I'll be honest with you: when I hear about billion-dollar AI companies, my eyes usually glaze over. It feels like something for the tech folks out in Silicon Valley, not for the family-owned HVAC company down the street or the freelance graphic designer working from her kitchen table.
But a recent Forbes article caught my attention. It talks about how AI value creation is finally moving to services businesses—the kind that make up the backbone of our economy here in Ohio and across the country. And it got me thinking about what this actually means for the little guy.
The Big Money Is Finally Looking at Small Business
Here's the headline: Anthropic just launched a $1.5 billion AI implementation company. OpenAI followed with a $4 billion joint venture. Both are embedding engineers inside mid-sized companies to build custom AI systems.
That sounds huge, and it is. But here's the part that matters to us:
Of the roughly 36 million companies in the U.S., only about 17,000 are software companies. The rest are dominated by services businesses.
Seventeen thousand. Out of 36 million. That's a drop in the bucket.
The services sector accounts for more than three-quarters of U.S. GDP. That's your local plumber, your accountant, your landscaper, your freelance writer. And for too long, these businesses have been overlooked by the tech world.
The Paper Problem
Luke Hedlund of Tucannon Partners has spent years evaluating services businesses as a buyer. He's seen it all—including companies that still keep 30+ years of financials and customer records "held entirely on paper in filing cabinets."
Think about that. Decades of quotes, margins, customer histories, and maintenance logs. All sitting in a metal box gathering dust.
Large language models have never seen that data. They've been trained on public web content, not the proprietary records of a regional HVAC operator or a family-owned distributor. That's a goldmine of information that's been completely untapped.
The Opportunity to Skip the Software Era
Here's where it gets interesting. Traditionally, converting those paper records into a usable digital system was expensive and time-consuming. It could take years and cost a small fortune. That's why analog businesses have always sold at a discount compared to their digital peers.
But AI is changing that. As the Forbes article points out:
AI solutions now handle much of those digitization workflows at a fraction of the time and cost, which lets many of these companies move straight from analog to AI-powered, skipping the interim software era entirely.
Skipping the software era. That's a big deal.
Instead of buying expensive accounting software, learning how to use it, and spending weeks entering data, you can now use AI tools that understand natural language. You can say "send an invoice to Johnson Construction for last week's work" and it just happens.
What This Means for Freelancers and Small Business Owners
I talk to a lot of freelancers and small business owners. The number one complaint I hear is that they spend too much time on paperwork and not enough time actually doing the work they love.
That's where tools like Invoice Gini come in. It's an AI finance assistant designed specifically for freelancers. You tell it what you need in plain English, and it generates professional PDF invoices, tracks payments, and helps you stay on top of your finances.
No more wrestling with complicated software. No more spending Sunday afternoon hunched over spreadsheets. Just say it, and your invoice is ready.
The Real Challenge: Finding the Right People
Luke Hedlund also pointed out a challenge that rings true:
"The investors, search funds, and sponsors who know how to buy and operate these companies are just beginning to build AI capabilities, and the world-class engineers they need are drawn to software rather than services companies. The opportunity belongs to whomever can bring the technical skill and the process knowledge together, and that combination is still rare."
He's right. The engineers who can build these systems are often more interested in working for flashy tech startups than for a regional plumbing company. That's a gap that needs to be filled.
But here's the good news: you don't need a team of engineers to start using AI in your business. You just need the right tools.
My Take
Look, I'm not saying every small business needs to jump on the AI bandwagon tomorrow. But I am saying that if you're still doing things the old-fashioned way—printing invoices, mailing them, waiting for checks to arrive—you're leaving money on the table.
The technology is here. It's affordable. And it's designed for people like you and me, not just for the big corporations.
Start small. Maybe try automating your invoicing with Invoice Gini. See how it feels to have one less thing on your plate. Then maybe look at other areas where AI could save you time and money.
The services economy is finally getting the attention it deserves. Make sure you're ready for it.