Small Business (SMB) stories

Xero's Anthropic tie-up deepens finance software AI split as groups weigh integrated platforms against agent tools that work across multiple systems.

Making Tax Digital is forcing UK SMEs to confront broken finance workflows as quarterly reporting pushes demand for real-time data and open banking.

PayPal brings payment links into Canva for 265 million users, letting creators, entrepreneurs and small firms sell from designs with QR codes and checkouts.

Cloudflare and GoDaddy team up to give site owners more control over AI crawlers while backing open standards to verify agent identity.

Synology extends BeeStation Plus with local camera monitoring for homes and micro-businesses, offering AI alerts and no subscription fees.

AI agents prompt accounting firms to redesign bookkeeping and tax workflows as junior staff tasks are automated and human oversight stays central.

Apograph's £60-a-month firewall plan helps clients dodge emergency refresh costs, cut downtime and strengthen security across 1,500 endpoints.

EY names 31 entrepreneurs from 24 firms as finalists in Ireland's 2026 award programme, spanning technology, health, construction and consumer sectors.

Ripple Treasury adds Digital Asset Accounts as finance teams get a single view of cash and crypto balances across banks, custody providers and onchain wallets.

Irish businesses urged to pair leadership, skills and AI-ready infrastructure to turn workplace experimentation into measurable value.

Guinness Enterprise Centre says it has ploughed EUR 50 million back into its Dublin start-up campus over 25 years, backing 1,500 firms.

SonicWall says small firms are being hit hardest by basic security lapses as ransomware, bot traffic and identity theft keep climbing.

Geneva Association says cyber insurance can help firms tackle rising threats, but warns take-up remains low and SMEs are underusing cover's prevention services.

Dext adds time-tracking insight to help accountants and bookkeepers spot workload bottlenecks and client-heavy periods on its Advanced plan.

AMD says a new class of always-on personal machine can run AI agents locally, promising more privacy, speed and productivity for users.

Apple rolls out Business platform for companies, bundling device management and brand tools as it replaces Manager and Connect.

Keepit's 2026 data report says most SaaS restores are single files, while many organisations still fail to test identity and bulk recovery.

Start Tech Managing Director Ian Groves tells London event MSPs to prioritise client business problems over AI hype as debate grows over automation's impact.

Small US defence manufacturers face CMMC readiness shortfalls as cybersecurity checks tighten, with many underestimating the work needed to win contracts.

Xero and Anthropic strike multi-year deal to weave Claude AI into accounting software, giving small firms real-time cash-flow and invoice insights.