• Neurofit created an app that incorporates somatic exercises to help treat chronic stress.
• The company uses AI to help with tasks like coding and language translation.
• This article is part of "How AI Is Changing Everything: Small Business," a series exploring how small businesses are using AI for success.

Whether it's work or family-related pressures, an unexpected health scare, or a sudden life change like a big move, we all experience stress.

But there's a big difference between short-term, acute stress and chronic stress, which accumulates over time and potentially affects physical health.

Many mindfulness apps are effective at addressing acute stress but may not be as helpful for chronic stress. Neurofit, a mental wellness app that focuses on movement, is trying to close this gap.

The app, developed by the husband-and-wife team Andrew and Loren Hogue, leverages neuroscience and what they call "nervous system fitness" to help users reduce stress and improve mental clarity through somatic exercises. Somatics is a field of movement studies and bodywork that focuses on the body's physical perceptions and experiences, emphasizing conscious movements that increase the mind-body connection.

With just a three-person team, Neurofit relies on AI to deliver its program and engage users. The small business uses AI in three key ways: mental health coaching, app coding and development, and language translation.

Andrew Hogue, a serial entrepreneur with a background in software engineering, cofounded Neurofit in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when rates of anxiety and depression soared. Five years later, many people are still recovering from that collective trauma.

Loren Hogue, a former lawyer who trained to become a master somatic coach, learned that chronic stress affects physical health just as much as mental health.

Neurofit uses neuroscience- and evidence-based methods to address chronic stress and burnout, anchoring its program on somatic movements and mindfulness activities proven to reduce stress.

The Neurofit app has a daily check-in function where users assess how they feel about different parts of their lives, including career and family, and securely collects this data to understand each user's "stress fingerprint," Andrew Hogue said.

The app compiles biometric data, such as heart rate and nervous system recovery, and combines this with information about each user's stress profile and physiology to provide personalized guidance and insights. It analyzes a user's unique stress patterns over time and tailors exercises and coaching to the individual's needs.

Product development, coding, and translation help

Neurofit also uses AI for coding. Andrew Hogue used it to develop an app specifically for Apple Watches, something he'd never done despite his experience as a software engineer. He said AI reduced the learning curve, guiding him through the coding process to develop an Apple Watch app in just a few days to complement Neurofit's existing iOS app.

Neurofit has also adopted AI to reach a global audience.

The company uses GPT-4o from OpenAI— a generative AI tool that can create new content from virtually any source material — to translate mental health and wellness articles in the app's content library into more than 40 different languages. The technology allows Neurofit to translate content faster and more affordably than using human translators, saving the company $1,500 to $2,000 for each language, Andrew said.

Loren Houge said AI also helps Neurofit increase accessibility and equity.

"By driving down the cost of care, AI-driven tools are poised to serve far more diverse populations from anywhere, not just tech-savvy or privileged groups," she said.

But adopting AI hasn't been foolproof. The technology initially produced subpar language translations, but they improved over time with better data inputs. It experienced a similar problem with its content library, as ChatGPT 3.0 initially delivered lower-quality results as the team added more internal links, visuals, and graphics to its content pages. Andrew Hogue said these issues have been resolved over time.

It's just another reminder that you can't rely solely on AI tools; a human always should be in the loop.

The Hogues said it's critical for small businesses new to AI to start with small test cases, look for repetitive tasks to easily automate, and use the technology to augment — rather than replace — human empathy and connection.

Loren Hogue added that ethical and privacy safeguards are nonnegotiable, especially in healthcare.

"Robust data protection needs to be built into every step, starting at the design phase, so users feel safe sharing biometric information," she said.

Ultimately, they believe the potential for AI to have a positive effect on people's mental health may outweigh the possible risks.

"We believe AI can transform mental health care into a more proactive, holistic, preventive, and personalized domain," Loren Hogue said, "one that supports not only immediate mental and emotional well-being, but also long-term physiological resilience and longevity."

Correction: March 5, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated the generative AI tool Neurofit uses to create new content. The company uses GPT-4o, not ChatGPT 3.0.

• Since 2015, Daily Harvest's goal has been delivering healthy meals to customers across the US.
• It's using AI across facets of the business, including customer experience and packaging.
• This article is part of "How AI is Changing Everything: Small Business," a series exploring how small companies are using AI for success.

Daily Harvest is on a mission to bring nutritious food to consumers — with products that span heart-healthy harvest bowls to high-protein smoothies.

The meal delivery service, founded in 2015, ships orders throughout the US and sells its frozen food products in big-box and grocery stores like Costco and Kroger, and that all involves complex logistics.

While the brand's reach is large, its team is not — Daily Harvest employs fewer than 200 people.

As it has built an omnichannel business, Daily Harvest has integrated artificial intelligence throughout its operations, Jackson Mlawer, the company's director of product management, said. It's using AI for product recommendations, customer experience improvements, and packaging efficiency.

"Over the last year, we've invested a lot more in hyperfocusing on areas that we know over the course of our history as a business have driven success with AI," Mlawer said.

AI now touches nearly every facet of business operations, but the conversation often centers on how large enterprises or Big Tech companies are using it to scale their operations.

Small businesses like Daily Harvest are also tapping into AI, which shows how this segment can use the technology as a force multiplier.

Adopting a new AI approach

Mlawer said Daily Harvest has long been a tech-forward company. It initially built a custom tech stack, website, and mobile app, as well as internal tools. But beginning last year, the company turned to specialized, third-party AI solutions and has taken a more strategic approach with its AI investments.

Daily Harvest uses AI to drive product searches and recommendations for the 100 or so SKUs, or product codes, in its catalog. Sifting through all this data to recommend products based on each customer's dietary needs and unique preferences would be nearly impossible if it relied on humans alone. AI allows the company to quickly analyze customers' orders and website browsing history to incentivize them to try new products and reorder.

"We don't want customers to be fatigued with our food," Mlawer said. "We want them to try new products that we're launching or try things they've never tried so they can feel like the assortment is evergreen and it meets a bunch of different needs that they have throughout their life cycle." That's why ensuring the company has a robust data engine that can support product recommendations is so important, he added.

AI allows Daily Harvest to enhance other parts of its customer experience. The company has always used chatbots in its customer care channels, but AI allows it to drive more self-service and lets customers easily make changes to their plans, such as skipping their next order.

Previously, its customer care team would receive a help ticket and speak with the customer to resolve their issue. Last year, Daily Harvest implemented an AI chatbot that provides more rapid responses to customer queries. It also developed an AI model that categorizes customers at risk of canceling their subscriptions and directs them to a customer service agent for more personalized service, which improves retention.

"Not only are we seeing cost savings from enabling more of this automation, but we're seeing that our customer success scores — their actual satisfaction scores — have actually increased with the implementation of more AI in our care channels," Mlawer said.

Taking the friction out of fulfillment

AI also helps Daily Harvest enhance its fulfillment experience.

The company ships its boxes directly to consumers, so it's critical they are delivered on time and in good condition. Daily Harvest uses AI to determine how much dry ice to pack based on the number of products in each box and the weather at its final destination.

"How do we properly pack a box? Do we need 10 pounds of dry ice? Five pounds? Should I use a small box or a large box?" Mlawer said. "All these compounding factors are really intended to learn as AI is used, and then deliver, essentially, a frozen, on time, in-full package to customers."

With AI, Daily Harvest is improving packaging efficiency and the customer experience, but the technology isn't a solution for everything.

AI is only as good as the data it ingests, and there can be some growing pains in the beginning. For example, when Daily Harvest launched its new chatbot, the tool would sometimes provide incorrect responses to customers. The company adjusted how it trained and coached its AI model, pivoting to provide manual responses and focusing on a few use cases until the model had enough accurate data to deliver better results.

Within its fulfillment operations, Daily Harvest has also implemented quality-control measures, in which employees spot anomalies and double-check box configurations and packaging.

Mlawer said small businesses exploring AI should be tactical about how they use it. They don't need to apply it in every area. Instead, they can use it to augment specific parts of their operations and address the most pressing problems.

"Be very strategic with the type of AI enhancements that you feel your business will drive the highest value from," Mlawer said.

• Based in Houston, 3 Men Movers is a privately owned moving company.
• The small business uses AI to reduce driver distraction and find the most efficient routes.
• This article is part of "How AI is Changing Everything: Small Business," a series exploring how small businesses are using AI for success.

More than 25 million Americans move each year. And they expect their most precious items to arrive in one piece — whether they're traveling hundreds or thousands of miles.

So moving companies such as Texas' 3 Men Movers are increasingly turning to AI to meet these expectations.

Founded in 1985, long before artificial intelligence was ubiquitous, 3 Men Movers has adapted its business for the digital age. The company started testing and implementing AI-powered solutions in the late 2010s, its CEO, Jacky Fischer, said.

Today, 3 Men Movers uses the technology to detect distracted drivers and optimize route planning. It's just one of the millions of small businesses in the US that leverage AI in their everyday operations, illustrating how much the technology has redefined business.

Creating an AI-powered moving company

Higher insurance costs and steadily growing accident rates led Fischer's team to implement AI. The company also wanted to improve efficiency and reduce costs, critical in the fiercely competitive moving industry.

"To prosper, we had to focus on safety and liability as early as possible," Fischer said in an email interview.

To improve safety, the company installed cameras in the driver's cabin. Live video is transferred to its server through an AI-enabled distracted-driver detection system. The system is trained to recognize when a driver is using a smartphone, eating, drinking, doing some personal grooming, smoking, or even yawning. If it detects distracted behavior, both the driver and the supervisor receive a notification.

In addition, 3 Men Movers uses advanced open-source routing-machine technology, which identifies the best routes between points.

"There is a big misconception that AI was born in 2020 with the launch of ChatGPT," Fischer said. "While it was a major turning point in AI adoption, machine learning and data analytics for OSRM were already used in pioneering industries such as finance, telecommunications, and logistics."

The tech helps drivers at 3 Men Movers avoid high-traffic areas, high-crime zones, places with high crash rates, restricted areas, and even environmental hazards. It also allows the company to route in the most optimal way that will avoid liability and reduce risks, Fischer said.

Balancing AI benefits and risks

So far, implementing AI has paid dividends for 3 Men Movers. Comparing the AI detection reports to manual reports, the company has determined that the distracted driver detection system has an accuracy of 91% and prevents 80% of distractions. In the first three months of use, the system reduced the company's accident rate by 4.5%, according to Fischer.

Despite these results, implementing AI wasn't seamless. One of the biggest challenges, Fischer said, was integrating the distracted-driver detection system. Some of the initial products the company tried returned too many false positives, such as misinterpreting a driver's moving patterns at different speeds.

"It was quite challenging to keep the balance between staying competitive and avoiding more drawbacks than benefits due to adopting bleeding-edge tech," Fischer said. "This is why we always keep an eye on the benchmarks and do microtests before adopting any tech, including AI."

Fischer added that testing is key for any small business adopting AI. She urges other small-business owners to remember the risks of AI. To validate the technology, companies should always ask tech providers for proof points, such as case studies, information on how their results compare with industry benchmarks, and who will be responsible for implementation and false positives or hallucinations, meaning when AI tools deliver misleading or inaccurate results.

Along with testing, Fischer said transparency is critical for AI implementation. Her company is transparent with its team about when, how, and why the AI solution is interacting with them and their data. The company has also created a feedback loop so that every team member can share their suggestions and complaints about each solution.

"AI will only augment and empower," Fischer said, "but it will never replace or lead the people."