Salesforce Spent $3.6 Billion on Customer Service AI, and 68% of Small Businesses Are Now Using AI Regularly: AI News You Should Know

The week's biggest move: Salesforce dropped $3.6 billion to buy Fin, the AI customer service platform a lot of small businesses already use for support chats. Meanwhile, industry data shows the average home service contractor is losing $189,000 a year to missed calls, and AI phone tools are already fixing that. A new survey put AI adoption among small businesses at 68%, up from 48% just two years ago.

Salesforce Buys Customer Service AI Firm Fin for $3.6 Billion

Salesforce announced June 15 it would acquire Fin, formerly known as Intercom, for $3.6 billion. Fin's AI agent can resolve up to 76% of customer support requests without a human, handling chats, emails, texts, and calls. Salesforce plans to fold Fin into its Agentforce platform with a focus on making deployment faster for small and midsize businesses.

What this means for your business: If you use Intercom or Fin for customer support chat, watch what happens to pricing and features once this deal closes later this year. The bigger pattern: AI handling routine questions and escalating the complicated ones is becoming the default, not a premium add-on. Property managers, dental offices, and franchise operators that field the same questions all day should compare whether an AI customer care tool makes more sense than staffing a person to do it.

AI Phone Agents Are Helping Home Service Contractors Stop Losing Jobs to Voicemail

A growing number of HVAC companies, plumbers, and electricians are deploying AI voice agents to answer calls when their crews are in the field. Industry data shows 74% of calls to small contractors go unanswered, costing the average business around $189,000 a year in lost revenue. AI answering tools triage urgency, collect job details, and book appointments around the clock. Plumbers using them are recovering up to 40% of leads that previously hit voicemail.

What this means for your business: If your team is on job sites and away from a phone most of the day, this one is worth looking at seriously. AI tools for contractors, like Rosie AI, Upfirst, and NextPhone, are built for home service businesses and start well under $200 a month. Miss one $400 service call a week and the tool pays for itself. Before committing, track your actual missed-call volume for a week first. The number is usually worse than people expect.

Curious what a missed-call audit would show for your business? Book a free 15-minute call and we will walk through the numbers with you.

Google Launches Offline AI Dictation App on iPhone

Google released a free iOS app that transcribes your voice using its Gemma AI models entirely on-device, no internet connection required. You can dictate notes, messages, or job details and the app converts them to text in real time, privately, without sending anything to a server. It works in dead zones, on job sites, inside buildings with no signal, anywhere you have your phone.

What this means for your business: If your crew spends time in the field, this is worth downloading today. HVAC technicians, plumbers, and contractors can dictate job notes, material lists, or customer summaries on-site instead of trying to type with dirty hands or waiting until they get back to the truck. Because nothing leaves the phone, there are no privacy concerns about customer details or job information. It is free, it works offline, and it takes about two minutes to set up.

ChatGPT Now Gives Free Users Better Health Answers, Which Affects Medical and Wellness Businesses

OpenAI updated its GPT-5.5 Instant model on June 18 to deliver clinical-quality health responses to free-tier ChatGPT users. The company says 230 million people ask ChatGPT health questions every week. The updated model is better at recognizing urgent situations, asking follow-up questions, and flagging its own uncertainty. Factually incorrect health responses have dropped 71% over the past two months.

What this means for your business: Run a dental practice, urgent care clinic, fitness studio, or anything wellness-related, and your customers are increasingly looking up their questions on ChatGPT before they call you. That is not the problem. The problem is if your website cannot answer those same questions. A thin FAQ page or a "contact us to learn more" button is not competing with a model that gives direct clinical answers. Set aside time this month to write out the 10 questions you hear most often and make sure your site actually answers them.

Salesforce, OpenAI, and Others Are Racing to Build Networks of AI Consultants for Small Businesses

OpenAI launched its Partner Network on June 14, committing $150 million to certify consultants, integrators, and providers who help businesses deploy AI. The company aims to certify up to 300,000 AI consulting professionals by end of 2026, organized into three tiers: Select, Advanced, and Elite. Salesforce runs a similar program through its Agentforce ecosystem.

What this means for your business: If you have wanted help getting started with AI but did not know who to trust, this gives you a filter. Certified consultants in these networks have been vetted by the platform and trained on their tools, which reduces the risk of hiring someone who oversells and underdelivers. It is not a guarantee of quality, and plenty of capable people are not yet in these programs. Treat it as one signal among several when you are evaluating outside help.

68% of Small Businesses Now Use AI Regularly, Up From 48% Two Years Ago

A survey from Simply Business found that 68% of U.S. small businesses now use AI on a regular basis, up from 48% in mid-2024. The most common uses are research and brainstorming (51%) and content creation (44%). Nearly four in five owners said AI is more useful now than it was a year ago. Most describe themselves as selective about where they use it and say they feel little pressure to adopt more.

What this means for your business: Most of your competitors are now using AI regularly. That does not mean you need to catch up on everything at once. The businesses seeing real results are not adopting every tool that launches. They pick one or two problems where AI actually saves time, get those working well, and expand from there. Common starting points are drafting customer emails, writing social posts, and researching competitors. An AI office manager handling routine admin is often where businesses find their first clear win.

The Bottom Line

Two things came into focus this week. The big platforms are consolidating: Salesforce spending $3.6 billion on customer service AI means that category is past the experimental stage. At the same time, the practical tools, the ones that solve the missed-call problem or handle admin work, are cheaper and more accessible than most small business owners realize. If that answer for your business is missed calls or admin overhead, we can show you exactly what a fix looks like for a business your size.

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