Listen to today’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silk-logic-small-business-daily/id1841930957
Small Business Daily Podcast 10/16/2025
Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories:
More Leverage launches Shoutout Engine and the 90-day Authority Builder PR campaign
By Patty Dominguez — 2025-10-15
Chicago-based agency More Leverage unveiled Shoutout Engine, a 90-day authority-building PR campaign that blends human storytelling with Answer Engine Optimization to get brands cited by Google and AI platforms like ChatGPT and Copilot. The program moves from story and media foundations to strategic PR, high-intent SEO, and AI-indexed coverage to turn visibility into trust and measurable outcomes for established businesses.
Startup Woz raises $6M to build an AI app factory that combines agentic and human expertise
By Mike Wheatley — 2025-10-15
Woz secured $6M to scale its “anti–vibe coding” approach that breaks app development into assembly-line tasks for specialized AI agents, then layers human engineering review to deliver production-ready mobile apps. The platform also handles deployment, app store publishing, and maintenance—targeting entrepreneurs and SMBs who want reliable apps without managing infrastructure.
From idea to app in a jiffy: Internet’s new micro app craze
By Puran Choudhary — 2025-10-15
AI-powered no-code and low-code tools are enabling hobbyists and pros alike to spin up personalized micro apps in hours, reshaping who builds software and how it’s made. While monetization and scaling remain challenges, investors see opportunity as the market bifurcates into big platforms and hyper-focused microapps, with citizen developers delivering faster and cheaper solutions.
NIH awards US$2M SBIR grant to transform how AI collects medical history
By GlobeNewswire — 2025-10-15
Rocket Doctor AI’s U.S. subsidiary Treatment.com, in collaboration with Rush River Research, won a $2M Phase II NIH SBIR grant to advance AI that captures culturally sensitive family medical histories. Focused initially on African American communities, the project integrates human-centered design with Treatment’s Global Library of Medicine to improve prevention, diagnosis, and equitable care.
How professional services firms can transition from spreadsheets to a CRM with automated sales pipelines
By Michael Welch — 2025-10-15
This guide outlines how services firms can replace manual, error-prone spreadsheets with a CRM that streamlines data, automates follow-ups, and improves forecasting and scalability. With a practical migration playbook and a Sandler case study, it highlights features like multi-phase pipelines, complex pricing, lifecycle management, and partner support that drive revenue and visibility.
AI-ready companies turning network pilots into profit
By Joe O’Halloran — 2025-10-15
Cisco’s 2025 AI Readiness Index finds only 13% of firms are truly AI-ready, yet those pacesetters are four times more likely to take pilots to production and 50% more likely to realize measurable value. The study flags AI infrastructure debt, weak network scalability, and AI-agent security as key blockers—and shows that disciplined roadmaps and investment unlock profitability and innovation.
The new era of L&D: Innovations you can try today
By Kadamberi Darad — 2025-10-15
L&D is shifting from role-based training to skills-first strategies powered by AI personalization, microlearning nudges, and immersive simulations. Leaders are urged to start small with pilots aligned to business priorities, apply strong governance to AI, and drive cross-functional collaboration to make learning a true growth lever.
Google’s AI Mode SEO impact: What the user behavior study says
By Kevin Indig — 2025-10-15
A usability study shows users read AI Mode’s response text first and favor inline text links over citation icons, making on-copy links far more valuable for visibility. Brand trust heavily influences decisions; transactional queries drive external clicks via shopping packs, while conversational prompts correlate with more click-outs—reshaping SEO priorities for AI surfaces.
Dissecting fuel demand elasticities in Ghana
By Felix Takyi, Anthony Adu-Asare Idun, Patrick Kwashie Akorsu, Peace Yawo Ametepi, Peterson Owusu Junior — 2025-10-15
Using quantile-based methods and time-frequency analysis, researchers find petrol behaves as a normal good in the medium term but can become inferior for higher-income consumers over the long term, with diesel alternating between complement and substitute. The paper argues for differentiated fuel pricing, targeted subsidies, and investment in alternatives to protect vulnerable groups and improve efficiency.
Understanding spec‑driven development: Kiro, spec‑kit, and Tessl
By Birgitta Böckeler — 2025-10-15
This analysis clarifies spec-driven development as a spectrum from spec-first to spec-as-source, then evaluates three tools with differing workflows and maintenance models. Key takeaways: tools can be verbose and brittle for smaller tasks, specs require careful review and iteration, and real-world value depends on right-sizing workflows and avoiding a false sense of control.
