America is in the middle of an entrepreneurship boom, and AI is accelerating it. New business applications are running above 500,000 a month, near record highs. In a recent Gusto survey of more than 1,000 small business owners, nearly one in three said AI has already made it easier to start a business, and 62% believe it will level the playing field with larger competitors.
Owners are building leaner, moving faster, and doing more with less. The economy is shifting toward the people bold enough to bet on themselves and create opportunity for others.
And yet, despite these gains, small businesses are only leveraging a small part of what AI can do for their business. Most people are stuck using AI as a chatbot, a glorified search engine, or occasional content creator. You ask, it answers. That’s it.
Instead, AI should automate and help you run large parts of your business, like an actual teammate does.
That's why today we're launching Gusto Cofounder, a new AI teammate purpose-built for small business. Gusto Cofounder doesn't wait to be asked. It already knows your business, takes initiative on the work that matters, and operates alongside you through the communication channels you already use, while you stay in control through permissions and approvals.
How Gusto Cofounder Works
Gusto Cofounder is built to automate repetitive tasks across your connected tools, catch potential issues, and flag what’s coming up, so you can focus on what needs you most. Automations are the heart and soul of Gusto Cofounder, and you can customize them for your unique business needs.
Because Cofounder lives inside Gusto, it already knows your team, your payroll schedule, your compliance calendar, and how your business actually runs. There's no setup, no Mac minis, no “what do I do with this thing”, and it’s useful from day one.
You can put Gusto Cofounder to work with a simple message:
"Run payroll for me every Friday. Text me if there are any anomalies greater than 10% from the previous week’s payroll, and flag anything that needs my approval before it submits."
"Generate a weekly labor cost report by department and send it to me over Slack every Monday morning."
“Every morning, check the weather and if it’s forecasted to rain, send an email reminder to today’s customers to bring an umbrella along with them for the tour. The customers are in the Google Sheets titled with today’s date.”
"Send me an approval request for any team expense over $25 before it gets processed. Otherwise, just approve it for me."
"Flag any time-off requests that overlap with payroll deadlines or leave the team short-staffed."
Gusto Cofounder can also monitor your business proactively, like surfacing a scheduling conflict before it becomes a staffing crisis, flagging unusual payroll activity, or reminding you of an expense that still needs approval. It's the kind of awareness a trusted team member would have if they could see everything happening in your business at once.
"You can interact with Gusto in a real human way. This almost feels like a person. It's doing all of the Gusto things behind the scenes for me." — David Levin, CEO, Angry Sam Productions
We recognize that small businesses work across multiple systems, and that not everything happens in Gusto. That’s why Gusto Cofounder also connects with Google Workspace, Notion, Quickbooks, and more - bringing all the places your work lives together. You can also connect to any supported MCP server you want.
Why Gusto Cofounder Is Different
Most AI tools start from a blank chat. It’s hard to know how to get started. Gusto Cofounder starts from the business problems that we’re already solving for you.
For more than a decade, Gusto has been the operating layer for hundreds of thousands of small businesses, managing payroll, benefits, HR, tax, and compliance. All of that context and capabilities is what Gusto Cofounder inherits. It works on day one. It's what makes the first prompt useful, instead of generic.
No setup. Instant context. Gusto Cofounder already knows your team, your payroll cadence, your benefits, and your compliance calendar. You don't spend time training it, you start working.
Safety by design. Gusto Cofounder runs on Gusto – away from the files on your personal computer – and only gets access to files or tools you want to share. It will ask permission before accessing your data or taking action, leaving you in control.
Proactive, not reactive. Most tools wait for instructions. Gusto Cofounder monitors your business automatically and surfaces upcoming filings, flags unusual payroll activity, and catches risks before they become urgent. It has more than 20 pre-built automations based on patterns across hundreds of thousands of small businesses, covering everything from onboarding new hires to chasing missing timesheets to running payroll.
Built for wherever you work. Not everyone runs their business from a desk. Work with Gusto Cofounder through SMS, Slack or the web, so you can stay in the loop from a job site, a kitchen, or the front seat of a truck.
AI for the Next Era of Entrepreneurship
The most important AI products for small businesses won't come from companies talking about AI. They'll come from companies building alongside the owners doing the work.
That's who Gusto serves. That's who Gusto Cofounder is built for.
Want to be among the first to help shape Gusto Cofounder? Visit gusto.com/cofounder to join our early access program.
