Millions of viable small businesses remain underserved not because they lack economic activity, but because traditional financial systems struggle to see, assess and serve them efficiently. As AI, alternative data, digital lending and transaction-banking infrastructure improve, can financial institutions build a fundamentally different model for SME finance?

This session explores how financial institutions can use richer business data to understand SMEs, automate credit and working-capital decisions, and build scalable digital infrastructure that lowers the cost of serving smaller businesses. It will examine what is already working, what still prevents these models from scaling, and whether the next phase of financial inclusion will come not from creating more financial products, but from making previously invisible businesses visible and bankable.