully this gives you a clearer picture of how AI is becoming an integral part of everyday small business operations and inspires a few ideas that could make your work a little easier.
Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!
Yours in success,
Kathleen
P.S. Forward this to one business-owner friend who’s still “figuring out AI.” You’ll look like the smart one. 😊
