Towards Designing for Resilience: Community-Centered Deployment of an AI Business Planning Tool in a Small Business Center

2026-04-12

AI Summary

This study addresses how entrepreneurs in resource-constrained communities—often hindered by time scarcity, insufficient support, and disparities in digital literacy—struggle to translate creative ideas into viable business plans. Deploying the generative AI tool BizChat within a feminist makerspace, the research employed four participatory workshops, complemented by user logs and in-depth interviews, to investigate how collective AI literacy practices—encompassing adoption, adaptation, and refusal—can foster entrepreneurial resilience. The project introduces three design principles: “productive friction,” “community scaffolding,” and “shareability,” advocating for collective engagement over individualized use in navigating technological change. Findings indicate that BizChat aids in translating ideas into “business language” and lowering barriers to funding; however, its immediate AI outputs may undermine sensemaking, a tension effectively mitigated through peer support.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Economic ramifications for generative AI infrastructure and applications
• Responsible Web: Web for democratic and emancipatory futures
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems

Abstract

Entrepreneurs in resource-constrained communities often lack time and support to translate ideas into actionable business plans. While generative AI promises assistance, most systems assume high digital literacy and overlook community infrastructures that shape adoption. We report on the community-centered design and deployment of BizChat, an AI-powered business planning tool, introduced across four workshops at a feminist makerspace in Pittsburgh. Through log data (N=30) and interviews (N=10), we examine how entrepreneurs build resilience through collective AI literacy development-encompassing adoption, adaptation, and refusal of AI. Our findings reveal that while BizChat lowered barriers to accessing capital by translating ideas into "business language," this ease raised questions about whether instant AI outputs undermine sensemaking essential to planning. We show how peer support helped entrepreneurs navigate this tension. We contribute design implications, including productive friction, communal scaffolds, and co-optability, for strengthening resilience amid technological change.

Problem

• resilience
• generative AI
• community-centered design
• digital literacy
• small business

Innovation

• community-centered design
• AI literacy
• resilience
• generative AI
• productive friction