For one small business, AI was key to a quick start and expansion

Howard Schneider

Sat, July 4, 2026 at 3:01 AM PDT 6 min read

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON, July 4 (Reuters) - Here Now Health isn't an AI-based company, but its quick path from an idea in founder Michelle Turner's mind to an operating mental health platform for foster children relied deeply on the technology now restructuring the U.S. economy.

Working from her Virginia Beach home, she used AI tools to school herself in startup culture, create a business plan and fine-tune a presentation for early-stage investors. Funding began to flow, and the company, launched in ‌January 2025, now has 16 employees and is certified in three states to provide Medicaid-funded mental health counseling for children entering the foster system, a gap in care she identified through her own experience as a foster parent.

"A mom of six kids who's ‌a first-time founder, who's a sole female founder, should not be able to raise (venture capital). I don't have an MBA. I don't have these things to back me up," Turner said. Developing her funding pitch with AI guidance was "like going to a master's level class every day from the robot. It was my startup advisor."

The rapid emergence and spread ​of AI has become a defining feature of the U.S. economy, of prime interest to Federal Reserve officials trying to understand its potential to reshape productivity, growth, inflation and labor demand. Among a broad review of the Fed launched by new Chairman Kevin Warsh, one panel will look solely at AI and its implications for productivity, a force that can allow the economy to grow faster with less inflation, but also means fewer workers are needed to create the same output.

Some Fed officials have already raised the possibility of an AI economy with structurally higher unemployment; other analysts have noted the steady dip in labor's share of national income and questioned if steadily higher returns to capital are also part of the AI future, a who-wins issue with social and political implications.

Much like when then-exotic new brands such as Yahoo! and America Online fought to connect everyone to the internet, different AI models are ‌now competing for attention and dollars — but with offerings that can perform complex tasks, solve problems, ⁠or write computer code, not just shop and search the Web.

Investment in needed data centers is driving overall growth and in some cases driving up power and labor costs. Scenarios around AI range from visions of plenty to mass unemployment, with banks, government agencies, the military and more looking to exploit the new tools but also protect from them.