Listen to today’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silk-logic-small-business-daily/id1841930957
Welcome back to Small Business Daily. Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories: a cross-section of AI agents moving from pilots to production, fintech tools reshaping SMB cash flow, and fresh funding for technologies that make AI safer and more useful.
Goldman Sachs taps Anthropic’s Claude to automate accounting, compliance roles
Read the full story | By Hugh Son | February 6, 2026
Goldman Sachs is co-developing autonomous agents with Anthropic to speed up trade accounting, reconciliation, client vetting, and onboarding—positioning AI as a digital co-worker for process-heavy functions. The bank expects faster client onboarding and quicker resolution of accounting issues, with the potential to trim third-party vendors over time. For businesses, it’s a signal that agentic AI is maturing in regulated workflows where precision and auditability matter.
Portal26 targets weak enterprise AI returns with new Value Realization platform
Read the full story | By Duncan Riley | February 6, 2026
Portal26 launched a Value Realization module to help organizations systematically improve AI ROI—boosting proof-of-concept-to-production rates, utilization, business impact, and cost control. Paired with its Shadow AI Discovery and GenAI Security offerings, the platform adds license intelligence and strategy to guide investments and agent development. Takeaway: treat AI like a portfolio with clear metrics, governance, and iterative deployment plans.
AI firms help patients by making diagnostics faster & way cheaper
Read the full story | By Alenjith K Johny | February 6, 2026
Hospitals across India are adopting AI for radiology, oncology, and ECG analysis—Tricog alone has analyzed nearly 33 million ECGs—cutting turnaround times and sometimes catching findings humans miss. Partnerships with startups like Harrison.ai and Qure.ai reflect a buy-vs-build shift amid data-access and privacy challenges under the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Act. For providers, AI can ease workforce constraints and improve patient flow without replacing clinical oversight.
Roli’s new AI Music Coach wants to teach people to play piano
Read the full story | By Stuart Dredge | February 6, 2026
Roli introduced AI Music Coach for its Airwave keyboard, blending chatbot-style guidance with camera-based hand tracking to personalize practice. A public beta is slated by the end of March, and the company emphasizes AI as a complement—not a replacement—to human teachers. Music educators and retailers should watch for new hybrid lesson models and engagement tools.
Goodfire raises $150M in funding to enhance its AI interpretability platform
Read the full story | By Maria Deutscher | February 5, 2026
Goodfire raised $150 million at a $1.25 billion valuation to expand its platform that maps how large language models make decisions—reducing hallucinations and surfacing design flaws from training to production. Its SPD method removes and tests model components to pinpoint what truly drives outputs, with early customer wins in healthcare diagnostics. This funding underscores growing demand for transparent, auditable AI as deployments scale.
AI startups positioned to transform India’s IT services, despite SaaS setbacks
Read the full story | By Rwit Ghosh | February 6, 2026
Lightspeed argues the fast-follower SaaS playbook no longer works in AI; instead, Indian startups are targeting automation of application build, implementation, and maintenance in the $283 billion IT services market. Expect consolidation as AI-first founders acquire legacy firms and use automation to expand margins, even as agentic AI from leaders like Anthropic and Palantir pressures incumbents. For buyers, the shift could mean faster delivery and new pricing models.
Agents are coming, and India’s IT is rushing to meet them
Read the full story | By Jas Bardia | February 6, 2026
Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, and Cognizant are partnering with specialist vendors to deploy AI agents across software development, analytics, and marketing, shifting from experiments to production-scale adoption. While clients may see better economics and speed, analysts expect mid-level, task-focused roles to be most disrupted. Net result: more agent-driven delivery and just-in-time hiring for specialized skills.
Bill Q2 earnings call highlights
Read the full story | By MarketBeat | February 6, 2026
BILL delivered 17% core revenue growth and an 18% non-GAAP operating margin, raised guidance, and leaned into agentic AI across vendor management, transaction coding, fraud, and support. Nearly 10,000 customers enabled its W-9 agent, with a goal to automate 3 million W-9s by year-end, while invoice financing and the new Cash Account are driving higher network spend. For SMBs, expect more automation in AP/AR and expanded working-capital options inside the platform.
73% of Microbusinesses Say Real-Time Payments Improve Cash Flow
Read the full story | By PYMNTS | February 6, 2026
Ad hoc, nonrecurring payments now dominate SMB receivables, pushing demand for instant rails—yet digital readiness and fees remain key barriers. Digitally forward sectors are far more likely to receive funds instantly, and 73% of microbusinesses cite better cash flow as the top reason to adopt faster payments. Action item: automate AR, integrate instant options, and negotiate fees to turn unpredictable inflows into usable working capital.
Together, these stories chart a clear arc: AI agents are moving from buzz to business impact—from bank-grade compliance to IT delivery and back-office finance—while instant payments and interpretability make the ecosystem faster and safer. For small businesses, the mandate is to modernize workflows, measure ROI ruthlessly, and plug into faster money movement—because in 2026, speed, trust, and transparency are the new competitive edge.
