Automation, Efficiency & Resilience: How Privately Held Businesses Can Seize Opportunity in 2026

Through market volatility, changing policy and economic pressure that affected businesses and individuals alike, the biggest lesson from 2025 was the importance of building economic resilience. While given industries were affected differently by — or found opportunity in — these economic factors, a resounding agent of change across the economy was the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

Looking back at top themes from this year can help business owners filter emerging trends and shed light on smart focal points for 2026.

Here are top themes that the Enterprise Bank & Trust team identified, each followed by areas of focus for privately held and family-owned businesses as you look forward and plan strategically for the new year:

Top Themes That Emerged and Focal Points Moving Forward:

1. AI dominated headlines and was widely adopted and integrated by consumers and businesses alike.

Far and away, artificial intelligence was the biggest topic for businesses of all sizes over the last year.

Adoption of AI technology has been uneven across the US economy to this point. For example, more than 30% of information technology and communication firms report that they use AI to produce goods and services, according to J.P. Morgan’s “Guide to the Markets.”*

Other sectors of the economy, however, have adopted AI at a much slower rate so far. Only 5% of manufacturing, transportation, construction and hospitality firms report that they use AI to produce goods and services at this point, according to the same report.

Some examples of how midsize businesses have incorporated AI into existing processes include:

• Reliance on AI for sales pipeline scoring, forecasting and risk analysis, among many other uses, made it one of the primary “analysts” for business decision-making
• AI supercharged sales and marketing at much lower cost, relatively speaking
• Even new AI-driven business models emerged (ex: content and design, customer service) and began eating away market share in a variety of industries

How will businesses use AI in 2026 and beyond?

Business investment in AI has grown exponentially over the past couple of years and this trend is very likely to continue for the foreseeable future as firms try to navigate a shrinking workforce population, improve efficiency within sales and operations functions, and improve the speed at which they tailor their product and service offerings to adjust to changes in consumer preferences and tastes.

There is also potential for a reset around the expectations of AI as businesses reconcile ROI and responsible, high-quality utilization of AI tools.

In 2026, the sectors that have lagged in AI adoption will certainly be increasing their investment into AI as the use cases for AI technology continue to expand and improve. This is also the case for organizations that have been slower to adopt AI for any of several reasons, from risk appetite to lack of strategy, that have had time to evaluate and pilot and will be ready to take next steps.

2. Fraudsters adopted AI tools, too. Comprehensive fraud prevention and cybersecurity measures were crucial to protecting businesses’ finances and data.

Unfortunately, fraudulent activities are increasingly difficult for consumers and businesses to spot without the use of fraud prevention technology. For more details on how AI is transforming fraud, read “Strengthen Your Business Against AI Fraud.”

Training staff on fraud-related risks helps limit the risk of becoming a victim of fraud, but, undeniably, fraudsters have access to a wide range of enhanced technology tools that can be used to perpetrate fraud in ways that are tough for people to identify.

Another consequence of AI adoption was greater vulnerability due to not only how a given business uses AI, but how its third-party vendors, partners and platforms it associates with also use these powerful technologies.

Businesses across size and industry are affected by fraud, but we are seeing fraudsters have more successful outcomes with smaller businesses with less sophisticated prevention and detection processes in place. Proper implementation of a process like dual authorization can prevent internal fraud risk, while tools such as Positive Pay are crucial to detecting schemes that stand the test of time, like check fraud.

What can businesses do to protect themselves from traditional and AI-powered fraud?

Investment in fraud prevention and detection is more important than ever.

The best way for businesses to offset this threat is to invest in technology specifically designed to keep fraud risk as low as possible. We have seen exponential growth in business investment into information security technology and this trend is set to continue into the future.

Businesses that do not periodically evaluate their fraud prevention plans to address evolving risks will be at a distinct disadvantage. Our Fraud Prevention Checklist is a tool to guide you and your team of advisors through a comprehensive audit, on an annual basis at a minimum, of the processes and systems in place to protect your business and your customers.

3. Financially resilient companies weathered changing policy and market volatility.

We saw more focus on prudent capital structures and pricing agility to weather the storm of uncertainty. Here's what that means:

• The most prudent businesses became much more cautious about over-leveraging and focused on flexibility
• There was a reduced appetite for speculative capex, unless it generated immediate or very near-term efficiency gains
• Increased bank M&A caused many disrupted clients to consider alternative relationships with a bank that better understand their business — this trend will continue into 2026.

Similarly, liquidity discipline drove the more dynamic businesses in a shift from more basic cash awareness to a truly defined liquidity strategy.

This was evidenced in:

• Weekly or even daily cash-flow visibility instead of monthly updates
• Emphasis on minimum cash floors, quick ratio management and stress buffers
• Increased attention on cash seepage within the business, creating a heightened focus on sweep structures, Treasury Management products and fraud prevention products

How can businesses boost efficiency and address pain points to become more resilient?

Due to inflation and tariff-driven supply chain pressures, we will see much greater attention on breaking down inventory management silos. We expect companies to emphasize:

• Integrating supplier portals for forecasting, purchase order updates and documentation
• Greater reliance on supplier performance dashboards to track lead times, defect rates and similar key performance indicators
• More vendor-managed inventory processes that place more responsibility on the vendor for monitoring, planning and replenishing a client's inventory

Labor availability remains one of the top operational constraints. We expect more focus on labor efficiency and capacity due to this short labor supply and growing workforce costs. To address this, forward-thinking companies will become more deliberate in:

• Upskilling line workers to operate semi-autonomous equipment
• Redesigning jobs so humans focus on skilled, high-value tasks while automation handles repetition
• Structuring compensation with broader ranges to better incentivize and retain high-performing value contributors at all levels
• Driving efficiency within internal AP/AR teams and processes, including reconciliation, to allow accounting/finance teams to allocate time to revenue generation

Companies that wish to separate themselves from the pack will emphasize operational and financial reporting, perhaps fanatically. This means these businesses will enjoy:

• Greater contract visibility and predictability of future cash flow
• Clean books and timely reporting for internal and external partners
• Proven pricing power with a diversified customer and supplier base

As your business develops its strategic plan for 2026 and beyond, working with your banker and other advisors can allow you to address areas of opportunity in a fiscally responsible way. With the full understanding of your financial picture, your team can take advantage of these opportunities to improve efficiency and financial resilience, to help you reach business and financial goals.