AI is here. What do you want from it?

Artificial intelligence will either widen the gap between large and small organisations, or help close it. That outcome will not be decided by the technology alone. It will be decided by how we choose to deploy it.

This is one reason why the recent publication of Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas is interesting, even for those of us who are not religious. One of the world’s oldest institutions has chosen to engage directly with one of the world’s newest technologies because artificial intelligence is not merely another software tool. It has implications for how knowledge is accessed, how decisions are made, how work is organised and how power is distributed throughout society.

Why AI Matters for Small Businesses

In Ireland, that question has immediate practical importance. Our economy is built on small and medium-sized businesses: family firms, sole traders, local employers, bookkeepers, accountancy practices, tradespeople, shops, cafés, service businesses and community organisations. These businesses are no less important than large enterprises, but they operate with far fewer resources. A multinational can employ specialists in finance, forecasting, marketing, operations, technology and strategy. A small business owner often performs several of those roles personally, while also serving customers, managing staff, paying suppliers, chasing debtors and watching cash flow.

The difference is not intelligence or ambition. It is access.

How AI Could Change Access

For decades, sophisticated business analysis has largely been available to those who could afford it. Large organisations can dedicate teams to monitoring performance, preparing forecasts, modelling scenarios and supporting decisions. Smaller organisations often rely on a combination of experience, instinct, a trusted accountant or bookkeeper, and whatever time is left at the end of the week. That is not a criticism of small businesses. It is a recognition of the conditions in which they operate.

Artificial intelligence may change those conditions. A business owner should be able to ask why cash is tight this month, which customers owe money, whether sales are improving, how margins have changed, whether VAT has been set aside properly, or what would happen if they hired another person. An accountant should be able to review a client’s books more quickly, identify unusual balances, prepare questions for the client and spend more time on judgement and advice. A bookkeeper should be able to move faster through routine review work and focus attention where it is most needed.

These are not abstract use cases. They are everyday business questions. Yet answering them properly often requires navigating reports, exporting data, manipulating spreadsheets or relying on specialist knowledge. If AI can make that analysis easier to access, it could become one of the most important tools small businesses have seen in a generation.

The Risks We Need to Consider

There are serious risks. AI can produce confident errors. It can obscure assumptions. It can concentrate power in the hands of the organisations that control the models, the data and the distribution channels. It can be used to replace human judgement rather than support it. Privacy, transparency, accountability and education all matter.

There is also another risk: that the benefits of AI accrue mainly to organisations that already have the greatest resources. If that happens, artificial intelligence will deepen the gap between large and small organisations. The strongest will become stronger, while smaller businesses are left with slogans, demos and tools they do not know how to use safely.

That would be a failure of imagination.

Making Capability More Widely Available

The better ambition is to make advanced capability more widely available. That does not mean pretending that AI is a substitute for accountants, bookkeepers, advisors or business owners. It means using technology to help people ask better questions, understand their own data, prepare more effectively and make better-informed decisions. Responsibility remains human, but support can become more widely available.

Why Education Matters

This is why education must sit alongside access. Giving people powerful tools without helping them understand their limitations would be irresponsible. Small businesses need practical guidance on how to use AI, when to trust it, when to question it, and when to seek professional advice. Accountants and bookkeepers need to be part of that conversation, not treated as obstacles to it.

A Conversation Worth Having

The debate about artificial intelligence is often presented as a debate about machines. In reality it is a debate about people: who has access to knowledge, who benefits from technological progress, and whether new capabilities are concentrated in a few hands or distributed more widely across society.

At Big Red Cloud, we believe this is a conversation worth having now. Over the coming months we will be sharing more about practical, responsible uses of AI for accountants, bookkeepers and Irish businesses. Our starting point is simple: artificial intelligence should increase human capability, not reduce human agency.