Recent experimental evidence has demonstrated that advice from mentors, peers, and experts can improve entrepreneurial performance, yet many entrepreneurs lack access to knowledgeable advisors. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to democratize access to high-quality advice, affecting not only firm profits and revenues, but also the role of entrepreneurial networks and human interactions. This study examines how AI impacts firm performance and augments the value of human advice over a nine-month-long randomized field experiment with 1,200 small and medium business entrepreneurs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups receiving (1) a generative AI business assistant, (2) a human business mentor, (3) both AI and a human mentor, or (4) to a control group. Results show that generative AI assistance causes significant contractions in entrepreneurs' business networks, decreases the frequency of their business interactions, and reduces their networking activities, while producing a decline in profits and revenue compared to the control group. In contrast, entrepreneurs assigned a human business mentor in addition to the AI assistant experienced a significant increase in business performance, much greater than the increase caused by human mentor access alone. Further analysis indicates that talking to human mentors leads entrepreneurs to use AI in more diverse and effective ways. These findings demonstrate that AI can harm performance if it replaces human connections but can significantly improve firm performance with the right human guidance.
