SMEs Are Focusing on the Wrong AI Opportunity
Artificial intelligence has quickly become one of the biggest investment priorities for UK businesses, but according to one digital transformation specialist, many organisations are looking for value in the wrong places.
John Loudon, founder of digital transformation consultancy Hybrid Anchor, believes much of the conversation around AI continues to focus on content generation and productivity shortcuts, while overlooking the operational challenges where the technology can create the greatest impact.
“The narrative has largely been about writing faster emails, generating content or replacing tasks,” Loudon told UK Tech News.
“But the biggest opportunity for most SMEs isn’t producing more content. It’s making better decisions.”
His comments are supported by Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index, which analysed more than 100,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot conversations. The research found that 49 per cent of AI interactions centred around analysing information, solving problems, evaluating options and thinking creatively. By comparison, only 17 per cent related to producing work and 15 per cent to gathering information.
For Loudon, those findings reveal something important about how businesses are beginning to use AI in practice.
“People often assume AI is primarily a production tool,” he said.
“But the data suggests it’s increasingly being used to support judgement, decision-making and problem solving. That’s where I think the real value lies.”
Across growing SMEs, one of the most common challenges is not a lack of ideas but a lack of capacity. Leadership teams are often overwhelmed by information, reporting requirements and operational complexity.
Through Hybrid Anchor‘s work supporting SMEs with digital transformation and process improvement, Loudon says these challenges are rarely caused by a lack of ambition. More often, businesses struggle because critical information is spread across multiple systems, making effective decision-making increasingly difficult as organisations grow.
Many organisations continue to rely on manual processes, disconnected systems and spreadsheets to support business-critical decisions.
“Business owners don’t necessarily need more data,” Loudon said. “They need better insight from the data they already have.”
The challenge, however, is that public perception of AI remains mixed.
Research from Deloitte’s State of the State report found that 51 per cent of UK adults are concerned about reduced human contact, while 50 per cent worry about job losses and 47 per cent cite a loss of human oversight as a risk.
At the same time, respondents recognised significant opportunities. One-third believe AI can help analyse more information, another third see potential for reducing administrative workloads, and 26 per cent expect cost reductions.
Loudon believes those findings reinforce the direction businesses should be taking.
“The conversation shouldn’t be about replacing people,” he said.
“It should be about helping people make better decisions, removing repetitive administration and allowing teams to focus on higher-value work.”
As economic pressures continue to force businesses to scrutinise every investment decision, many leaders are beginning to move beyond AI experimentation and towards measurable outcomes.
For SMEs, the biggest opportunity may not be producing more work.
It may be creating the capacity to think more clearly, act more decisively and scale more effectively.
And according to the latest evidence, that is already where many workers are choosing to spend their time.
