HANOVER, GERMANY – MARCH 31: The AWS Amazon Web Services pavilion stands are seen at the 2025 Hannover Messe industrial trade fair on March 31, 2025 in Hanover, Germany. The fair, which showcases German and international industrial production, is taking place as trade relations between the European Union and the United States are becoming fractured by the threat of tariffs by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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Here are five things in small business technology news that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
This Week in Small Business Technology News.
Small Business Technology News #1 – What the huge AWS outage reveals about the internet.
Last week a single failure in Amazon Web Services (AWS) disrupted countless websites and services, revealing how deeply interconnected and centralized the internet has become. The outage shows that AWS a backbone of the internet as many companies rely on AWS not just for hosting, but for core infrastructure like databases, storage, and computing. AWS has yet to offer additional specifics on what triggered the incident. (Source: Wired)
Why this is important for your small business:
When AWS goes down, it’s not just websites – it’s apps, devices (Alexa smart assistant) – and even physical systems that fail. The Internet’s architecture favors convenience as developers often choose centralized services – e.g., Microsoft Azure and Google Could Services – for speed and simplicity, but this creates single points of failure. How to respond? A disaster recovery or business continuity plan might help. But in the end when the cloud is down, you’re going to be down and there’s not a lot you can do to protect yourself.
Small Business Technology News #2 – OpenAI launches Atlas browser to compete with Google Chrome.
OpenAI launched its new AI-powered web browser “Atlas” last week which could rival Google by integrating its ChatGPT technology with real-time internet browsing. The tool will allow users to retrieve current information from the Internet to answer questions – similar to how Google Search works, but with a conversational/interactive twist. This could make ChatGPT more useful for queries that require up-to-date data – impacting the flow of web traffic to other online publishers – and impacting revenue from digital ads. Atlas has officially launched on Apple’s iOS system and will soon be active on Microsoft Windows. (Source: Associated Press)
Why this is important for your small business:
The long term goal here is agentic browsing: telling your browser what to do (pay bills, reconcile accounts, run payroll, place an order with a supplier) and it just clicks through to accomplish the task. No more humans. All of this sounds great, but we’re still years away from reliability. But it’s coming.
Small Business Technology News #3 – QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop (2025 comparison).
QuickBooks Online is now the default choice for most users, offering better flexibility, collaboration, and automation, while QuickBooks Desktop (Enterprise only) remains ideal for complex inventory and industry-specific needs. QuickBooks Online is cloud-based software, accessible via browser or mobile, supports up to 25 users, and integrates with 750+ apps. QuickBooks Desktop is only available as Enterprise edition since September 2024, supports advanced inventory and industry-specific tools – FIFO tracking, barcode scanning, bin locations – but requires local installation or paid hosting. (Source: Forbes)
Why this is important for your small business:
This is a great comparison and important for any business owner trying to figure out which version of QuickBooks is best for their business. One thing to consider: using a hosting company that specializes in QuickBooks Desktop so you can have the online experience while still taking full advantage of the additional features that the Desktop version offers.
Small Business Technology News #4 – Rising trends of SMS apps for small businesses market set for dynamic growth with key players Twilio, TextMagic, EZ Texting.
Worldwide Market Reports published its most recent study on the growing adoption of SMS apps by small businesses – Report 2025-2032: Market Research Services. Driven by their affordability and effectiveness in customer communication, SMS apps are gaining traction worldwide. The report divided its research into three categories: product type, application, end-user, and region. The market is expected to see significant growth in the coming years – analysis is focused on 2025-2032 – fueled by increasing mobile usage and demand for real-time communication. The report looks at specific applications such as Twilio, TextMagic, and EX Texting and breaks down usage by industry type: Healthcare, Ecommerce, Real Estate and others. The report is an invaluable resource for SMS trends and where small businesses are enhancing communications with their customer base. (Source: openPR.com)
Why this is important for your small business:
My company sells customer relationship management (CRM) applications and we’ve tried for years to integrate some of the above platforms with the systems we sell so that messaging can be sent and received directly from/into their CRM application. The problem? Users need separate mobile phones for these apps to work because FCC rules limit their usage on their personal devices. This is a huge hurdle because who wants to carry around two phones just to message? Until this problem gets resolved I’m dubious as to whether these growth predictions will actually come to pass. But if this issue does get addressed I’m all in – and so would be many of our clients.
Small Business Technology News #5 – Airbnb CEO freezes ChatGPT deal – then unveils AI that solves customer issues in 6 seconds.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky paused a ChatGPT integration but unveiled a powerful in-house AI system that resolves customer issues in just six seconds. Citing that the app ecosystem isn’t mature enough for Airbnb’s trusted community model, Chesky relied on Airbnb’s own AI infrastructure – powered by 13 models from OpenAI, Alibaba, Google, and open-source providers. This system has cut customer service resolution time from nearly 3 hours to just 6 seconds, automating a large portion of support tasks. The goal is to make Airbnb more than a booking tool Chesky intends for the user experience to be a place for inspiration, storytelling, and trip planning within its own ecosystem. This move reflects a broader trend: companies are customizing AI to fit their unique ecosystems rather than relying solely on third-party platforms. (Source: Yahoo Finance)
Why this is important for your small business:
And the AI blowback continues. When the CEO of such a well-known brand says publicly that the “ecosystem isn’t mature enough” you know there’s still a ways to go before the popular generative AI platforms can be trusted not only to provide accurate answers but to perform tasks as agents.
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
