The city of Detroit’s new microgrant initiative offers financial support to small businesses for the adoption of AI and other technologies, an effort similar to initiatives established by other governments.
The city and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) announced the launch Thursday of the Detroit Small Business Technology Fund. Capitalized with support from the Detroit-based Rocket Community Fund and administered by DEGC, the program will award $1,000 grants to 140 Detroit-based microbusinesses — those with 10 or fewer employees and under $500,000 in annual revenue.
DEGC, dubbed “Detroit’s economic development catalyst” by a city webpage, is a private nonprofit supporting businesses. Rocket Community Fund is the philanthropic arm of Rocket Companies, which supports housing access by simplifying inequitable systems.
“By giving Detroit microbusinesses access to modern tools and connecting them with trusted support organizations, we are strengthening Detroit’s local economy from the ground up,” Sean Gray, DEGC vice president of small business services, said in a statement, describing technology as “foundational.”
Participating businesses can use these grants to purchase hardware, software, technology for daily operations, and emerging technology tools like AI platforms.
Nine trusted neighborhood organizations that serve businesses will act as partners to distribute between 10 and 20 grants each. These organizations include the Michigan Black Business Alliance, the Arab American Chamber of Commerce, TechTown Detroit, and Michigan Women Forward. They will select grantees and collect data on outcomes like revenue changes, efficiency and customer gains, digital adoption and job creation.
Detroit is not the only city investing in the technology capacity of its small businesses.
Another example is Fairfax County, Va. The government established a technical assistance program in 2023 to support small business recovery and growth using $3.5 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act — an investment used by local governments nationwide to support small businesses after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everybody is going to need help with something,” the county’s Division Manager of Economic Innovation and Strategy Jamie Gaucher said in 2023, explaining that the program’s participating businesses would receive free coaching in areas like cybersecurity and e-commerce.
The THRIVE Small Business Technical Assistance program closed in 2025, and the county’s Esri-powered story map illustrates its impact. It delivered 590 services to businesses; a quarter of its consulting funds were used to improve businesses’ digital presence.
After the program’s success, the Department of Economic Initiatives launched a one-stop online platform to connect entrepreneurs with regional support resources. Officials established another grant and technical assistance unit known as the Fairfax Founders Fund to support early-stage startups.
More recently, governments have been supporting businesses in the area of AI by investing in incentive programs, as seen in San Jose, Calif. The city is offering grant funding and technical support to AI startups to scale their operations in San Jose.
“We’ve just seen that there’s a lot of power that government has,” San Jose Chief Innovation Officer Stephen Caines said when the inventive program’s winners were announced in August 2025. “If you just lean and make a stage, then people will come.”
Omaha, Neb., is among other governments participating in this trend. The Greater Omaha Chamber and the nonprofit Scott Data partnered in 2025 to support small and midsize Omaha-area businesses through education, technical advising and affordable access to AI computing. Their work aims to support AI adoption among the region’s businesses and startups.
At the state level, a similar initiative launched in December in New Jersey, where a $20 million investment seeks to help startup companies, specifically those associated with the state’s AI hub, develop AI tools. The state invested $10 million and private-sector entities put up the rest. The funding’s goal is to help these companies grow, and in turn, help the state’s AI ecosystem further develop.
