The announcement comes at an auspicious time: the UK is experiencing its biggest productivity drop in over a decade. Technology like AI has the potential to transform our economy and significantly improve productivity.

A recent survey found that UK employers believe that AI has the potential to boost productivity by 44%, this was echoed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his pledged £118m of funding to ‘future-proof’ the UK’s AI skills base.

However, UK SMEs are not seizing on AI as rapidly as larger firms. According to recent government research 68% of large companies have incorporated at least one AI technology, but only 15% of SMEs have done the same. For many SMEs, AI technology feels unattainable because they don’t have the budget to invest in expensive solutions or the time to find and train new staff.

Ben Thompson, Founder of Employment Hero, commented: “Employment Hero is levelling the playing field for the first time. Technology isn’t elitist – it shouldn’t be reserved for businesses with cash to spend. SMEs make up 99% of all businesses; they contribute 50% of global GDP. It’s fundamentally wrong that they should fall behind on AI advancements just because they are small.

“I built Employment Hero to help these businesses grow and compete with big businesses when it comes to managing all aspects of employment. Now, thanks to AI, we can achieve that quicker than ever before,” continues Thompson.

In a bid to ‘level the playing field,’ Employment Hero has embedded next-gen AI technologies across the platform, accessible to SMEs as part of their package, at no additional cost. With a mission to make employment easier and more valuable for everyone, these updates are released as a way for SME owners to access the most advanced, innovative technologies at an affordable price.

Employment Hero currently serves 300,000 SMEs and two million employees globally. Conversations with customers have identified three key areas for enhancement: payroll, HR advice, and recruitment.

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK MD of Employment Hero, commented: “These are fundamental aspects of the employment lifecycle, and they are also the functions that have the most amount of admin.

“The average SME can spend up to 50k per year managing core employment tasks - that's equivalent to around 8% of their payroll. Employment Hero can save SMEs over £40k per year, while also increasing efficiency by 80%. It's a no brainer.”

Enhancements in key areas:

Payroll: With the introduction of advanced AI capabilities, Employment Hero empowers SMEs to automate payroll processing with unparalleled efficiency and accuracy. The AI is trained by experts with over 30 years of experience in managed payroll, enabling the world’s smartest AI for payroll.

HR Advice: The AI-powered chat-bot, HeroAI, significantly reduces time spent answering repeat questions from employees about workplace policies. The tool, which has natural language processing capabilities, analyses all workplace policies to provide direct, clear answers to employees within seconds.

Recruitment: Employment Hero’s talent matching tool, SmartMatch, breaks the traditional recruitment model by taking a predictive, proactive approach. Leveraging AI, SmartMatch analyses every existing role within a business and automatically lines up pre-vetted candidates in the talent pipeline. This removes the need for time-consuming and costly activities like paying for job ads, writing job descriptions, or sifting through CVs.

Advancements in AI arm SMEs with tools that can significantly elevate operations and employment experiences. Merely recognising AI's potential isn’t enough; businesses should actively adopt and integrate these tools to fully experience their advantages.