Why 86% of Solopreneurs Try AI Before They Hire (And What It Means for Your Small Business)
Title: Solopreneur planning work with AI support
Caption: AI can help a business owner create capacity before making a new hire.
Description: A solopreneur works at a bright home office desk with a laptop, notebook, phone, and coffee while planning client work and business tasks.
AI is changing the first step many small business owners take when work starts to pile up.
Instead of hiring immediately, they try AI.
According to FreshBooks’ The Era of the Solopreneur report, 86% of solopreneurs and microbusiness owners try AI before hiring someone when they face a business task they cannot complete alone. The survey included 500 business owners and was conducted by Wakefield Research in June and July 2026.
That number does not mean people no longer need employees. It means AI is becoming a new source of business capacity.
AI handles repetitive work. People handle judgment, creativity, leadership, and relationships.
That is the positive growth story.
What the 86% Number Really Means
The 86% figure applies to a specific situation: a solopreneur reaches a task they cannot complete entirely on their own.
It does not mean:
- Every task should be given to AI.
- AI is the right answer for every business problem.
- Human employees are becoming unnecessary.
- Business owners should automate sensitive decisions.
- An AI tool can replace industry experience or personal trust.
The finding shows that many owners now test technology before adding payroll, hiring a contractor, or bringing in a virtual assistant.
FreshBooks also found that:
- 90% say AI makes it easier for one person to start and run a business.
- 60% say AI helped them launch something they could not have built alone.
- 77% are using or experimenting with AI agents.
- 98% of AI users say AI helped them reach business or client goals they could not otherwise achieve.
The lesson is simple. AI can help a small business stretch its existing capacity.
But capacity is not the same as leadership.
Why the Smallest Businesses Risk Falling Behind
AI adoption is growing across small businesses. Yet adoption is not equal.
A separate 2026 Main Street AI Gap Report from Homebase found that about 54% of businesses with less than $500,000 in annual revenue use AI, compared with 81% of businesses with $5 million or more in revenue.
This is an important distinction. The 86% FreshBooks figure describes what owners do when they face a task they cannot handle. The Homebase data looks at broader AI adoption by revenue level. They are not measuring the same thing.
Still, the pattern is clear. The smallest companies often have:
- Less time to test new tools
- Smaller budgets
- Fewer people to guide implementation
- Less confidence about which tools to choose
- More concern about privacy and accuracy
The risk is not that small businesses will suddenly disappear. The risk is that larger competitors will use AI to respond faster, publish more consistently, and complete routine work with less effort.
Small businesses do not need more tools. They need better systems.
The Three Types of Work Owners Hand to AI First
Most small businesses do not begin by giving AI control of their most important decisions. They start with work that is repetitive and easy to review.
1. Repeatable administrative work
Administrative tasks are often the easiest place to begin.
Examples include:
- Sorting email
- Creating meeting summaries
- Preparing reminders
- Organizing files
- Updating contact records
- Drafting simple reports
- Creating appointment confirmations
A home services business might use AI to organize service requests and prepare follow-up tasks. A healthcare front office might use it to draft appointment reminders while staff protect patient privacy and handle urgent concerns.
A restaurant could use AI to organize reservation questions or prepare a daily staff checklist. The manager still makes decisions about staffing, service, and customer care.
2. First-response communication
Speed matters when someone contacts your business.
AI can help prepare:
- Answers to common questions
- New inquiry confirmations
- Appointment options
- Basic service information
- Directions and business hours
- Lead follow-up drafts
A real estate agent may use AI to organize incoming inquiries and prepare an approved response. A person should step in when a buyer has complex questions, asks for negotiation, or needs advice based on personal circumstances.
The goal is not to make every message sound automated. The goal is to make sure simple questions do not sit unanswered for hours.
3. Content and follow-up
Content takes time. Follow-up takes discipline.
AI can help with:
- Blog outlines
- First drafts
- Social media ideas
- Email newsletters
- Campaign variations
- Meeting follow-up
- Donor acknowledgment drafts
- Volunteer reminders
A nonprofit or church may use AI to organize donor communications and volunteer reminders. The team should still review every message for warmth, accuracy, and alignment with the mission.
At Aimee’s Marketing, AI helps create blog drafts, organize research, improve marketing campaigns, and support customer communication. Rather than replacing people, AI allows us to spend more time serving clients and developing new ideas.
That is the right standard.
More capacity should create more human value.
Title: Home services team reviewing customer follow-up
Caption: AI can organize routine customer work while people make decisions and build trust.
Description: A home services owner and an assistant review a tablet and checklist together while discussing customer follow-up.
A Simple Test: Which Tasks Are Safe to Hand Off?
Use this rule:
Repeatable + rules-based + low risk = a good first AI handoff.
Ask these questions about a task:
- Does it happen often?
- Can you explain the steps clearly?
- Can someone quickly review the result?
- Would a mistake be easy to fix?
- Does the task avoid sensitive personal information?
- Does it support, rather than replace, human judgment?
If the answer is yes to most questions, the task may be a good starting point.
For a deeper explanation, read What Is an AI Employee?. An AI employee is a role-based digital worker assigned to a clear, repeatable business function. It is different from asking a general AI assistant to complete a one-time task.
When to Hire a Person Instead
AI is not always the best next step.
Hire a person when the work requires:
- Deep industry expertise
- Emotional intelligence
- Ongoing relationship building
- Physical presence
- Complex judgment
- Accountability for outcomes
- Strategic leadership
- New ideas that do not follow a set process
A nonprofit may need a development professional to build relationships with major donors. A consulting firm may need an experienced strategist to guide a client through uncertainty. A healthcare practice needs qualified people to manage patient care and sensitive situations.
AI can support these roles. It should not own them.
A useful question is:
Would a customer, donor, patient, or employee feel better knowing a trusted person handled this?
If yes, keep a human directly involved.
When a Hybrid Model Makes Sense
Many businesses need both AI and people.
A hybrid workflow might look like this:
- AI sorts new inquiries.
- AI drafts a first response.
- A person reviews the message.
- AI updates the contact record.
- A person handles the conversation that requires judgment.
- AI prepares a follow-up reminder.
This model gives you speed without giving away responsibility.
Our guide on AI Virtual Assistant vs. AI Employee explains the difference. An AI virtual assistant is usually best for flexible, on-demand help. An AI employee is better for a recurring workflow with clear rules.
Our AI vs. Human Employees comparison covers the broader principle: AI and people work best together.
Title: Nonprofit team planning with AI support
Caption: AI can give nonprofit teams more time for donors, volunteers, and community work.
Description: A nonprofit director and volunteer review notes and a laptop together in a warm community workspace.
A Realistic 30-Day AI Starter Plan
You do not need to automate your entire business. Start with one workflow.
Days 1–7: Find the bottleneck
Write down the tasks you repeat every week.
Look for work that is:
- Time-consuming
- Digital
- Easy to explain
- Easy to review
- Frustrating but necessary
Track how long the task takes. This gives you a starting point.
Days 8–14: Create the rules
Choose one task and write a basic process.
Define:
- What starts the task
- What information AI may use
- What steps it should follow
- What it must never do
- When a person must review the work
Start with limited access. Do not connect every business system at once.
Days 15–21: Test with human review
Run the workflow on a small sample.
Review:
- Accuracy
- Tone
- Missing information
- Errors
- Time saved
- Extra work created
If the tool creates more work than it removes, change the process or stop using it.
Days 22–30: Measure and decide
Compare the new workflow with your original baseline.
Measure:
- Hours saved
- Response time
- Follow-up completed
- Errors found
- Customer or donor feedback
- Number of tasks completed
Do not measure success by how advanced the tool sounds.
Measure whether the work got better.
Title: Restaurant team reviewing a service workflow
Caption: AI can reduce routine work while restaurant teams keep service personal.
Description: A restaurant owner and staff member review a tablet and customer service checklist in a warm dining room.
What AI Should Never Own
AI should not have final control over:
- Pricing
- Contracts
- Refunds
- Hiring and firing
- Medical decisions
- Legal or financial advice
- Sensitive personal information
- Safety decisions
- Crisis communication
- Important donor or customer relationships
AI can prepare information. A person should make the final decision.
This matters because AI can make confident mistakes. It can misunderstand context, repeat outdated information, or produce an answer that sounds correct but is not.
The human review step is not a weakness.
Human review is the control system.
For ideas about using AI to protect your time without losing customer service, read How AI Employees Help Small Business Owners Take Time Off Without Losing Customers.
The Main Opportunity
The 86% statistic is not a warning that people are becoming less important.
It is evidence that small business owners are looking for practical ways to grow without burning out.
AI can help a solopreneur answer faster, follow up consistently, and create a stronger first draft. It can help a nonprofit team spend less time organizing information and more time serving the community.
But the best outcome is not replacing every human task.
The best outcome is creating enough capacity for people to do the work only people can do.
Simplified Summary
What is this article about?
This article explains why 86% of solopreneurs try AI before hiring help. It also shows which tasks are good for AI and which tasks still need people.
Why should I care?
AI can save time, improve response speed, and help a small team serve more customers or community members. It can also create extra work if it is not set up well.
How do I do it?
Start with one repeatable, low-risk task. Write down the steps. Give AI limited access. Keep a human review point. Measure hours saved, response time, and completed follow-up.
What is the main goal?
The goal is to use AI to create capacity while keeping people responsible for decisions, trust, creativity, and relationships.
Your Next Step
List five tasks your business repeats each week.
Choose one that is:
- Repeatable
- Rules-based
- Low risk
- Easy to review
Test it for 30 days.
If you need a role-based workflow, you can hire AI employees through Marblism. If you help other businesses or nonprofits adopt AI, you can apply to become a Marblism Partner.
Start small. Measure the results. Keep people at the center.
