SMBs already use AI for financial tasks, mostly through general-purpose tools outside the banking relationship, so the engagement and data they generate go to a third party, not the institution holding the deposit account. For smaller financial institutions, that is a time-limited opening. In Datos Insights’ Q1 2026 survey of SMBs, 54% of community bank clients use no AI banking tools, versus 22% at the Big 4 banks, and the gap reflects what community banks offer, not what clients want.
General-purpose platforms are not yet the entrenched default for this segment, so a branded capability faces little competition. Datos Insights finds that smaller FIs should partner rather than build: choose two or three high-value use cases, select a partner, apply governance, and brand the result as their own.
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