Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday business for small and medium-sized enterprises across the UK, opening up new opportunities while creating a growing set of compliance and reputational challenges.
According to figures cited by UK PR platform JournoLink, AI adoption among small businesses has more than doubled, rising from 22% in 2025 to 47% today. For SMEs, tools capable of drafting marketing copy, creating social media content and developing PR campaigns can provide access to capabilities that were once largely available only to businesses with significant marketing resources.
But greater access to AI also brings greater responsibility.
JournoLink is encouraging SMEs to embrace the technology while ensuring that AI-generated content is subjected to proper human review before it is published or distributed.
“Businesses should absolutely embrace AI,” said Angus Hay, Director of JournoLink. “It is genuinely transformational — helping small businesses create better content, reach the right audiences, and compete on a completely different level. The message is not ‘be afraid of AI’; it is ‘use AI intelligently and strategically’.”
One of the risks is that businesses may treat AI-generated material as if it were automatically accurate. AI systems can produce convincing language that contains unsupported claims, incorrect statistics or information that cannot be independently verified.
For businesses using AI in marketing and communications, this can create several potential problems. Claims such as “guaranteed results”, for example, need to be supported before they are published. AI-generated testimonials and endorsements must also reflect genuine customer experiences rather than invented material.
Statistics and other factual claims present another potential blind spot. Information can appear authoritative while having no identifiable or reliable source behind it, making verification an important part of the content-production process.
Data protection is also an important consideration. SMEs need to think carefully about what customer, employee or commercially sensitive information is entered into AI systems, particularly where public or third-party models are involved.
JournoLink’s approach is to treat AI-generated material as a starting point rather than a finished publication. Its VOLT engine, which assists users in drafting press releases and generating PR suggestions, incorporates editorial oversight so that users review content before it is distributed to the media.
For small businesses without dedicated legal, compliance or communications teams, this human-in-the-loop approach can be particularly important. AI can significantly reduce the time required to produce content, but businesses remain responsible for what they ultimately publish.
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in SME marketing and communications, the challenge is therefore not whether businesses should use the technology, but how they use it responsibly.
The most effective approach may be to combine the speed and capabilities of AI with human judgement, fact-checking and an understanding of the rules governing commercial communications.
For SMEs, the principle is straightforward: **AI can help create the message, but the business remains responsible for the final one.
