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New research indicates digital expectations are increasing for small business owners
Director, Research Intelligence Expert at ProSight.“ They are looking for partners who understand their evolving needs and can provide both stability and flexibility. For financial service organisations, this means rethinking how they support small businesses in a changing landscape.”
ProSight Financial Association has released the 2026 ProSight Small Business Banking Outlook, offering new insights into the priorities, challenges and banking behaviours shaping the small business market. Based on a survey of 600 US small business owners, the research reveals that businesses remain focused on growth despite a more cautious outlook for the year ahead.
“ They are looking for partners who understand their evolving needs and can provide both stability and flexibility. For financial service organisations, this means rethinking how they support small businesses in a changing landscape.”
“ Small business owners are navigating a more complex environment where growth ambitions are tempered by economic uncertainty,” said Mark Riddle,
Growth emerged as a top business challenge for 2026, cited by 50 % of respondents, followed by operational efficiency( 38 %) and cash flow management( 34 %). At the same time, business owners reported lower levels of optimism about their financial and economic outlooks compared to last year, suggesting a more measured approach to business planning and investment.
The research found that relationships remain a critical component of small business banking. Eighty-seven percent of respondents use the same provider for both personal and business banking. However, loyalty is not guaranteed.
Zoom launches AI teammate built to turn conversations into completed work
Zoom has announced the launch of ZoomMate, an Agentic AI work surface to help people move from workplace conversations to execution without losing context along the way. Built on Zoom’ s system of action vision announced in March, ZoomMate connects live conversational context to agentic search, workflow execution, custom agents and AI content creation.
ZoomMate helps users overcome the friction introduced by fragmented tools and incomplete workflows by surfacing information across Zoom and connected business systems, creating deliverables from meeting and enterprise context and co-ordinating follow-through across workflows without switching tools. This shift reflects Zoom’ s long-term vision for a system of action that moves conversations into completed work.
“ What drew me to Zoom was a simple truth: no other company sits where Zoom sits – at the centre of every conversation where work decisions get made,” said Russell Dicker, Chief Product Officer at Zoom.
“ ZoomMate is built on this insight. Before, during and after the meeting, ZoomMate connects what was decided to what needs to happen next across every system where your work lives.”
“ The market is moving away from isolated AI helpers and toward tools that can better connect decisions, data and workflows across an organisation,” said Melody Brue, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.“ Many AI offerings operate on the edges of work, with limited access to the real-time context affecting decisions.”
Intelligent SME. tech
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