Adoption is becoming normal, but evidence still matters
A new Small Business Cash Flow Trend Report from OnDeck and Ocrolus says 61% of surveyed small businesses used AI in the second quarter of 2026, up from 58% in the first quarter. Among users, 91% reported a positive business impact. The same release says 93% expected moderate to significant growth during the next year.
Those figures are encouraging, but they require context. The survey covered 805 U.S. small businesses with working-capital loans and was completed from 16 to 24 June. The sponsors are an online small-business lender and an AI workflow and cash-flow analytics vendor. The population is therefore relevant to financing and operations, but it is not a representative sample of every SME, country, or industry. Self-reported positive impact is also different from measured return on investment.
What happened
The sponsors combined the survey with cash-flow data from more than 3.76 million applications for working-capital financing over 15 months. Their release reports that inflation was the leading concern for 34% of respondents and cash flow for 30%. It also says 75% reported bypassing traditional banks, consistent with prior quarters.
The most useful AI signal is not simply the adoption percentage. It is the overlap between AI use, growth expectations, cash pressure, and alternative financing. A growing business may adopt AI to increase sales capacity, accelerate collections, reduce document handling, or operate without adding headcount at the same rate. If the project is not connected to one of those outcomes, usage can rise while financial resilience remains unchanged.
The results should be read as sponsored, selected-population findings. They do not prove that AI caused growth confidence or positive outcomes. They do suggest that AI is becoming part of day-to-day operations for many respondents rather than remaining an experimental novelty.
Why it matters for growing businesses
SMEs often evaluate software by whether employees like it or use it. Those are useful adoption measures, but management also needs workflow and financial measures. A tool can produce faster drafts while increasing review time. An invoice assistant can process more documents while creating more exceptions. A sales agent can generate leads that never convert. Positive sentiment must be connected to a complete business process.
Cash flow provides a practical lens. Automation can shorten quote turnaround, reduce billing delays, improve receivables follow-up, detect missing purchase documentation, or forecast short-term needs. Each case has an observable baseline. That allows the business to decide whether savings are real after subscription, integration, training, review, and error-correction costs.
Growing companies should also avoid automating financial pressure into customer harm. An AI collections workflow needs approved tone, dispute detection, contact-frequency limits, and human escalation. A financing recommendation should not conceal terms or substitute for professional judgment. Efficiency is valuable only when the process remains accurate and fair.
Create a one-page value case
For each AI pilot, record the target workflow, monthly volume, current cycle time, error or rework rate, responsible owner, expected improvement, and full cost. Choose one quality guardrail and one financial measure. Review the result after a fixed period, such as six weeks. Continue, redesign, or stop based on evidence rather than sunk cost or enthusiasm.
A sales follow-up pilot might measure time to first response and qualified-opportunity conversion while guarding against incorrect commitments. An accounts-receivable pilot might measure days to resolution and staff handling time while tracking disputes and complaints. The same framework works across industries.
Practical action checklist
- Inventory current AI use, including unsanctioned tools and features embedded in existing software.
- Choose one workflow tied to revenue, cash conversion, service quality, risk, or capacity.
- Record the baseline before changing the process; do not rely on employee memory after launch.
- Include licenses, tokens, integration, training, review, security, and correction in the cost model.
- Keep authoritative customer, product, order, invoice, and payment records in ERP or CRM.
- Set a quality guardrail such as error rate, complaint rate, unauthorized disclosure, or correction time.
- Require human approval for financial commitments, sensitive communications, and master-data changes.
- Segment results by customer, document, channel, or case complexity so averages do not hide failures.
- Review results on a fixed date and remove tools that duplicate work or cannot show value.
- Treat sponsored survey percentages as market signals, not as targets your company must imitate.
How VDS Consultoria can help
VDS Consultoria helps SMEs identify automation opportunities that connect to business results. We map workflows, establish baselines, configure Odoo as the system of record, integrate approved AI tools, and build dashboards for value, quality, cost, and exceptions. We can also consolidate overlapping tools and define a governance process for new requests.
AI adoption can be a sign of operational maturity, or simply another layer of software. The difference is whether leadership can show which process improved, by how much, at what cost, and with what controls.
Source
Enova International, OnDeck, and Ocrolus, “New Report: Small Businesses Lean Into Growth and AI,” July 31, 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-report-small-businesses-lean-into-growth-and-ai-302839588.html