AI 101 for SMBs and Finance Partners: The Essentials

TL;DR: Vera CTO Richard Davies shares his thoughts on how SMBs and their partners can best leverage AI in their operations. Takeaway: While AI won’t replace expert knowledge, it’s perfect for handling those back-office admin tasks that eat into your margins and slow business growth.

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AI Won’t Replace Experts.

But It Will Make You Unstoppable.

“AI is coming for our jobs.” We’ve all heard it. But the truth? AI has been supercharging businesses for decades.

Since 1956, AI has helped businesses make faster decisions, automate tedious work and improve efficiency—long before ChatGPT made it mainstream in 2022.

But now, SMBs and their finance partners are scrambling to “use AI” without fully understanding where it actually makes a difference.

What’s the real opportunity? AI isn’t about replacing people. It’s about cutting the busywork that kills your margins.

So if you’re a startup, fractional CFO, or accounting firm, where should you start?

Read this to understand:

1. How AI actually works (LLMs, simplified)
2. What it can’t do (so you don’t waste time)
3. What it can do (and how to profit from it)
4. The future of AI for SMBs

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How AI (LLMs) Actually Work.

There’s endless information out there.

But as a busy founder, fractional CFO, or finance partner, you don’t have time for jargon, just what matters. So here’s the simple version: LLM AI models don’t “think”—they predict. They generate words based on patterns they’ve learned from massive datasets (books, articles, code).

Our CTO Richard Davies’ analogy: “A language model seems smart because it's been trained on massive datasets. But, it’s better to think of an LLM as a fuzzy information retrieval system—it retrieves and predicts, but it doesn’t reason.”

Putting that into practice, think about a real example you might have played with. Like ask ChatGPT: “Summarize the top three financial insights from last quarter’s report.”

You'll get a decent-looking response back that's based on patterns from similar texts. But it won't have actually understood new information and definitely not your financials.

So the key thing about how LLMs actually work, is that they don’t think critically, creatively and aren’t a reliable decision-maker—they’re essentially an advanced auto-complete. Perfect for summarizing, drafting, and automating admin tasks, but expert thinking is irreplaceable.

Want a deeper dive? Watch this video from IBM (great for visual learners).

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What AI Can’t Do (Like Be Your CFO).

Let's clear up some myths.

AI is an incredible advancement in technology and can have a huge impact on your business, but AI systems like LLMs aren't magic, they have very clear limitations.

What to remember:

1. They can't reason or think abstractly like humans.

‍LLMs predict responses based on past data, so they struggle with new, unexpected situations.‍

2. They fail with new or unexpected situations outside their training data.

These are called “edge cases”, for example: autonomous cars in London.

“AI can handle predictable traffic. But throw in an unexpected pedestrian? It struggles. The same applies to business—AI excels in structured tasks but fails in unpredictable scenarios.” - Richard, Vera CTO.

3. They inherit and reinforce biases from their training data.

AI-generated legal advice has included fake case law that doesn’t exist. Just because LLMs sounds confident doesn't mean it's right. Believe the noise: LLMs can hallucinate.

4. They pose security risks if not implemented correctly.

AI chatbots trained on sensitive company data can accidentally expose confidential information.This is why it’s important to choose a partner which takes security seriously. Look for a transparent security statement on their website (like this one from Vera or this one from Fyxer).

Your key takeaway? While it’s tempting to ask your favorite LLM to do something useful—like “Summarize the top three financial insights from last quarter’s report”—you have to remember that its response will only match patterns from similar texts.

It might not include the right calculations (this is where traditional mathematics, financial algorithms, and other AI techniques come in), and it won’t think critically about the context or nuances that make up an accurate analysis.

It's a draft, but how useful actually is it?

That's up to your financial expert to think critically about and decide. Not an LLM.

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What AI Can Do (Like Help You Scale Faster).

So, where does that leave you?

AI is a business weapon, if you use it in the right places and work with the right partners.

AI, particularly LLMs, works best when combined with traditional software to accelerate routine tasks. The back office is a perfect place to start from as it contains many repetitive workflows that AI can quickly grasp and streamline and, eventually, make effortless through automation.

Here are some other key areas:

‍1. Content & Document Generation

Perfect for: Drafting emails, reports, client updates, marketing materials.

Not for: Generating financial statements or legal contracts without human review.

Key takeaway: AI isn’t replacing expert insights, but it can give you a head start.

2. Automating Repetitive Admin Work

Perfect for: Invoice reminders, follow-ups, recurring reports or auto-collecting information (like this).

Not for: Strategic financial planning or forecasting.

Key takeaway: AI eliminates low-value busywork so you can focus on strategy and growth.

3. Classification & Prioritization

Perfect for: Sorting emails, categorizing expenses, flagging urgent tasks.

Not for: Making judgment calls on financial risk or compliance.

Key takeaway: AI will help you cut through the noise, but get your people to make the final call.

4. Error Detection & Anomaly Spotting

Perfect for: Spotting duplicate transactions, unusual expense patterns, missing invoices.

Not for: Replacing financial audits or forensic accounting.

Key takeaway: AI can catch obvious mistakes so people can focus on the bigger picture.

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The Future of AI in SMBs.

AI + Experts = Hybrid Workflows

Experts estimate that AI will impact 40-60% of jobs.

At Vera, we see AI augmenting nearly every role across all industries. While some jobs may be replaced, most will be enhanced. AI will take over routine, repetitive tasks—freeing people to focus on strategic, creative, and interpersonal work.

Even a plumber, who might seem far removed from AI, can benefit from automation—whether it’s generating invoices, tracking payments, or following up with clients.

“It’s not about automating entire jobs. It’s about automating tasks within jobs.” – Richard Davies, Vera CTO.

AI Will Become Invisible

In 5-10 years, AI won’t be a separate tool—it will be seamlessly embedded in software, working quietly in the background. This concept, called Ambient AI, means automation will happen without users even noticing.

“AI will be so embedded into software that you won’t even notice it.” – Richard.

Every AI wave follows the same pattern—useful parts become standard software, while the hype fades. Expert Systems and Knowledge-Based Systems once seemed futuristic but now power BRMEs and recommendation engines like Alexa.

For SMBs and finance partners, AI will be as natural as online banking—automating tedious tasks so they can focus on strategy and growth.

Some Jobs Will Disappear—New Ones Will Replace Them

Some experts estimate that AI will create 20-50M new jobs by 2030.

The biggest opportunity? Mastering AI-driven business strategies.

As AI integrates deeper into software, demand for AI expertise will only grow. While some jobs may disappear, McKinsey Global Institute projects AI will generate tens of millions of new roles.

For startups, SMBs, and their partners, the future of work is full of opportunity. AI will handle admin, freeing businesses to focus on growth: leading, advising, and making strategic decisions.

The winning formula? The right AI-powered tech stack, validated by human expertise.

One thing is certain: experts aren’t going anywhere.

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The Bottom Line: AI Won’t Replace You.

But it will replace the old way of working. AI isn’t taking over. It’s a weapon in your arsenal, not a substitute for expertise. The businesses that win will be the ones that use AI to automate the busywork and double down on strategy, creativity and human insight.

And the accountants, and fractional CFOs who embrace AI-powered automation will scale faster, serve more clients, and boost profitability without hiring more staff.

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Want to Know the Best AI Tools for SMBs?

We’ve curated a list of AI tools for startups, SMBs, and finance pros. Drop us a message on LinkedIn.

Follow Vera on LinkedIn for more AI insights for business and their financial partners.

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