In a new blog post, Heldrich Center Research Project Assistant Lily McFarland outlines early findings from a project with the New Jersey State Policy Lab examining how New Jersey’s public AI initiatives can better align with the needs of small businesses. She describes challenges stemming from the lack of a standardized definition of “small business” and limited county-level demographic data, which led the research team to adopt a definition of firms with fewer than 100 employees using U.S. Census data. After ranking counties by the number of such firms and considering data limitations and practical factors, the team selected Middlesex County as the study’s focus. The post highlights both the concentration of small businesses and institutional supports in Middlesex County, as well as broader data gaps that complicate efforts to assess how well public AI policies serve diverse entrepreneurs.