If you look around your professional network today, you might notice a striking trend: More and more people seem to be starting their own businesses. According to recent LinkedIn data, the percentage of U.S. professionals adopting the “founder” title in 2025 surged by 69% over 2024, and increased 300% since 2022.
This boom isn’t just about Silicon Valley or venture-backed tech startups. A movement is growing on Main Streets and at kitchen tables across the country. More early career professionals, workers transitioning to new careers, and passionate hobbyists are turning to business ownership. And, in the age of artificial intelligence, this movement is poised to become a powerful driver of economic mobility.
Small businesses, those with fewer than 250 employees, accounted for over half of the total jobs created from the third quarter of 2020 to third quarter 2025. As we look to the future, single-owner businesses are poised to represent a bigger component of our economy, and offer a viable career pathway for workers navigating a rapidly changing labor market.
THE CHANGING FACE OF THE FOUNDER
Historically, the barriers to starting and scaling a business have been high. Lack of access to specialized business knowledge, networks, and capital has kept business ownership out of reach for many.
AI is uniquely positioned to help individuals overcome those barriers. Some solopreneurs are growing businesses founded on a beloved hobby, core professional skill, or a solution to a real-life problem, and that business has become their sole source of income. Others are using entrepreneurship as a bridge during a career transition. For example, a young professional just starting out could launch a micro-business to gain real-world skills and experience outside of the classroom before securing their first corporate job. A worker displaced from a long-term career might become an entrepreneur to generate income while retraining for a new industry. And, people at all career stages may lean into small business creation as a secondary income stream.
What unites all these groups of entrepreneurs is the profound flexibility solopreneurship offers. They work incredibly hard, but the ability to set their own schedules allows them to meet caregiving needs, pursue further education, or work around other commitments in ways 9-to-5 jobs rarely permit.
ENTER AI: THE SOLOPRENEUR’S COFOUNDER
The question is, how are these single-owner businesses surviving and scaling without the capital of a traditional startup? The answer right now is AI.
With AI, solutions to common but complex problems faced by generations of entrepreneurs are now available on demand, 24/7. AI tools are increasingly good at offering coaching, support, advice, and strategic expertise through every step of a founder’s journey.
A solopreneur now has access to AI solutions for bookkeeping, customer relationship management, marketing, and inventory management, making them feel more supported than ever before. With AI effectively acting like an entire C-suite, these solopreneurs can scale their small operations efficiently.
REDESIGN THE ACCELERATOR
If we believe that entrepreneurship is a driver of economic mobility, the broader business and philanthropic communities have to rethink how to support it.
Historically, most business accelerators have been designed for tech-centered hyper-scaling enterprises. But if we want to build resilient local economies, we should focus on community-based, single-owner businesses: the farmers’ market stands, the local handyworker services, the niche online storefronts, and independent consultants. These businesses operate in every community, directly serving the people around them.
The Workday Foundation’s approach is to invest in the concept of AI as a cofounder. Our new Solopreneurship Accelerator pilot program and curriculum, in partnership with Anthropic and LISC, is shifting the focus toward empowering single-owner businesses with the AI tools and training they need to thrive.
When we democratize the knowledge and tools required to build a business, we do more than just create new companies. We create autonomy, close wealth gaps, and build pathways to economic mobility that are accessible to everyone. For millions of people, the future of work is about building it yourself.
Carrie Varoquiers is chief impact officer of Workday.
