San Antonio should incentivize hiring people over AI. Here’s how.

https://sanantonioreport.org/incentivize-hiring-real-people-over-artificial-intelligence-heres-how/

Publish Date: 2026-05-02 12:00:00

Commentaries at the San Antonio Report provide space for our community to share perspectives and offer solutions to pressing local issues. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author alone.

In my time serving as vice chair of San Antonio’s Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) committee, it has become clear that the next few years of innovation are impossible for the city to ignore.

I run a communications firm in San Antonio. Over the last year, I have watched an overwhelming amount of work from my industry become dominated by artificial intelligence. Press releases. Website copy. Social posts. Branding. Campaign language.

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I’ve been building websites for 30-plus years, and I’m willing to make a wager:

Before we vote in our new City Council in 2029, the majority of small businesses will have stopped hiring a firm to build their websites. Instead, they will type a few prompts into a platform and receive a finished product in minutes.

The outputs are faster and seem to be more polished on the surface. But individually, I would argue they are flatter, colder and interchangeable.

According to McKinsey, 92% of businesses intend to invest in generative AI tools over the next three years. To some, this is progress. For small businesses with thin margins, it might feel like relief to access lower costs and faster turnarounds. Those are tangible benefits.

But the cost to the small business ecosystem is real, too.

Today, when the City of San Antonio procures services, they award additional evaluation points to local firms and to small businesses. Until recently, they also rewarded minority and woman-owned businesses.

Whatever you think of that rollback, we still claim the character and equity of our economy matters. We believe that…

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