In this post, Ian reviews 25 B2B tech websites and shares what was broken.
How B2B Tech SMEs leverage new AI technologies seems to be taking all the oxygen out of the room in discussions about strategy. In this article, Mark Rattley explores its importance, but shares what’s really keeping founders and leaders up at night.
The biggest obstacle facing growing UK tech SMEs in 2026 isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s about channeling that ambition in an increasingly challenging and competitive market.
Channeling that ambition is about focus, on the myriad of challenges facing them, and every SME CEO or Founder I speak to is excited about the potential of digital tools and AI to address these challenges. The promise of faster growth, better customer experiences, and smarter operations are consistent themes.
AI has evolved rapidly since we started talking about its transformative capabilities nearly 20 years ago, when it was arguably used to describe sophisticated rules engines and rudimentary machine learning platforms with huge future potential.
Understanding Moore’s Law in the context of AI is important:
'The doubling of transistor density every two years' meant that CPUs could deliver faster computations while becoming more power-efficient and cost-effective. But today, as AI development accelerates, experts are questioning its relevance.
NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, describes the AI evolution as “closer to Moore’s law squared". A recognition that AI is evolving faster than traditional computing models ever thought possible.
But the truth is - we are all trying to work out how to effectively use, deploy, and integrate an increasing number of generative AI and soon ‘agentic AI’ tools into our products and solutions.
A recent report by Tech UK makes the case:
“SMEs need to go digital, but the tools are often built for larger enterprises. Adoption is slow because it’s difficult and costly to recruit and develop in-house AI skills”.
I agree, however, it’s not just about technical adoption and skills; it's also about priority.
Listening to Founders and CEOs of SME tech-businesses who talk about the difficult challenges ahead, the AI conversation has to be had in the context of their more immediate needs, including commercialising innovation, generating sales, accessing the 'right' finance, and recruiting the right talent.
So, while the news headlines are about AI and the digital opportunity, the real question is:
How do they address their immediate growth challenges and gain velocity in their market?
A question that then unveils a common set of business needs, including:
- Building a high-quality and predictable sales pipeline.
- Securing funding at the right stage and under the best terms.
- Losing time (and sleep) over compliance and security.
- Successfully recruiting and developing the best talent
- Etc, etc.
And with growth targets typically more than 100% year-on-year, there’s little time for learning through trial and error.
In forthcoming posts, I’ll share practical ways SMEs can tackle these challenges - from building repeatable go-to-market tactics, to accessing the best strategic input, at the right time.
For now, I’d love to hear from you:
What’s the single biggest challenge your business is facing in 2026?
