if you have been feeling a little overwhelmed by all the noise around artificial intelligence lately, you are certainly not alone. It seems to be the topic on everyone's lips at the moment, particularly in the finance world, where there is a lot of speculation about what it might mean for the future of accountancy and accountants.

So we decided to tackle the subject head on, inviting Christian Ruland of CCR, a rapid transformation consultancy specialising in AI and marketing (and a former colleague of Damian’s) to join him for a conversation about

1.  What AI actually is ?
2.  What it isn't ? and
3.  How SME owners can begin to make sense of it all ?

What followed was a really useful and practical discussion, the kind that I think should leave you feeling a bit clearer and a good deal less anxious about where your own SME business fits into all of this.

Below, we have pulled together the key insights from the webinar session with Christian !

What is AI really, and What is it NOT ?

One of the most useful points to come out of the conversation was Christian's suggestion that AI is not really software in the way we traditionally think of it. It is closer to infrastructure, something more like electricity running through a business rather than a single tool sitting in one department. Just as you would not expect electricity to power only the kitchen and leave the rest of the building dark, AI delivers the most value when it is woven through the whole business rather than confined to a single team or task.

Christian also highlighted that AI is not conscious thought.

It is however, a prediction and pattern engine which is extremely capable at generating ideas, content and various options - but without any real sense of your own businesses brand instinct, ethics, or taste. That part remains firmly the responsibility of the business owner.

As Christian put it, AI deals in facts rather than feelings, which is precisely why human judgement still needs to sit at the centre of every decision that AI takes.

Is AI actually going to take my job?

This is understandably the question on a lot of people's minds, and it came up early in the webinar. Christian's view was clear: it is not AI that will take your job, it is someone else using AI who will.

Businesses that proactively use these AI tools thoughtfully, will be the businesses that will be able to future proof themselves, while those who wait and watch, will risk being left behind by competitors who are already embracing the AI shift.

Christian also offered some research to back this up too.

Decisions that are made by humans alone come out at around eighty one percent accuracy, while AI alone sits at seventy three percent. However where you are able to combine the two, with humans firmly in the driving seat and AI supporting the process, then that figure climbs to ninety percent.

It is a helpful illustration of why the nightmare jobs scenario will probably NOT come to pass.

Why does AI matter specifically for SMEs?

Larger companies have the resources to experiment and implement quickly, but SMEs often face real barriers, whether that is the cost, a lack of in-house technical expertise ore more simply just not having the time to explore what is out there.

Having said that, the opportunity is significant for SMEs as AI is fundamentally a productivity multiplier, and productivity is one of the biggest challenges facing SMEs in the UK and Ireland today - particularly with rising costs and ongoing compliance pressures.

Again Christian pointed to data from the British Chamber of Commerce, which indicated that close to half of B2B businesses are already using AI or actively planning to use it. Therefore as an SME business owner, standing still is no longer an option, it is a risk as your competitors start to gain an advantage with their increasing use of AI !

Five signs your business might already have an AI opportunity

Even if you are not actively looking for one, Christian outlined a handful of tell tale signs that AI could genuinely help your business:

1. You spend more time hunting for information than actually using it
2. Insights are being produced somewhere in the business but are not reaching the people who make the decisions
3. The same piece of work keeps being recreated by different teams or by the same team on a weekly or monthly basis
4. Valuable knowledge lives only in individual employees' heads, which becomes a real risk if that person ever leaves
5. You are spending money on marketing without being entirely sure what is actually working

If any of these sound familiar, and for most SMEs at least one will, that is usually a good place to start looking.

Where should a business actually begin with AI?

The advice here was very practical and straightforward i.e. start with a simple pilot project rather than trying to transform everything at once !

Christian also pointed out that getting leadership genuinely behind the pilot project matters too, as when the people at the top are visibly enthusiastic, that enthusiasm tends to spread naturally through the rest of the business.

From there, Christian explained that the AI tools to use in the pilot project will fall into three broad categories i.e.

• an ‘off the shelf’ solution built for a specific task
• a bespoke implementation that can be tailored to exact workflows, and
• the more general tools like ChatGPT or Claude

Once the pilot project has been shown to be successful (which hopefully it will be), then it will offer the confidence, and become the gateway to further use of AI within your SME business.

Are there Risks to AI to keep in mind?

No conversation about AI would be complete without a healthy dose of caution, and Christian was candid about the risks.

First of which is that AI can hallucinate, so human review is always recommended within any workflow. Second was that AI is not intelligent from day one. So much like a new employee, it needs to be trained and guided before it reaches its full potential.

There is also a cost dimension too, which is not necessarily obvious right now in the current phase of AI adoption - BUT AI subscription and use spend has already almost doubled for many businesses this year, alongside the practical risk of duplicated subscriptions and hidden integration costs.

Governance increasingly matters now just as much as capability, for example with ‘Shadow AI’ where staff quietly use their own personal accounts to process sensitive company or client information. This is a genuine business data safety risk concern that deserves a clear policy rather than being left to chance.

So What’s the Next Step ?

AI is here to stay, but maybe not quite in the way we are being told about right now !

So for SMEs there are clear opportunities and associated risks that this new technological advance is bringing, so waiting for the dust to settle is, in Christian's words, a losing strategy.

This is fundamentally a leadership decision rather than a technical one, and the businesses that get the most value from AI will be the ones where humans and the AI technology work in genuine partnership, with the people element always firmly in control of the outcome.

As a fast developing topic for SMEs, then If you would like to talk through where AI might fit into your own business, or simply want a sounding board for your next strategic move, then I or Christian, would love to hear from you.

Book a Discovery Session with Damian

Will AI replace jobs in small businesses? Not directly. The more realistic risk is that a competitor using AI effectively moves faster than a business that does not adopt it at all.

What is the best way for an SME to start using AI? Begin with a single, measurable pilot project tied to a clear business outcome, rather than attempting to overhaul every process at once.

Is AI accurate enough to make business decisions on its own? No. AI performs best as a decision support tool used alongside human judgement, not as a replacement for it.

What is shadow AI and why does it matter? Shadow AI refers to employees using personal AI accounts, such as ChatGPT or Claude, to process work tasks without company oversight, which can create real data safety risks.