Here's a chart that should terrify every small business owner.
Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, revenue per employee at S&P 500 companies has soared to $250k per worker. Meanwhile, Russell 2000 companies (smaller businesses) have dropped to $220k—and the gap is widening fast.
We've all seen the headlines about layoffs at large companies. It started with the AI companies themselves: Meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon. Now it's spreading to other Fortune 500s.
But here's what the headlines miss: Many companies aren't cutting headcount—they're just not hiring.
Revenue growth continues.
Employment growth doesn't.
The Real Problem
Large companies are bringing in Accenture and Deloitte to build custom AI systems. Not just ChatGPT for questions, but real agentic workflows that do actual work while people sleep.
The gap is widening:
Large companies: AI agents processing invoices, running sales outreach, generating reports, analyzing data, creating content, and coordinating teams—automatically
Small businesses: Hiring another marketing person and sales rep
Why This Is a Crisis
You can't compete on productivity when your competitor's AI systems work 24/7 while your team uses ChatGPT like a fancy search engine.
The revenue-per-employee gap isn't about having better people. It's about having systems that multiply what those people can do.
What I've Learned
The solution isn't hiring Accenture—you can't afford them.
Most solutions for smaller businesses require technical expertise or focus on individual productivity (single-player) versus company-wide workflows (multi-player).
Training won't solve it. I've worked with 10-15 owners over the last 2 months on AI adoption. The pattern is clear: owners don't have the time or technical skills to drive this change themselves.
Hiring won't solve it either. Anyone with real expertise is getting paid a lot of money by companies bigger than yours.
The Solution
Someone needs to scale these customized systems down to the SMB level.
That's what we're building with OwnerRx—ready-made agents that automate key processes across small businesses. We're aiming to launch our beta in January.
If you're interested in joining 300 other business owners on our waitlist, sign up here.
If not, learn to build an equivalent system yourself and hurry.