Whitney McDonald 09:08:10
Hello and welcome to the FinAI podcast presented by FinAI News. Today is August 6, 2026. My name is Whitney McDonald, and I’m the editor of FinAI News. The FinAI podcast covers current trends and intriguing topics in AI application and beyond, making it your definitive source for insights and news surrounding AI and financial services. Joining the podcast is Chris Ward, EVP and head of U.S. Small Business Banking at TD Bank U.S. Thanks for being here, Chris.

Chris Ward 09:08:35
Sure, Whitney. Thanks for having me. So, Chris Ward, I am the head of small business banking at TD Bank here in the U.S. I’ve been in banking 36 years now. So I’ve done a number of jobs throughout my entire career, but I’ve always been focused on small business, either directly or indirectly. For about the past 16 years, I’ve been pretty much 100% on small business and business banking, and everybody defines small business differently, right? But you name it, I’ve been doing it whether it’s lending or sales strategy, marketing, product development, and grew up in a small business many, many moons ago. As a young person, my dad owned a construction company, home builder, down in South Florida. So I got to go out and pound nails and dig ditches during the summertime in between school, working for a small business. So I understand how important small business is. I love the whole concept of serving small businesses, so that’s what I do.

Whitney McDonald 09:09:36
That’s an interesting trajectory all the way back from growing up in family business to now serving small business is how you do today. Now we’re we’re kind of going to dive into a recent survey that you all conducted. We’re going to get into some of the nitty gritty, some of the findings here. But why don’t we first talk about, you know, the nature of the report, what you found, how are SMBs using and viewing artificial intelligence? Kind of break us into what you what you surveyed.

Chris Ward 09:10:06
Sure. So at TD Bank, this was our second year of doing a financial preparedness survey of small business owners in America, and we talked to 1000 small business owners, and we really hone in on our major markets here on the East Coast, so Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Miami, and we even look at the the regional differences and how small business owners feel like they’re prepared. How do they feel about the economy? Do they feel like they’re prepared for the economy? What are some of their challenges? And this year we threw in the topic of AI. Everybody’s talking about AI, and our small business owners use an AI. We had that same topic in the 25 survey. So from 25 to this year, 26 small business owners who are using AI went from 39% to 69% That was a dramatic increase. When you’re doing surveys to see something like that almost double in one year, means that the adoption rate for that service or that technology, in this case, that’s pretty profound. And then we started asking questions about what are you using AI for, and it wasn’t necessarily to reduce expenses. It’s actually quite the opposite. It was to improve customer service, that was 53% stronger fraud and cybersecurity protection, 47% and sales growth and/or marketing, 42% Those are the top three reasons why they’re investing in AI and adopting AI. Really, the stronger fraud and cyber security protection didn’t. It surprised me. It didn’t surprise me. Business owners and consumers were all being inundated with scams and frauds and and just these scary things that get in the way. And the fraudsters are highly sophisticated, and they’re using technologies just as much as anybody else. So I guess I should have expected that, but I was really surprised about sales sales growth, finding more customers, and marketing. So it puts AI in a different perspective. That a small business owner can leverage AI to help them grow their business, grow their revenues, and be more successful in their local communities, I thought that was a good story right there into itself.

Whitney McDonald 09:12:12
Yeah, thanks for pointing out those examples, and I kind of want to dive one one step deeper into so some of the application of AI and that idea of moving from experimentation, piloting, thinking about investing in AI to actual deployment, what change have we seen over the past year in terms of SMBs actually being able to like touch, feel, use AI?

Chris Ward 09:12:38
Well, being more responsive to their customers, so utilizing chatbots as a small business owner, they haven’t had access to stuff like that. That’s usually for a large company, like for an Amazon, but for small business owners using chatbots 24/7, automated email responses, FAQs, and being more responsive, which is a real challenge. Because remember, a small business owner is usually the chief marketing officer, the chief sales officer, and also the person that actually talks to the clients all the time too. So it allows them to be more effective and efficient with their time, and thus take care of their customers better. So that’s just one example on the customer service side. On the marketing side, small business owners are utilizing AI to create social posts, to email, to create ads and blogs, images, and leverage social media and other types of digital advertising. That’s a untapped resource for small business owners because normally they wouldn’t be able to afford that in the past. They’d have to go outside and hire an external marketing company. Now they can do a lot of that themselves. So you think about those two topics: customer service and marketing. What an untapped opportunity for small business owners to grow their business and to be more responsive, and quite frankly, to be able to compete with some of the bigger businesses, which is interesting.

Whitney McDonald 09:13:55
Yeah, that competition component that that was tacked on there at the end. It’s not really an option these days to not be on socials and not have an active presence there. But again, that takes resources and money, and if you can use AI to promote your brand and and be active on socials, it kind of opens up a whole new door. Now, within TV itself, as as head of small business banking, what are you seeing in terms of demand from your clients for AI-driven tools? Maybe you can tell me a little bit about the demand, but also a little bit about the innovation.

Chris Ward 09:14:28
Yeah. So backing up just a second. Back to our financial preparedness survey. The other thing that came through is a big chunk of the small business owners told us they want financial advice and they want a financial advisor who understands their business and not to sell more products, not to give them more loans. They need loans. They need working capital. Not to give them a checking account or a credit card. They need all those things. That’s taken for granted. But to help them by understanding their business and help them solve their challenges to their business, because we know this: operating a small business is really complex nowadays. Between inflation, uncertain economic times, taxation rules, local compliance and regulatory rules, it’s tough to be a small business owner, so we found that giving tools to our business customers to help them manage their cash flow is more important than ever. And let’s be honest: when you grow sales really fast as a small business owner, that will have a tendency to grow your expenses as well, which compresses your cash flow margin, compresses your net profit. So, small business owners who leverage online accounting-we have an online accounting program, TD Online Accounting, or QuickBooks or Xero, one of those type of companies. We can plug into those things with this thing called the Small Business Dashboard. Small Business Dashboard is a cash flow management tool that allows our clients to have insights and can even forecast their future cash flow needs. It even allows them to go and benchmark versus other businesses that are in the same industry. So creating more digital tools, whether it’s on their laptop, their tablet, or their mobile, is so critical now because small business owners don’t sit in an office; they’re out at a customer’s house fixing the attic, or fixing the HVAC, or helping them by putting a pool in. So they have to have mobile access to these tools as well. So they’re really looking for guidance. They’re looking for information, and they’re looking for somebody who can help them manage their cash flow more intelligently.

Whitney McDonald 09:16:30
No, I’ll push that question one step further. Where can AI fit into the cash flow management tool?

Chris Ward 09:16:36
Well, AI can help them and help us as well by taking data and creating insights off that data, and that’s something we absolutely are looking into for the future to see if we can do that in a way that gives us access to better information, so we can communicate to that client, but still complement the human touch, still complement that financial advisory role that we want all of our bankers to occupy.

Whitney McDonald 09:17:03
Now, this next question may have been answered in that last response encompassed, but I’ll I’ll say it anyway. How does AI improve the banking relationship between SMBs and banks, whether specifically TD or based on the broader survey? But how can AI help bridge this gap?

Chris Ward 09:17:23
That’s a great question, actually. From a banker’s point of view, what a great way to prep before you proactively outreach to that business owner and talk to them, whether for the first time or for the 10th time, and prepare so you go into that conversation really well versed about the type of business, what the business does, how the business is creating their value proposition, their marketing online. I think doing your homework before you show up is so critical today, and it also allows you to be more knowledgeable. So when you go in there, you could prepare by asking the right type of questions about that business. So what type of questions should you ask a plumbing business versus what type of questions should you ask a restaurant? Two very different businesses, different needs. So you need to be more specific. With the questions, you can go in there and have an intelligent conversation. What a great way to do that! AI absolutely helps us today doing things like that,

Whitney McDonald 09:18:16
offering that that little push of personalization.

Chris Ward 09:18:21
Absolutely, the more we understand the business, the more we know about the business, the better job we can do as bankers, as a as a relationship manager to support that business and to help them grow.

Whitney McDonald 09:18:33
Now, based on the the financial preparedness survey, obviously being a financial institution, you also are collecting data constantly. How do you determine where to innovate, what new solutions to come out with, how to meet SMBs where they are.

Chris Ward 09:18:50
So what we do at TD Bank is two pronged. First and foremost, we do a lot of roundtables with our frontline bankers. So the voice of the bank colleague. We want to hear from them, the ones that are talking to the small business owners, what’s working, what’s not working, and how can we make their jobs better. What tools can we give to them? Training that we can give them, technology we can give to them, so they can do a better job of helping their their real customer, the small business owner. That’s number one. We start there. Number two, we do a lot of small business seminars, networking. I was just in Boston two weeks ago, and we held the TD Bank Business Summit at the TD Garden, and I was able to talk about the financial preparedness survey, and we did talk about how business owners are now leveraging AI and some of the ways that AI can help them. So that was just one topic among many. But we also do roundtables with our business customers, and we ask them when we’re putting together an idea, maybe a new solution, a new product, a new service. We’ll ask them for their input before we go to market. I think it’s really important we get both the the frontline colleagues’ information and input, and also the actual business customers’ insights and information.

Whitney McDonald 09:20:05
Okay. Now I wanted to talk a little bit about adoption. What tools or solutions that are AI-driven are your clients latching onto? I know that you mentioned a couple of them and and some of a future look, but but what’s what are you seeing in terms of what your SMB clients are putting in their hands?

Chris Ward 09:20:24
Well, first and foremost, they got to go back to why they need AI or why they need technology in general, and with our financial preparedness survey, number one was improving customer service and being responsive. Because once again, small businesses are are competing against medium businesses and big businesses in many cases. Number two is improving fraud and cybersecurity protection. And when you click on the wrong thing in an email that’s sent to you, and you don’t know what that email is for. You could go down a really dangerous rabbit hole, as we know. Increasing sales, increasing leads, supporting employees, and helping your employees become more effective and efficient. That’s actually a really big topic, because the number two concern, generally speaking, for small business owners is they can’t find enough quality labor to hire, and small business owners are hiring at a faster clip in this economy for the past 10 years than big businesses. So they’re searching for quality labor. So with the employees they currently have, how do you make them more effective, more efficient, more educated, and more responsive? AI is a fantastic tool for that, as we know.

Whitney McDonald 09:21:30
Now I wanted to get a little bit of a forward look here, and maybe you can share with me a little bit about what your focus is. We’re into the second half of 2026. You’ve got this report under your belt now to lean on. I assume that you’re going to do the report again next year. But what are you? What’s your focus for for the rest of the year, and maybe even heading into 27 in terms of serving your small business clients?

Chris Ward 09:21:56
Well, we’re continuing to refine our value proposition. So we’re continuing to look at what type of online and mobile technology and tools and solutions we need to provide for our clients. We’re constantly trying to innovate and become more effective and efficient at delivering products. So let me give you an example: how you take a small business loan application in today’s environment, whether that’s a conventional application or an SBA Small Business Administration application, can be very cumbersome, very paper administrative intensive. So we’re looking at creating a better digital lending experience, not just the application, but from the application all the way to signing the closing documents. So we’ve been deploying a couple of tools going down that path, and we’re continuing to look at more tools, of which how can AI help us with taking applications, with making credit decisions, and with even delivering loan documentations in a digital format, I think there’s a lot of opportunity just in that alone. Whether it’s a home mortgage, a car loan, or a small business loan, and when you’re dealing with SBA lending, that’s that could be very complex because you have now the government; they’re all their rules. So I certainly believe that the digital enablement for that, and it enhances the human experience. So technology is a part of the solution, and how do we take AI tools and technology with great employee training, great talent development, in a true relationship banking type of way? I think there is a secret recipe there.

Whitney McDonald 09:23:32
Obviously, based on the survey results and the discussion so far, SMBs are interested in AI and adopting the technology. But what will it take to push the adoption even further?

Chris Ward 09:23:44
I think the the one thing that small businesses are struggling with a lot of small business owners are between 60 and 65, so they’ve adopted technology. They weren’t natural, native to technology. So I think part of this for small business owners is hiring people that can help them that are very technology savvy, because we know this. The average age of a small business owner, once again, is about 62, 63. So think about that. They they were out there in the business world operating before there was an iPhone. They remember Blackberries. They remember pagers. Okay, AI is could be a scary thing if you don’t have that technology savvy adoption type of behavior. So I think hiring people who know what they’re doing to bring them on board to help a small business is probably a need that needs to be figured out.

Whitney McDonald 09:24:38
You’ve been listening to the FinAI podcast presented by FinAI News. Please follow us on X and LinkedIn, and as a reminder, you can rate this podcast on your platform of choice. Be sure to visit us at finiews.com for more AI news. Thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai