Goldman Sachs Launches Small Business AI Institute

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon announced a $500 million commitment on Thursday to fund the next chapter of the bank’s 10,000 Small Businesses program, including a new Small Business AI Institute. Speaking at the institute’s launch at Goldman’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, he said businesses should separate frontier model development from everyday business tools: “there’s very little that we do where we need frontier models.” He said frontier models matter for cybersecurity, defense and health care, including drug discovery and molecule formation, while existing tools can support ordinary business operations. The institute will provide education, access to capital and support services. Nearly 20,000 entrepreneurs have completed the program since it launched in 2010 under an earlier $1.25 billion commitment; Solomon said small businesses account for 99% of U.S. businesses.

Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI are contributing to the institute. Anthropic will create an applied AI learning series, hold hands-on workshops for program alumni and research small-business AI use. Google will offer its Grow With Google AI Professional certificate to almost 20,000 small-business owners and employees, plus three months of free Google AI Pro access. Meta will provide AI tools and training through Muse for Small Business. OpenAI will run workshops through the program’s community college partners. Solomon said AI is expensive and owners do not need to have it figured out “in the next three weeks.” He advised them to weigh token and platform costs against productivity gains in sales, customer experience, manufacturing and procurement, saying it is more important to get implementation right than to move faster.

A Goldman survey released with the announcement found that 73% of program graduates who use AI spend less than $100 a month, including 16% who use only free tools. Some 86% use chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, 54% use AI features built into software they already use, and 18% use agentic AI (AI systems that carry out tasks with some autonomy). Babson College conducted the survey in August. It found business AI use had risen to 86%, from 56% in 2024, while just 15% said AI was fully integrated into core operations and 77% wanted more training and resources.

Among graduates using AI, 84% reported no workforce change, 5% added positions and 6% cut staff. Respondents said they used time saved for strategic planning (56%), expanded marketing (44%) and new products or services (31%). Solomon said AI can let an owner do more strategy work without hiring a consultant, creating more capacity without a fixed cost base. At the launch, Hibiscus Brew founder Allison Dunn described using AI to sort email, organize tasks, schedule her calendar, develop a fall menu and draft an inventory checklist; she said customers are still greeted by name within three seconds. Glo Pals cofounder Hagan Walker said an AI agent selects lower-cost box sizes for orders and analyzes advertising data across Google and Meta. His company is hiring and seeks candidates familiar with the tools, but keeps copyright and illustration work with people. Solomon said the institute will combine partner training, research on small-business AI use and access to capital, which he called a continuing constraint.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon announced a $500 million commitment on Thursday to fund the next chapter of the bank’s 10,000 Small Businesses program, including a new Small Business AI Institute. Speaking at the institute’s launch at Goldman’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, he said businesses should separate frontier model development from everyday business tools: “there’s very little that we do where we need frontier models.” He said frontier models matter for cybersecurity, defense and health care, including drug discovery and molecule formation, while existing tools can support ordinary business operations. The institute will provide education, access to capital and support services. Nearly 20,000 entrepreneurs have completed the program since it launched in 2010 under an earlier $1.25 billion commitment; Solomon said small businesses account for 99% of U.S. businesses.

Anthropic, Google, Meta and OpenAI are contributing to the institute. Anthropic will create an applied AI learning series, hold hands-on workshops for program alumni and research small-business AI use. Google will offer its Grow With Google AI Professional certificate to almost 20,000 small-business owners and employees, plus three months of free Google AI Pro access. Meta will provide AI tools and training through Muse for Small Business. OpenAI will run workshops through the program’s community college partners. Solomon said AI is expensive and owners do not need to have it figured out “in the next three weeks.” He advised them to weigh token and platform costs against productivity gains in sales, customer experience, manufacturing and procurement, saying it is more important to get implementation right than to move faster.

A Goldman survey released with the announcement found that 73% of program graduates who use AI spend less than $100 a month, including 16% who use only free tools. Some 86% use chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, 54% use AI features built into software they already use, and 18% use agentic AI (AI systems that carry out tasks with some autonomy). Babson College conducted the survey in August. It found business AI use had risen to 86%, from 56% in 2024, while just 15% said AI was fully integrated into core operations and 77% wanted more training and resources.

Among graduates using AI, 84% reported no workforce change, 5% added positions and 6% cut staff. Respondents said they used time saved for strategic planning (56%), expanded marketing (44%) and new products or services (31%). Solomon said AI can let an owner do more strategy work without hiring a consultant, creating more capacity without a fixed cost base. At the launch, Hibiscus Brew founder Allison Dunn described using AI to sort email, organize tasks, schedule her calendar, develop a fall menu and draft an inventory checklist; she said customers are still greeted by name within three seconds. Glo Pals cofounder Hagan Walker said an AI agent selects lower-cost box sizes for orders and analyzes advertising data across Google and Meta. His company is hiring and seeks candidates familiar with the tools, but keeps copyright and illustration work with people. Solomon said the institute will combine partner training, research on small-business AI use and access to capital, which he called a continuing constraint.