Artificial intelligence isn't just changing how businesses operate. It's changing which business models may succeed, which could struggle, and how owners need to think about the future.
Not long ago, artificial intelligence seemed like something reserved for technology companies, research laboratories, or massive corporations.
Today, businesses of almost every size are experimenting with it.
A small marketing agency can generate content in minutes. A doctor's office can use AI to help prepare clinical notes. A customer service department can answer routine questions around the clock.
And a business owner can explore financial information that once required hours of manual work.
But here's the interesting part.
AI won't necessarily be good for every business or every industry.
Some industries could experience tremendous growth as AI creates demand for new services, infrastructure, and capabilities.
Others may face serious pressure as customers discover they can get similar results faster, cheaper, or without hiring a traditional provider.
Research from McKinsey has estimated that generative AI could create between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion in annual economic value across the business use cases it analyzed.
That's an enormous potential opportunity.
But economic value doesn't automatically mean every business will become more profitable, or that every existing job and service will survive unchanged.
Let's look at three industries that could benefit significantly from AI and three that may need to reinvent parts of their business models.
3 Industries That Could Grow With AI
1. Healthcare and Medical Technology
Healthcare is one of the most promising areas for AI adoption.
Not because AI will replace doctors, nurses, or other medical professionals, but because healthcare involves enormous amounts of information, documentation, administration, and decision-making.
Think about a typical medical appointment.
A physician needs to review your medical history, discuss symptoms, document the visit, update records, consider treatment options, and potentially handle insurance-related administrative work.
Much of that work happens outside the actual conversation between the patient and doctor.
AI could help reduce some of that administrative burden.
Where the Growth Opportunities Exist
Healthcare businesses and technology providers are exploring AI applications in:
Medical documentation and clinical note preparation
Appointment scheduling and patient communications
Medical imaging assistance
Clinical research and drug discovery
Administrative workflow management
Revenue cycle management and billing support
According to a 2025 American Medical Association survey, 57% of surveyed physicians identified reducing administrative burdens through automation as the biggest opportunity for AI to address important needs.
Research published in JAMA has also examined how AI-assisted medical documentation can reduce the time clinicians spend on certain electronic health record and documentation tasks.
These findings help explain why healthcare organizations are evaluating AI-powered tools.
What This Could Mean for Businesses
Companies that build, implement, maintain, or support reliable healthcare technology may find new opportunities as adoption increases.
Even smaller service providers could benefit from helping medical practices modernize their administrative systems.
But healthcare is heavily regulated, and AI tools can introduce privacy, accuracy, liability, and patient safety concerns.
AI-generated information still requires appropriate clinical oversight.
The opportunity isn't simply replacing medical professionals. It's helping qualified professionals spend more time on the work that actually requires their expertise.
2. Cybersecurity and Digital Protection
As businesses become more dependent on technology, protecting their systems and information becomes increasingly important.
AI creates an interesting situation for cybersecurity.
It can help organizations identify threats, review unusual activity, and respond to incidents.
But it can also make certain cyberattacks more sophisticated.
Criminals can use AI to produce convincing phishing messages, impersonate individuals, automate aspects of attacks, or create misleading content.
That means businesses may need better tools and stronger security practices.
Why This Industry Could Grow
The World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 identified AI as a major force reshaping the cybersecurity environment.
In its survey, 94% of respondents expected AI to be the most significant driver of change in cybersecurity over the following year.
That doesn't guarantee a particular growth rate for cybersecurity companies.
But it suggests that organizations are paying serious attention to AI-related security risks.
Where the Opportunities Exist
Businesses may increasingly need:
AI-assisted threat detection
Employee cybersecurity education
Fraud and identity protection
Protection of sensitive customer information
Security assessments of AI tools
Incident response planning
Compliance and risk management support
Imagine a small accounting firm that handles financial information for hundreds of clients.
As the firm adopts AI tools to improve productivity, it also needs to understand where customer data goes, who can access it, and whether those systems introduce new vulnerabilities.
That creates work for cybersecurity specialists, technology consultants, and software providers.
As more businesses adopt AI, the need to protect the systems and information supporting those businesses could become even more important.
3. Data Centers, Energy Infrastructure, and Specialized Construction
When people think about AI, they usually picture software.
But AI also depends on enormous amounts of physical infrastructure.
Servers need facilities.
Facilities need electricity.
Equipment needs cooling.
Networks need connections.
And all of those systems require installation, maintenance, and supporting services.
This could create opportunities far beyond traditional technology companies.
The Growing Demand for Infrastructure
The International Energy Agency projects substantial growth in electricity consumption from data centers as artificial intelligence and other digital services expand.
Its 2026 analysis projects global data center electricity consumption could approximately double, from 485 terawatt-hours in 2025 to 950 terawatt-hours by 2030.
That's a substantial projected increase in electricity demand.
Actual results will depend on investment, infrastructure constraints, technology efficiency, and AI adoption.
Who Might Benefit?
Potential beneficiaries include businesses involved in:
Commercial construction
Electrical installation and maintenance
Industrial cooling and HVAC systems
Power distribution equipment
Energy generation and grid modernization
Data center operations and maintenance
Fiber-optic networking
For example, an established electrical contractor might find opportunities serving new data center construction or upgrading existing facilities.
A mechanical contracting company could potentially expand into specialized cooling systems.
But these projects often require significant technical expertise, safety standards, equipment, workforce capacity, and capital.
Not every contractor will be positioned to enter the market.
And rapid expansion can create financial risks if companies borrow heavily or increase staffing before securing profitable work.
Sometimes the businesses benefiting from a technology boom aren't the ones creating the software. They're the businesses supplying the infrastructure needed to make it work.
3 Industries That AI Could Seriously Hurt Without Adapting
AI doesn't necessarily need to eliminate an entire industry to create serious financial consequences.
Sometimes it only needs to make one highly profitable service cheaper or easier to obtain.
When that happens, businesses may face declining demand, pricing pressure, or changing customer expectations.
Here are three industries where those risks are becoming increasingly visible.
4. Traditional Call Centers and Basic Customer Service Outsourcing
For decades, companies have paid outside providers to handle customer service calls, answer routine questions, schedule appointments, and resolve basic issues.
That created a large industry built around staffing and managing customer interactions.
AI is beginning to challenge parts of that business model.
Today, AI-powered customer service tools can handle certain repetitive tasks, including answering common questions, providing order updates, gathering information, and routing requests.
Some businesses may decide they no longer need the same number of people handling routine inquiries.
Why This Creates Financial Pressure
An October 2026 Financial Times analysis using Revelio Labs data reported that global call center employment had declined by approximately 5% since late 2023.
The analysis also described decreased hiring as an important driver of the trend.
These findings do not establish that AI caused every lost position. Economic conditions, outsourcing decisions, and other changes also affect employment.
Nevertheless, they highlight the potential pressure on labor-intensive service models.
Imagine a customer service provider whose revenue depends on billing clients for hundreds of employee hours.
If customers begin automating a meaningful portion of their routine inquiries, demand for those hours could decline.
The provider may find itself competing against technology with a different cost structure.
How Businesses in This Industry Could Adapt
The answer may be to move beyond basic call handling.
Providers could focus on complex customer issues, specialized industries, relationship management, technical troubleshooting, or supervising AI-powered customer service systems.
Instead of charging primarily for staffing hours, some providers may need to consider pricing based on service quality, resolution rates, or other measurable outcomes.
The businesses most exposed may be those whose primary value comes from handling repetitive tasks that customers can increasingly automate.
5. Traditional Digital Publishing and Advertising-Dependent Websites
For years, a familiar online business model worked relatively well.
Create useful content.
Get discovered through search engines.
Attract visitors.
Generate advertising, affiliate, or subscription revenue.
But AI-powered search is changing how people find information.
Instead of clicking through several websites, users can increasingly receive summarized answers directly through search interfaces.
That can make discovery more convenient for readers.
But it can also reduce the number of visitors reaching the original publishers.
Why This Matters Financially
According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, data from Chartbeat showed Google Search referrals to hundreds of publishers declining by approximately 40% between July 2025 and July 2026.
Not all of that decline can necessarily be attributed to AI alone.
Still, it reflects the growing challenge publishers face as search behavior and online discovery change.
Let's Look at a Financial Example
Imagine you own a website that generates revenue through advertisements.
Your website receives 500,000 visits every month.
For simplicity, let's assume you earn an average of $10 in advertising revenue for every 1,000 visits.
That would generate approximately $5,000 per month in advertising revenue.
Over 12 months, that's $60,000.
Now imagine that changes in search behavior and competition contribute to a 40% reduction in traffic.
Instead of receiving 500,000 visits per month, your website receives only 300,000.
Assuming advertising revenue per 1,000 visits stays the same, your monthly advertising revenue would decline from $5,000 to $3,000.
That's a $2,000 monthly reduction.
Over an entire year, the difference would be approximately $24,000 in lost advertising revenue.
And here's the difficult part.
Your website's expenses might not decrease at the same rate.
You might still have hosting fees, employees, writers, editors, software subscriptions, and other operating expenses.
Suddenly, an otherwise stable business could face financial pressure without making any major operational changes.
These figures are hypothetical and do not represent the financial performance of an actual publisher. They simply illustrate how declining traffic can affect an advertising-dependent business.
How Publishers Could Adapt
Publishers may need to place greater emphasis on:
Original research and reporting
Firsthand expertise
Loyal audiences and direct website visits
Email newsletters and subscriptions
Membership programs
Licensing original content
Content that offers value beyond a summarized answer
There's also an emerging effort to establish clearer licensing and payment arrangements for the use of publisher content by AI systems.
The important distinction is that AI doesn't eliminate the need for credible information.
But it may change how publishers are compensated for creating it.
Being discovered through search may no longer be enough. Publishers may need stronger reasons for audiences to seek them out directly.
6. Commodity Graphic Design, Content Production, and Creative Services
Creative businesses have traditionally earned money by helping customers produce materials they couldn't easily make themselves.
A company might pay someone to create basic product images, social media graphics, marketing copy, presentation layouts, or advertising concepts.
Today, AI can help produce drafts of many of those materials quickly.
That doesn't mean professional designers, writers, or creative agencies are becoming unnecessary.
But it does change the economics of certain services.
The Risk for Businesses Selling Basic Creative Production
Consider a small agency that charges clients $1,000 per month for a package of basic social media graphics and captions.
If a client can create acceptable drafts internally using inexpensive AI tools, that client may begin questioning the monthly fee.
The agency still has expertise.
But if the customer sees the service primarily as creating individual images and captions, AI may weaken the agency's pricing power.
McKinsey's research identifies marketing and sales among the business functions with substantial potential for generative AI productivity improvements.
That creates opportunities for businesses using AI effectively, but also potential competitive pressure for providers selling routine work that becomes easier to automate.
How Creative Agencies Could Adapt
The strongest opportunities may move toward services that require deeper expertise.
For example:
Brand strategy and positioning
Original photography and creative direction
Campaign planning and performance analysis
Customer research
Distinctive visual identities
Editing, verification, and quality control
Copyright and intellectual property considerations
Business outcomes rather than individual deliverables
An agency that sells ten basic images may find itself competing on price.
An agency that helps a customer develop a strategy, improve conversions, and measure marketing performance provides something broader.
AI may reduce the value of routine creative production while increasing the importance of original thinking, strategy, judgment, and measurable results.
What Does This Mean for Small Business Owners?
Whether you operate in one of these six industries or something entirely different, there is a practical lesson.
AI is changing the relationship between the cost of producing something and the price customers are willing to pay for it.
That can be good news if AI helps your business become more productive.
But it can also create a problem if competitors begin delivering similar results at a lower price.
Let's look at two hypothetical situations.
Scenario A: AI Helps Your Business Reduce Operating Costs
Imagine you own a service business generating $500,000 in annual revenue.
Your annual operating expenses total $400,000.
That leaves $100,000 in annual operating profit, representing a 20% operating margin.
Now suppose you introduce AI-assisted tools that improve productivity, reduce manual administrative work, and eliminate certain recurring costs.
After accounting for the ongoing costs of those tools, your annual operating expenses decline by $30,000.
Your business still generates $500,000 in revenue.
But your operating expenses have decreased from $400,000 to $370,000.
That means your annual operating profit increases from $100,000 to $130,000.
Your operating margin improves from 20% to 26%.
In this hypothetical scenario, the business generates an additional $30,000 in operating profit without increasing revenue.
That could be a meaningful improvement.
But remember that these calculations assume the cost reductions are realized, service quality is maintained, and no other expenses or revenues change. Initial implementation costs and other risks would also need to be considered.
Scenario B: AI Creates Pricing Pressure on Your Business
Now imagine the same business experiences the opposite situation.
It generates $500,000 in annual revenue with $400,000 in operating expenses, leaving $100,000 in operating profit.
But competitors begin offering similar services at lower prices because they've automated portions of their operations.
To remain competitive, your business lowers some prices and experiences reduced customer spending.
Your annual revenue falls from $500,000 to $450,000.
Unfortunately, your operating expenses remain at $400,000.
Now your annual operating profit is only $50,000.
Your operating margin declines from 20% to approximately 11.1%.
Even though revenue declined by only 10%, operating profit was cut in half.
That's an important distinction.
And it illustrates why relatively modest changes in revenue can sometimes create much larger changes in profitability.
The Lesson Behind Both Scenarios
These two hypothetical businesses started with identical financial results.
Both generated $500,000 in annual revenue and $100,000 in operating profit.
But after encountering different effects of AI:
One improved annual operating profit to $130,000 by reducing expenses.
The other saw annual operating profit decline to $50,000 because of revenue pressure.
That's an $80,000 difference in annual operating profit between the two outcomes.
Neither scenario is a prediction.
And many businesses may experience both cost savings and competitive pressure at the same time.
But the examples demonstrate something important.
A technology that helps one business improve profitability could simultaneously pressure another business's revenue.
That's why adopting AI shouldn't simply be about using the newest technology.
It should be about understanding how technology affects your business model.
Five Questions Every Business Owner Should Be Asking About AI
You don't need to become an artificial intelligence expert to begin preparing your business.
Start with questions that relate directly to your operations and finances.
1. Which Recurring Tasks Consume the Most Time and Money?
Look at routine activities such as scheduling, invoicing, customer communications, data entry, and administrative reporting.
Could carefully implemented automation reduce costs or improve efficiency?
And would the expected benefit outweigh the technology's full cost?
2. Could Customers Replace Any of Our Services With AI Tools?
Consider why customers pay your business.
Are they purchasing specialized expertise?
A personal relationship?
Reliable outcomes?
Convenience?
Or are they primarily paying for routine work that technology is making easier to perform?
Understanding that distinction can help you identify where your business provides lasting value.
3. What Would Happen if Competitors Lowered Their Prices by 10%?
Could your business maintain profitability?
Would you need to reduce expenses?
Would customers remain loyal?
Understanding how changes in pricing affect your margins can help you prepare for increased competition.
4. What Will AI Actually Cost Us to Implement?
Don't evaluate technology based solely on its monthly subscription fee.
Consider software costs, employee training, integration, security, oversight, ongoing maintenance, and the time required to make the system useful.
A tool that saves five hours per week may be valuable.
But you need to understand the actual financial benefit rather than assuming that every hour saved automatically turns into profit.
5. How Will We Know Whether AI Is Improving the Business?
Measure results.
Are operating expenses declining?
Is employee productivity improving?
Are customers receiving better service?
Is revenue increasing?
Are profit margins improving?
If you can't identify how a technology investment improves your business, it may simply become another expense.
These questions can help distinguish useful investments from technology that sounds exciting but doesn't meaningfully improve financial performance.
How UnpackFi Can Help You Evaluate the Financial Impact of AI
Understanding the potential impact of artificial intelligence starts with understanding your own numbers.
Before purchasing another software subscription, hiring someone to manage automation, or changing how your company delivers services, it's worth examining the possible financial implications.
UnpackFi is designed to help business owners explore their existing financial information through dashboards, trends, forecasts, what-if scenarios, and plain-English insights.
For example, you might ask:
"What happens to my operating margin if software reduces expenses by 8%?"
"How much revenue could I lose before becoming unprofitable?"
"Would a $500 monthly AI subscription be financially reasonable if it reduced other operating costs?"
"Which expenses have been growing faster than revenue?"
"What questions should I discuss with my accountant before making a significant technology investment?"
UnpackFi doesn't predict which industries will succeed, guarantee savings from AI, or replace qualified professional judgment.
And the accuracy of any financial analysis depends on the completeness and quality of the information provided.
But it can help you better understand the financial scenarios behind potential business decisions.
Research and Supporting References
1. McKinsey Global Institute — The Economic Potential of Generative AI (2023)
Examines potential economic value from generative AI and identifies business functions, including marketing and sales, where significant productivity improvements may occur.
2. American Medical Association — Physicians' Greatest Use for AI? Cutting Administrative Burdens (2025)
Discusses physician attitudes toward AI and its potential to reduce administrative workloads.
3. World Economic Forum — Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026
Examines how AI and other developments are reshaping cybersecurity threats, organizational preparedness, and business risk.
https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-cybersecurity-outlook-2026/
4. International Energy Agency — Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026)
Analyzes the growing electricity demands of data centers and the infrastructure required to support AI development.
https://www.iea.org/reports/key-questions-on-energy-and-ai/executive-summary
5. Financial Times — The AI Shift: The Long-Predicted Decline in Call Centre Jobs Has Finally Begun (October 2026)
Examines employment trends and hiring reductions in the call center industry as AI adoption increases.
https://www.ft.com/content/d6417373-a80b-4716-a31e-9c0de08fbe88
6. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism — Life After SEO: How Newsrooms Are Adapting to the AI Search Shift (October 2026)
Explores changing search referral traffic and the challenges facing publishers as AI-powered search tools become more prominent.
Final Thoughts: AI May Not Eliminate Your Industry, But It Could Change How Your Business Makes Money
There's a temptation to view artificial intelligence as either the greatest business opportunity in decades or an inevitable threat to traditional industries.
Reality is more complicated.
Healthcare technology, cybersecurity, and data center infrastructure could see meaningful opportunities as AI adoption expands.
Meanwhile, basic customer service outsourcing, advertising-dependent publishing, and commodity creative services may face growing pressure to change their business models.
And within each industry, some businesses may grow while others struggle.
What matters isn't simply whether your industry uses AI.
It's whether your business understands how customer demand, operating costs, competition, and the value of its services are changing.
The businesses best positioned for the future may not be those using the most AI. They may be those that understand where AI genuinely creates value, where it creates risk, and how both affect their financial performance.
UnpackFi helps turn your existing business financials into clearer dashboards, trends, what-if scenarios, and plain-English insights so you can better understand what's happening behind your revenue number. Try the free demo at UnpackFi.com.
This article is an educational analysis based on publicly available industry research, studies, and reporting as of October 2026. The industries discussed are examples of potential opportunities and risks, not definitive predictions of future growth, decline, or business failure. Financial illustrations are hypothetical and do not represent guaranteed outcomes. UnpackFi has no affiliation with the research organizations or businesses referenced. UnpackFi provides educational financial insights and business decision-support tools, not accounting, tax, legal, investment, or financial advice.