AI where it counts. Human when it matters.

Intuit recently partnered with the Social Market Foundation to research the impact of AI on small and mid-market businesses (SMBs) across the UK. The report will be published in October and shows that embedding deeper use of AI across SMB workflows (i.e. finance, marketing, sales, HR) could help to unlock up to £47 billion in additional revenue distributed across every postcode in the UK. Read more for key takeaways and recommendations. 

Key takeaways from the report include: 

• Adoption is mainstream, depth is not: Although 79% of SMB firms now use AI, most of the use reported is still primarily free and shallow with only 52% have used AI built into specialist business software. 

• Size matters: AI adoption rises from 60% of SMBs to 92% of mid market firms. They are twice as likely to report higher revenue and higher net profit, and nearly three quarters are planning to increase their use of AI over the next year.

• But trust and integration are the binding constraints: The biggest barriers to deeper and more embedded use of AI are: privacy and security (35%), lack of knowledge (28%), and integrating AI with existing systems (18–21%).

• Policy must be built for two populations, and around connected systems rather than standalone tools: SMBs need to be helped to start—access to tools, grants, and simple guidance—whereas mid-market firms are overdigitized, using 25+ different apps with data sitting in silos. This stops them from automating tasks and realizing productivity gains because they lose up to 25 hours a week manually switching data between systems. Their problem is not conviction, but capability and data integration.

At the local level:

With greater AI usage, the research estimates potential increases in SMB revenue: 

• In Wigan: £161million increase

• In Rotherham: £138 million increase 

• In Tameside: £99.4 million increase 

• In Vale of Glamorgan: £50.2m increase 

Here in Liverpool, that’s an extra £234 million.

Recommendations for Government: 

• Fix the plumbing: Encourage open API and data-portability norms for business software. Neutral interoperable standards will reward connected platforms that can drive revenue growth over growing app sprawl.

• Unlock more business data: Financial data is the richest asset mid-market firms hold. The FCA’s open finance work, which prioritizes SMB lending, and the Treasury’s long-term framework should treat accounting and business software platforms as data holders and recipients alongside banks, with improved access to credit an explicit outcome.

• Build trust through a Government marketplace: Provide a marketplace of approved AI tools, with baseline requirements on data security, accuracy and reliability tied to HMRC approved software list. The marketplace should explicitly cover AI features embedded in mainstream business software — accounting, payroll, CRM — since that is how a third of mid-market firms adopt the technology.

• Use accountants as a key channel: A third of adopters in the Social Market Foundation research acted on a recommendation from a trusted contact. For a scaling firm without a chief technology officer, the most trusted external adviser is its accountant — they are the professional who already sees its data, advises on its systems and is trusted on compliance.  Work with Accountant bodies to make AI implementation part of continuing professional development. This turns an existing relationship into a delivery channel, and it also supports a profession that is itself among the most exposed to AI.

• Name mid-market businesses as a distinct segment: UK policy defaults to SMB (under 250 staff) or large corporates, leaving the “forgotten middle” without a policy home. This is a  segment with distinct needs: consolidation, intercompany management, forecasting, systems integration and growth finance.