What the Research Shows: AI, Workers, and Small Business—A Briefing featuring AI Research and Resources from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the labor market and small business landscape in ways that reach directly into the communities asset-building funders serve. Lower-income workers—6 million of whom are already in highly AI-exposed jobs—are concentrated in the office and administrative support roles, nonprofit organizations, and health and social service industries that AFN members fund. Whether AI expands or contracts economic mobility for these workers is not a technological inevitability. It is determined by the choices that policymakers, institutions, and funders make right now.

In this webinar, researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Community Engagement and Analysis team presented their latest findings on AI’s real-time impacts on lower-income workers and small businesses—and what those findings mean for grantmakers. Participants gained a grounded, data-backed understanding of which workers and industries face the greatest AI exposure; what AI adoption looks like among small businesses as a wealth-building pathway; how nonprofit organizations are being affected; and why flexible philanthropic funding is emerging as a critical factor in how well communities can adapt.

Resources

• On-the-Job Exposure to AI Among Lower-Income Workers
• State Data on Lower-Income Workers and Exposure to AI (Interactive Tool)
• Early Findings on Small Business Use of AI
• Community Investments
• The AI adoption gap: Gender and generation among small business owners
• Understanding the use of AI among small businesses

Speakers

• Joe Antolin, moderator, President and CEO, Asset Funders Network
• Natalie Holmes, Senior Researcher, Community Engagement and Analysis, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Elizabeth Kneebone, Assistant Vice President of Research, Community Engagement and Analysis, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Andrea Passalacqua, Vice President and Research Lead, JPMorgan Chase & Co
• Rocio Sanchez-Moyano, Senior Researcher, Community Engagement and Analysis, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco