(This column originally appeared in Accounting Today)
1. Revolutionary Intuit/OpenAI partnership
Intuit has announced a $100 million partnership with OpenAI to integrate its financial products — TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks and Mailchimp — directly into ChatGPT. This move represents one of the largest enterprise adoptions of generative AI, enabling millions of users to manage taxes, credit, business finances and marketing through natural conversation inside ChatGPT. The partnership signals a transformative moment in financial technology, merging Intuit’s financial expertise with OpenAI’s conversational AI. It positions ChatGPT as a hub for personal and business financial management.(Source: CryptoRank)
Why this is important for your firm and clients: ChatGPT already gives you the ability to connect many other business applications like Slack, Gmail, Outlook and Dropbox. Continuing down that path, the platform is now linking to accounting systems. According to Intuit, users can ask questions and complete complex financial tasks such as IRS filing or managing business finances through natural conversation with ChatGPT. Via user permission, Intuit’s apps will access financial data to offer personalized assistance with tax preparation, financial decision making, and streamlining of business operations.
2. Lili unveils new data from Accountant AI
Small-business banking platform Lili’s “Accountant AI” has revealed that over half of small-business owners’ financial questions are about taxes. The data was based on 1,200 Lili customers who consulted the program’s Accountant AI, which provides instant recommendations and guidance for business owners about their finances. Just over half of the questions asked (52%) were specifically about taxes — choosing the right structure, reducing deductions and lowering liabilities. Within this group, 27% of the questions addressed the right tax structure and reductions. Nearly 20% of inquiries related to capital raising, budgeting and growth, showing a desire for long-term planning beyond tax concerns. Audit anxiety is evident, with 16% of questions focused on understanding and avoiding audits. (Source: Yahoo Finance)
Why this is important for your firm and clients: I’m not surprised, considering that taxes can bite into 20–30% of a small-business owner’s income. Good accountants should be choosing and having their clients leverage AI to research tax questions on their own … and then implement those suggestions (after verifying, of course).
3. Microsoft Teams will rat you out
Microsoft Teams rolled out a new feature his month that can automatically notify managers when employees are in or out of the office by tracking their connection to workplace Wi-Fi. When an employee steps away, Teams automatically updates their work location status. In the interest of privacy, this new feature is off by default — tenant admins have the options to enable it and employees must opt in. As more companies push for in-person work, this tool gives managers an easy way to see who’s physically present. However, it also raises privacy and trust concerns for employees wary of being tracked. (Source: Mashable)
Why this is important for your small business: Turn this off and keep it off. Don’t do this with your employees. Treat them like grownups. As long as they’re getting their work done and meeting expectations, it’s irrelevant where they’re doing the work.
4. 3 in 10 companies plan to replace workers with AI
Resume-writing firm AI Resume Builder released results from a survey about AI’s impact on employment, which showed that three in 10 U.S. companies plan to replace workers with AI in 2026, with manufacturing among the industries most likely to see layoffs. Results show that 59% of leaders anticipating layoffs said AI will replace at least 10% their workforce, while 10% of respondents expect AI to replace half or more of their workforce. According to the report, the industries most at risk are information technology, software, financial services, accounting, HR, manufacturing and retail. Placing the data into context, U.S. employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October, a 175% increase year over year, with AI cited as the second leading cause after cost-cutting. Among private sector employers, cost-cutting was the primary reason for job cuts, leading to 50,437 announced layoffs. AI was the second most cited factor in the private sector, triggering 48,414 job cuts. (Source: Manufacturing Dive)
Why this is important for your firm and clients: I don’t believe this survey. Big companies are finding ways to replace some — some — employees with AI specifically in customer service and software development. Short of that, I don’t predict AI getting so much better in 2026 that employers will literally be relying on this technology to do work in lieu of workers. It’s just not that great … yet. A year from now I do think things will change and certain parts of agentic AI will start competing with workers. But saying that 30% of companies (that’s about 10 million businesses) are going to replace workers with AI is a bad bet.
5. Salesforce’s Benioff abandons ChatGPT for Gemini
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has publicly declared that he is abandoning OpenAI’s ChatGPT in favor of Google’s newly launched Gemini 3, calling the leap in capability “insane” and saying he’s “not going back.” Highlighting Gemini 3’s speed, reasoning ability and multimodal features (handling text, images and more seamlessly) as reasons for the switch, Benioff’s reaction went viral, with over 1 million views. Other tech leaders — including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and AI researcher Andrej Karpathy — have also praised Gemini 3’s performance, suggesting it represents a major leap in AI. Benioff’s strong endorsement underscores how quickly the AI landscape is shifting. Benioff’s move away from ChatGPT to Gemini 3 signals that Google’s latest model may have achieved a breakthrough that could reshape enterprise adoption and investor confidence. (Source: Business Insider)
Why this is important for your firm and clients: Benioff isn’t alone. Many in the tech community are blown away by the speed and capability of Google’s latest AI platform. OpenAI once owned this space, but it didn’t take long for the competition to appear and even surpass its capabilities. This will be an interesting race to watch over the next few years. It will all depend on partnerships, integration, ease of use and — oh, right — the actual value of the various chatbots competing for our attention.
6. Microsoft drops M365 Copilot price for SMBs
As of Dec. 1, 2025, Microsoft is lowering the price of Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business for small and midsized companies while also expanding access to Copilot Chat at no extra cost. The new cost of $21 a month per user is down from $30 and applies to organizations with 300 or fewer employees. Copilot — which is now integrated into Microsoft apps (Excel, Word, Outlook) — reflects efforts to make AI tools more accessible to smaller businesses, a segment often sensitive to subscription costs. This move signals Microsoft’s push to broaden adoption of AI in the workplace, especially among SMBs that may have hesitated due to cost. The company stated in its blog, “We heard from smaller companies that they wanted a version that would fit their needs and budgets … so we’re making that happen.” (Source: Computerworld)
Why this is important for your firm and clients: It’s a bad move. For starters, I really don’t think many organizations are going to change their buying decisions because they’re saving $9 per month. Secondly it almost admits that their AI assistant isn’t competitive with others and, by lowering the price, they’re only reinforcing that position. In my opinion, Microsoft shouldn’t be charging anything for this product. Just embed it everywhere and make it so good that users can’t live without it, or the Microsoft applications they’re actually paying for.
7. Intuit SMB MediaLabs audiences now on Trade Desk
Intuit has announced that its SMB MediaLabs — a “first-of-its-kind” advertising network — audiences are now available on The Trade Desk platform, giving advertisers new ways to reach small and mid-market businesses with more precision and scale. SMB MediaLabs leverages proprietary data from QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and other Intuit services. (Source: Intuit)
Why this is important for your small business: According to Intuit, by integrating with The Trade Desk, advertisers can more effectively connect with SMB decision-makers through improved campaign performance (tailored messaging to SMBs). Intuit positions itself as a data partner for advertisers, not just a software provider. This collaboration bridges a gap between advertisers and SMBs, giving brands a more direct line to business buyers while ensuring data privacy and compliance.
8. LinkedIn launches integrations to boost LinkedIn events
LinkedIn has introduced new event management integrations with ON24 and Cvent — a third-party event manager — along with enhanced ad tools, to help businesses boost engagement and lead generation from LinkedIn-hosted events. Per LinkedIn, event ads on average fuel 31% more viewership. ON24 will allow event creators to manage webinars directly in ON24 while simultaneously launching LinkedIn events. Users of Cvent can synch their event data with LinkedIn, enabling retargeting of high-intent audiences and personalized messaging based on event engagement. “Regardless of whether the event is hosted on LinkedIn or not, marketers can now go to the company or event page … to reach more people,” LinkedIn said. (Source: Social Media Today)
Why this is important for your small business: Helpful tools for businesses working with these event platforms. I don’t see why you wouldn’t get this setup, right?
9. Study: 71% of data breaches hit small businesses
Swiss company Proton released the findings from its Data Breach Observatory, showing that 71% of data breaches in 2025 targeted small businesses, exposing over 300 million user records. Offering services that help protect online privacy, Proton’s report underscores the vulnerability of small businesses due to limited cybersecurity resources. Of the 800 attacks that occurred in 2025, 23% of those were on companies with fewer than 10 employees and 48% were companies with between 10–250 employees. One of the main reasons small businesses are targeted is hackers see them as low-hanging fruit because of their limited cybersecurity budgets. Fewer employees means fewer defenses and more vulnerability to human error. Extensive employee training and investing in cybersecurity tools — even on a tight budget — can prevent costly breaches. (Source: Tech.co)
Why this is important for your firm and clients: I try to include articles like this regularly to remind readers that run small businesses how important it is to invest in security. Doing otherwise can shut your operations down and create significant costs. The №1 cause of security breaches is employee mistakes, so no matter what security platforms you use, it’s just as important to get your employees (and yourself) regularly trained on the most recent threats. One click is all it takes to download a malware bot that wreaks havoc.
10. The 10 best AI chatbots for small-biz websites
Open PR ranked the top 10 AI chatbots for small-business websites in 2026, focusing on features like automation, customer engagement, affordability and ease of integration. Leadie.ai makes the list for small service businesses looking to convert website visitors into qualified leads. The chatbot engages visitors in real time and retrieves contact details only from serious prospects. Tidio’s chatbot Lyro can answer up to 70% of common questions and was given a 4.7 rating out of 5 for ease of use. ManyChat automates conversations across social media platforms, turning them into actionable leads/bookings. ManyChat is used by 1.5 million businesses in over 170 countries. Chatbase allows businesses to construct their own chatbots that are trained on internal data and/or website content, creating a query assistant almost instantly. For the entire list, visit the link. (Source: openPR)
Why this is important for your small business: If you’re looking to put an AI chatbot on your website to answer visitors’ questions, there’s never been a better time. The tools are extremely affordable and work well. Also worth considering are the tools offered by your customer relationship management platforms. Mainstream CRM applications like Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot and Dynamics offer their own chatbots that are already integrated with your CRM data.
