Maria Haubrich

For decades, marriage has been one of the most reliable demand engines in property, the mechanism that moves a family out of a starter flat and into a larger home. That engine is now running slower across key global markets, and the effects are showing up in real estate data well beyond the marriage statistics themselves.

Many people assume that businesses need massive budgets and widespread brand recognition to compete successfully. While big corporations often benefit from greater financial resources and established market presence, those advantages do not always translate into superior performance. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) can succeed by responding more quickly to changing customer needs, building stronger customer relationships, and making strategic decisions more efficiently.

Somebody built that system, and they almost certainly hit their targets: call volume, headcount down, cost per contact—all down. Every dashboard number moved the right way, but the customer's experience got measurably worse. That gap between what got measured and what happened is what I'd most want an SMB leader to avoid when bringing AI into their business.

Small businesses are adopting AI in the places where customer promises are made: sales emails, proposals, website copy, chat support, appointment booking, delivery estimates, and refund conversations. That is where the technology can save the most time. It is also where a plausible sentence can quietly become a costly commitment.

Labor Day is traditionally the time we recognize the contributions American workers make to our economy. For small business owners, it's also a good time to think about what employees need from their employers — and increasingly, the answer goes beyond a paycheck.

Most small business owners know a cyberattack could disrupt their operations. But they may not realize just how expensive that disruption could be

Most small business owners have heard the standard local SEO advice: complete your Google Business Profile, keep your contact information consistent, collect reviews, and build pages for the locations you serve.

Speaking at SIFMA's Compliance and Legal Society Midwest Regional Seminar in St. Louis in June, SEC Examinations Director Keith Cassidy flagged AI supervision as an active exam priority for 2026. Examiners will be assessing whether firms have adequate policies and procedures governing how AI technologies are used and overseen.

Nothing was wrong with the model or the preparers. The work left the building before anyone wrote down how to do it. The BPO world sorted this out decades ago: transitions fail on knowledge transfer, not on the people doing the work. Accounting firms keep relearning it, one season at a time.

An AI assistant does not hand back a page. It hands back an answer, and that answer usually contains two or three names. There is no eighth position. You are either in the sentence, or you are invisible.