Small businesses are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) at a faster rate than usual, driven by competitive pressures.According to the 2025 Empowering Small Business Report, 58% of small businesses use generative AI, up from 40% in 2024. They are using AI chatbots, coding tools, and image creation tools.AI adoption is helping small businesses improve sales, keep customers, save money, and enhance their operations. It’s expected to increase further as more AI tools become integrated into popular business software.Small businesses are increasingly looking for AI skills when hiring and providing training to current employees to upskill them.AI is both a cybersecurity threat and a solution. A new tool from Crowdstrike and Meta aims to help businesses find the right models for their needs.Crowdstrike has teamed up with Meta to launch a new open-source suite of benchmarks called CyberSOCEval, designed to test the performance of AI models within an organization’s security operations center (SOC).Without clear benchmarks, it’s difficult to know which systems, use cases, and performance standards deliver a true AI advantage against real-world attacks. These tools vary in terms of their capabilities and price, making it challenging for cybersecurity professionals to choose the right ones.