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Amy Bonitatibus, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at PayPal, Karen Kerrigan President & CEO, SBE Council, and Teresa Carlson, President of the General Catalyst Institute, open the Summit exploring how public and private sectors can work together to help small businesses harness AI and digital finance.

This panel puts small business owners front and center. Grounded in a new survey of nearly 1,000 owners from PPSI, 14 partner organizations, and PayPal, this session brings together small business owners with leaders representing national small business networks to explore how businesses are adopting AI (or not), what’s holding them back, and what needs to happen next to drive adoption.

This panel brings together leading companies and startups building AI tools for small businesses. Together, they explore what’s working in the market, where gaps remain, and what breakthroughs could reshape how small businesses access capital, reach customers, and compete.

See it in action. This demo showcases a native AI-powered loan underwriting and origination system (with human oversight) that is transforming small business lending by creating a faster, more transparent experience for applicants while enabling financial institutions to originate more loans, deliver higher customer satisfaction, and ensure compliance.

Digital currencies and blockchain have been hyped as transformational—but what’s the reality for small businesses? This session explores where these technologies could genuinely reshape access to capital, payments, and ownership, and what barriers—regulatory, technical, or practical—stand in the way of small businesses using these tools at scale.

State and local governments are beginning to use AI and digital tools to streamline services for small businesses—but we’re still early in understanding what’s possible. This panel explores emerging approaches, examines what’s working and what’s not, and discusses the policy choices that will determine whether these efforts genuinely reduce friction, expand access, and meet the expectations of constituents increasingly accustomed to digital experiences.

When customers ask ChatGPT or Claude where to find a product or service, which businesses show up? U&AI Founder and CEO explains how AI is fundamentally changing customer discovery and why traditional SEO is no longer enough. As search shifts from Google to AI assistants, small businesses face a new visibility challenge—and a new opportunity.

From AI regulation to fintech oversight to small business priorities on the Hill, this session offers an insider's view of the policy debates shaping the landscape—and what to look out for in the months ahead.

Congressman Bill Foster—physicist, entrepreneur, and legislator—discusses how Congress is approaching AI and digital finance policy, what frameworks could help small businesses harness these technologies, and what's coming next that business owners need to understand.

AI and digital finance hold genuine promise for small businesses—but realizing that promise requires getting the design, implementation, and policy environment right. This panel brings together a small business owner actively using AI, technology advisors helping small firms navigate adoption, and experts on trust and policy to explore what it actually takes to make innovation work for Main Street.

LinkedIn's Chief Economist Karin Kimbrough and OpenAI's Chief Economist Ronnie Chatterji close the Summit with a conversation about AI's impact on jobs and productivity in small business.