// INDUSTRY INSIGHT // another tool, but to make the tools, data and processes they already rely on work more effectively together.
A useful starting point is to identify where friction is building up. Invoices, expenses, payments and cash flow all generate information that owners need to understand how their business is performing. When those processes are connected, businesses can reduce the manual work involved in moving and reconciling information while giving owners a clearer, more current view of their finances.
AI has the potential to take that a step further. Rather than requiring owners to continually search through financial information themselves, AI can help identify patterns and bring issues such as overdue invoices, changing costs or pressure on cash flow to their attention sooner.
The objective, however, should not be automation for its own sake. Technology is most useful when it removes unnecessary steps, connects information and makes it easier for owners to understand what requires their attention. Digital-first should ultimately mean simpler processes and better visibility, not a larger collection of tools to manage which could create its own form of red tape.
Cutting friction creates capacity for growth
For SMBs, the case for simplifying processes goes beyond efficiency. Time spent navigating unnecessary administration is time that cannot be spent pursuing new customers, developing products, investing in people or planning the next stage of the business.
That trade-off becomes particularly significant when growth is already competing with the demands of running the business. Intuit’ s Growth Gap research found that three-quarters of UK SMB leaders have abandoned ideas multiple times because of constraints including time, capital and focus. Collectively, the research estimates that UK SMBs could be leaving 58 % of their potential growth unrealised.
Technology cannot remove every barrier to growth, but it can help give owners back one of their scarcest resources: time. Intuit’ s research found that 38 % of UK firms are already saving between five and eight hours a week through AI. For an SMB owner, that could mean several more hours to speak with customers, explore an investment opportunity, develop their team or take a closer look at where the next opportunity for growth might come from.
There is a useful parallel here with the government’ s drive to cut red tape for businesses. The principle behind reducing unnecessary regulation is that businesses should spend less time navigating bureaucracy and more time investing and growing. SMB leaders can apply the same thinking inside their own organisations. Processes that once made sense can become a form of internal red tape as a business evolves, absorbing time and attention without adding equivalent value.
Removing that friction will look different for every business. It might mean automating routine financial tasks, connecting systems that have grown up separately or making important financial information easier to access and act on. What matters is the outcome: less time spent managing the machinery of the business and more capacity to move it forward. �
Intelligent SME. tech
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