By Gene Marks
Here are five things in small business technology that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
A new WordPress plugin called LovedByAIhas launched to help small businesses get found in the growing world of AI-powered search. As AI “answer engines” like ChatGPT and Gemini surpass 700 million weekly users, traditional SEO alone isn’t enough for visibility in AI responses. LovedBy.AI is designed to help small businesses with gap analysis to find where site content isn’t structured for AI. Features also include automated schema/data formatting so AI bots understand core business details; and visibility tracking & performance metrics – similar to enterprise tools but scaled for smaller sites. The goal is to help non-technical site owners prepare their websites for AI discovery without hiring developers or paying hundreds of dollars per month. (Source: EIN Presswire)
Why this is important for your small business:
Ask any marketer, or any company that relies on Google to drive their online sales or get their website found and they’ll tell you that AI is starting to worry them. Clearly, big changes are happening and 2026 is going to see a measurable shift. For now, Google still dominates in search. But many publishers and other e-commerce sites I know are experiencing significant drop-offs in traffic because people are using AI assistants to do their searching and provide answers which means that click-throughs are much less. You can argue that if someone does click-through they are a more qualified lead. But regardless, traffic is trending down on sites and there’s a significant opportunity for both the platforms and savvy marketing tech people to figure out how to maximize SEO as these AI chatbots take over.
Small Business Technology News #2 – How ChatGPT could change the face of advertising, without you even knowing about it.
Rapidly advancing AI – especially ChatGPT – may transform digital advertising into something far more personalized, automated, and harder for consumers to recognize. With 800 million weekly users, OpenAI is exploring ways to integrate advertising directly into conversational experiences. For example, ChatGPT Atlas – introduced in 2025 – can automate purchases based on a user’s browsing history. The Agent Mode setting in Atlas will also offer suggestions based on past searches and lets users ask ChatGPT to find past items and add them to carts. OpenAI’s CFO has openly said the company is “weighing up an ads model” but early experiments have shown that users dislike feeling “sold to” and indicated that some degree of autonomy is essential to making a final decision. Based on that feedback, OpenAI is rethinking how ads should appear – likely in more subtle, blended ways. As the technology continues to advance, advertising will become more personalized and harder to distinguish from neutral advice. (Source: Tech Xplore)
Why this is important for your small business:
This is OpenAI’s potential strategy. It will change. And I expect its many competitors will also have their own ideas. It’s going to be the wild west for a lot of advertisers over the next few years as our AI geniuses try to figure out how to monetize ad spend. The good news is that this will take away from Google monopoly on online ads and, which will give more affordable choices to small businesses.
Small Business Technology News #3 – How marketers rank this year’s generative AI, video tools.
Generative AI tools advanced rapidly this year, and Digiday’s report card highlights which tools delivered and which fell short. Google’s Nano Banana image generator is considered the “golden standard” for its precision, hyper‑realistic output, and reduced “AI sheen” – a too perfect quality that’s noticeable in images. Google’s VEO – text-to-video generative AI model – also received high marks as the most robust video model that produces strong character consistency, cinematic interpretation, and prompt execution. AI tools that received a “B” grade include OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora for its cinematic quality, lighting, and consistent environments. Though Sora was a major breakthrough marketers found Google’s VEO easier to integrate across creative workflows. Marketers also said they use these tools in tandem with one another and their proliferation and as one exec put it, “Consistency is probably the number one thing you’ll need to give people.” (Source: Digiday)
Why this is important for your small business:
As I’ve previously written, the AI image creators offered by the major platforms are still not business ready. They’re amazing. They’re light years ahead of where they were just a short time ago. They’re fun. But for the typical business owner they’re not worth using professionally. I do believe – in a very short time – they will become even better, more responsive, more accurate, more reliable. I also think that they will become even easier to use and not require teams of tech people to manipulate.
Small Business Technology News #4 – Inbox zero for 2026: Free up 15GB of Gmail storage without deleting a thing.
Jason Chun of CNET explained a clever way to free up your Gmail storage back to the full 15 GB limit without deleting your old emails – essentially getting to “inbox zero” without losing anything. (Source: CNET)
Why this is important for your small business:
“All I had to do was create a second Gmail account,” Chun said, avoiding the fees for extra storage. If account holders choose this method, Chun recommends backing up email messages via “Google Takeout” and then download them to a computer or external hard drive (then delete them once the transfer is completed). Transferring old emails to the newly created account usually involves enabling POP (Post Office Protocol) – the transfer setting where old messages get pulled into the new account while keeping them safe. Chun gives his readers a step-by-step guide to transfer old emails and says depending on how many messages are moved, it doesn’t take long.
Small Business Technology News #5 – 10 ecommerce trends that will shape online retail in 2026.
Brian Warmoth of Digital Commerce 360 listed 10 ecommerce trends to expect in 2026 based on the factors that were at play in 2025 (tariffs, consumer behaviour). (Source: Digital Commerce 360)
Why this is important for your small business:
Among the trends that caught my eye was the advancement of agentic commerce. Warmoth says that AI assistants aren’t just replying to prompts anymore; they’re automating tasks like checkout, research, and curated shopping lists, and 2026 could see them interoperate with external tools and platforms. For those catering to the younger crowd, Warmoth says that Gen Z will be more accepting of virtual shopping assistants, with younger shoppers leading in adopting AI helpers for discovery and buying, while retailers learn where different age groups diverge in behaviour.
Each week I round up five small business technology news stories and explain why they’re important for your business. If you have any interesting stories, please post to my X account @genemarks
Feature image credit: Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
By Gene Marks
Find Gene Marks on LinkedIn and X. Visit Gene’s website. Browse additional work.