Table of Contents
- Why AI matters for small businesses
- Why AI in business finance matters
- How it works at Credibly
- The future of AI in business and finance
- Get smarter, faster financing for your business
Securing financing has always been one of the biggest challenges for small business owners. Long applications, strict credit requirements, and weeks of waiting often stand in the way of getting the capital you need to move forward. AI in business finance is changing that.
In 2022, 32% of small business financing applicants made the choice to go to online financiers for lending options. These same financiers are also often using AI tools to get financing in the hands of small businesses faster.
| “This means faster, more reliable ways to understand your finances and connect with the right funding options. By analyzing real-time data, like cash flow trends and customer transactions, AI delivers a clearer picture of your business’s health, helping lenders make quicker and more accurate decisions, “ Credibly Founder Ryan Rosett said. |
Using AI in the financing process means less paperwork, more transparency, and better access to capital for businesses that have traditionally been overlooked. That’s just the beginning of the potential for AI applications in business.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how AI is transforming business finance, from smarter credit assessments to flexible repayment models, and why these innovations matter for entrepreneurs like you.
Why AI matters for small businesses
AI is giving financial providers new tools to better serve small businesses. By using AI-driven systems, lenders and fintechs can analyze more data, make faster funding decisions, and reduce risk without sacrificing accuracy. These tools can reduce manual work by up to 80%.
For small business owners, this means faster access to capital, fewer manual reporting requirements, and a smoother financing experience overall
Here is how AI applications in business can make that happen:
- Advanced financial insights: Machine learning models review patterns in business performance, helping providers predict repayment trends, assess risk more accurately, and design funding options that align with a company’s real-time cash flow.
- Fraud detection: AI systems flag unusual activity within transaction data, enabling providers to protect both themselves and their clients from financial loss.
- Faster approvals: With AI reviewing multiple data points beyond credit scores, funding partners can make lending decisions more quickly and accurately for small businesses.
Why AI in business finance matters
Getting financing has never been simple for small businesses. Traditional options often require mountains of paperwork, strict credit histories, and weeks of waiting. AI changes that dynamic.
By processing large volumes of data in seconds, AI reduces the manual work, lowers costs, and makes loan approvals more accessible for business owners like you.
1. Increased access to capital
By processing large volumes of data in seconds, AI enhances the ability of financing providers to evaluate a business’s financial health. With a more accurate and up-to-date picture of how your business is performing, AI can increase access to capital.
Traditionally, a credit score may have carried a lot of weight in a financing provider’s decision to approve an application. However, modern lenders, like Credibly, now use AI technology to incorporate a wider range of data points. As a result, we can create a more accurate picture of how your business is performing compared to lenders who do not use these tools.
In practice, this could look like analyzing:
- Cash flow patterns: Regular incoming and outgoing expenses give lenders confidence in your ability to repay a loan.
- Point-of-sale (POS) data: Real-time sales activity helps demonstrate consistent revenue.
- Invoice payments: Tracking how quickly customers pay shows operational strength.
- Web presence: An online presence can help financing providers verify information about the business.
- Customer sentiment: Online reviews and feedback reflect reputation and trustworthiness.
2. Faster, more accurate decisions
One major advantage of AI in business finance is how it accelerates evaluation and minimizes mistakes. Traditional reviews by humans can take a long time and introduce errors.
By contrast, AI-driven systems can process applications or financial data rapidly and consistently.
Machine learning models score credit risk, spot anomalies, and predict the likelihood of default. Natural language processing and optical character recognition (OCR) can also extract data from bank statements, tax forms, and invoices, while rule-based automation applies policy checks the same way every time.
That level of speed and accuracy matters for small businesses where conditions shift quickly and decisions must match that pace. AI helps finance teams rebalance portfolios, reroute capital, and flag inconsistencies more quickly than manual reviews. Together, these advantages give finance professionals better data to support trustworthy, responsive decisions.
It’s no wonder that 55% of finance teams already use AI for data analysis.
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3. Flexible financing options
Not every business runs on the same schedule. Seasonal businesses, or those with irregular cash flow, often struggle with rigid remittance terms. Banks typically offer standardized loan structures that don’t account for these realities. As a result, small businesses either overextend themselves or miss out on financing altogether.
AI gives lenders the ability to customize financing solutions. By analyzing alternative data, predictive models can design repayment schedules that fit your actual cash flow. If your business has high revenue in summer but slower months in winter, AI tools can adjust repayment terms to match that cycle.
Here are a few examples of how AI enables more flexible financing:
- Tailored repayment schedules: Payments aligned with high- and low-revenue periods.
- Variable financing products: Options like revenue-based financing or working capital loans designed around cash flow.
- Better pricing models: Rates that adapt based on business performance.
4. Lower cost of capital
Automation helps financing providers process more applications faster and with fewer resources. The reduction in cost and increase in speed both lower the overall cost of capital, which allows lenders to pass these savings to customers. More efficient operations make financing more accessible and manageable for small business owners.
How it works at Credibly
Let’s take a look at AI in action at Credibly.
Credibly knows that small businesses work at lightning speed. We’ve long invested in technology to deliver financing quickly, with as few barriers as possible, and responsibly.
One example of how we’ve done this is in our process to review bank statements. Credibly uses AI and automation to review documents like bank statements. Instead of reviewing each bank statement manually, which can be time-consuming, automation can summarize a business’s cash flow for an underwriter to quickly review.
Implementing this allowed Credibly to reduce approval times to as fast as four hours in 2023. Further technology improvements have reduced this to as fast as two hours in 2025!
Investment in technology also lets Credibly reduce the cost of operations. We aim to pass cost savings to our customers and reduce the cost of financing for small businesses.
The future of AI in business and finance
AI is reshaping how small businesses access and manage capital. The next phase is all about following the trend of innovative AI applications in business. This means smarter, more personalized financing that adapts to your needs in real time.
Embedded lending
Financing is no longer limited to banks or lengthy applications. With embedded lending, funding options appear right where you need them, at the point of sale or inside the tools you already use.
Imagine applying for working capital directly through your payment processor or e-commerce platform, with AI instantly evaluating your transactions and surfacing an offer.
Smarter loan matching
Finding the right loan product has always been frustrating for small business owners. AI changes that by matching you with financing tailored to your size, industry, and goals.
By analyzing real-time financial data alongside your business profile, financing providers can ensure you see the products that actually fit.
Simplified research process
Business financing can feel complex and overwhelming. AI can make it easier to navigate the research process and help cut through the noise when looking for funding providers.
You save time, avoid predatory offers, and get connected with providers who are ready to work with businesses like yours.
Why this matters for you
The bottom line? AI-driven financing means faster approvals, more accurate evaluations, and options designed around how your business really operates.
From applications of AI in business to finance, these changes show how quickly business finance is evolving. The tools are already here to help you move faster, access capital more fairly, and keep your business competitive.
That’s exactly where Credibly comes in.
