New artificial intelligence tools are making it easier to start a business, fueling entrepreneurship and potentially job growth.

AI can write a business plan, conduct in-depth industry research, generate marketing content, design logos, prototype new products, and otherwise help launch or scale up a new enterprise, said Chris Franco, an entrepreneur who has used AI extensively in growing his New York-based marketing and customer acquisition firm, Woodridge Growth.

"You can do anything you can imagine. There's nothing holding you back," he told CBS News. "There's no excuse not to start a business in this age."

In recent years, new business formation across the U.S. has surged to its highest level ever, according to Census Bureau data. Solo founders are driving much of that growth, according to an analysis of Census data from Stripe Economics. 

AI is slashing the cost of starting and running a business, said Torsten Slok, chief economist at asset management firm Apollo Global Management.

"That's because you can more easily write a business plan with a large language model, use agents to do work, so that's likely the reason the economy is becoming more dynamic for entrepreneurs," he added. "It's becoming easier for experts in their respective fields, like consulting, finance or legal services, to break out and become entrepreneurs and compete with some of the incumbents."  

Lower cost, higher speed

One way AI is lowering the barriers to creating a new business: reducing startup costs.

"Are founders able to hire leaner teams and do more with less funding because of AI? One hundred percent," Angela Lee, a professor of entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School and herself a serial entrepreneur, told CBS News.

For example, Lee recounted spending $20,000 for coders to build a website for one of the first businesses she launched in the 1990s.

"Today, you can use Lovable to vibe code a website in 20 minutes with a free tool," Lee told CBS News, citing a popular AI coding app. "Everything has decreased in cost and increased in speed." 

Ernie Tedeschi, chief economist at Stripe Economics, described how entrepreneurs are leveraging AI to launch new enterprises. 

"It can help you come up with a business plan, or give you advice on supply chains. It can do what you need to make your vision a reality," he said. "It can help you identify what forms you need to fill out and help you complete them before you even get to the idea itself."

"It helps us understand"

Albert Feldman, owner of Boston-based candle company Sky Candle Co., started his business before the era of artificial intelligence. But he has since turned to AI to create marketing campaigns, for financial planning and to generate a range of vital analytics. That has helped Sky Candle operate efficiently and compete with much larger enterprises, he told CBS News.

"It helps us understand what products we should make more of and which we should move away from. We make the product ourselves — we hand-pour the candles — so it requires a lot of financial planning," Feldman said. "By leveraging historical sales data, it helps us know how many wax and scent vessels we need to buy, and helps us make heads and tails of everything."

Although the advent of AI has stoked concerns that the technology could displace millions of workers, Apollo's Slok expects it to fuel innovation and, in time, job creation. 

"If a fraction of the new ideas people have end up being successful, they'll need employment," he said. "It suggests the economy is becoming more dynamic, and ultimately, AI is going to create more jobs."

Lee of Columbia Business School is less optimistic. "Founders are hiring less, and unfortunately, I think ultimately it will take away jobs."