Small Business (SMB) stories

8x8 unveils AI Studio to let customer experience teams build agents with natural language, aiming to cut integration delays and costs.

Thryv has rolled out Thryv AI Lead Flow in Australia and New Zealand, aiming to help small businesses capture enquiries, score prospects and automate follow-up.

Actionstep and iManage team up to give midsize law firms a single workflow for matters, documents, governance and security.

SEO remains vital as AI reshapes search, with intent-led content, technical strength and clear strategy now key to online visibility.

Intuit appoints Xero veteran Matthew Miles as Head of Product for APAC as it steps up investment in Australia and wider Asia Pacific.

RMS adds direct bank payments through GoCardless as Australian hotels brace for Reserve Bank reforms that could ban card surcharges and lift merchant costs.

Moodi boosts Female Founder Fund with NZ and Australia grants, offering $15,000 to four women-led start-ups without equity or repayment.

Xero's Anthropic tie-up deepens finance software AI split as groups weigh integrated platforms against agent tools that work across multiple systems.

Zoom names Frank Skiffington as Head of Australia and New Zealand as the software group seeks deeper partner-led growth across ANZ.

Thryv says Australian and New Zealand small businesses need tidy websites, consistent listings and fresh reviews to win AI-driven recommendations.

PayPal brings payment links into Canva for 265 million users, letting creators, entrepreneurs and small firms sell from designs with QR codes and checkouts.

Trust Panda opens Auckland hub with local YubiKey stock for New Zealand buyers as phishing fears drive demand for stronger authentication.

Cloudflare and GoDaddy team up to give site owners more control over AI crawlers while backing open standards to verify agent identity.

MYOB and Microsoft strike five-year AI pact to bring cash-flow forecasts, compliance prompts and staff copilots to SMEs.

VITG broadens ANZ cyber offering with Security Centric deal and names founder Sash Vasilevski Chief Security Officer in combined group.

Synology extends BeeStation Plus with local camera monitoring for homes and micro-businesses, offering AI alerts and no subscription fees.

AI agents prompt accounting firms to redesign bookkeeping and tax workflows as junior staff tasks are automated and human oversight stays central.

Apograph's £60-a-month firewall plan helps clients dodge emergency refresh costs, cut downtime and strengthen security across 1,500 endpoints.

Ripple Treasury adds Digital Asset Accounts as finance teams get a single view of cash and crypto balances across banks, custody providers and onchain wallets.

Tech Data gains Microsoft Frontier Distributor status as Asia Pacific partners seek stronger cloud, security and training support.