𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A more automated, efficient future for business is pitched to us daily: one where technology streamlines routine processes and empowers teams to work faster and smarter. As AI adoption accelerates and unlocks new efficiencies, it must be seen as a lever to support business growth which we know is the core focus for many founders of the UK’s 5.7 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); whether that means expanding production, unlocking new export markets, or investing with confidence in a changing economy.

Real progress happens when digital efficiency and relationship banking work hand-in-hand, where smart automated tools provide speed and clarity, and experienced bankers bring the local context and judgment needed to fast-track a site expansion or structure a finance package tailored to a founder’s ambitions.

The reality in business banking is not that AI reduces the need for people, but that it changes where human skills matter most. As technology takes on more routine tasks, businesses are increasingly looking not just for return on investment, but a return on relationships: judgement, context and a deeper understanding of what they’re trying to achieve.

The shift has started, according to Amanda Murphy, CEO of Business & Commercial Banking at Lloyds, with technology changing the role of relationship managers (RMs) rather than diminishing it. “By eliminating the routine work — the processing, forms and data input — technology has brought about an important re-evaluation of what we actually expect from relationship managers.”

She argues that technology is enabling banks to be more responsive to the varying needs of businesses: “It’s about looking at things entirely from the client’s perspective,” Murphy says. “AI lightens the workload in areas like loan application forms, freeing up managers to forge a deep, local understanding of clients’ ambitions.”

Investment in AI, automation and data capabilities is helping banks deliver faster decisions and better insights, while freeing relationship managers to spend more time understanding and supporting their clients.

Putting boots back on the ground

Banks are proving so with headcount, not just words. Lenders have expanded their frontline staff for business banking. Lloyds alone is adding to grow its network of relationship managers by 50% by the end of 2027, adding 500 more RMs to communities across the UK.

This expansion combines the bank’s national scale with deeply localised relationship support, deploying regional specialists who intimately understand the business landscape of their area. Murphy claims the headcount matters less than what these specialists actually do with their time. “They’re on the road, visiting clients, walking factory floors, and understanding regional nuances,” she explains. “Visiting sites with owners provides a deep context to a business that’s far more valuable than hours spent poring over spreadsheets. Relationships matter more than ever.”

Banks have poured investment into innovation to smooth both day to day interactions and supporting things like speeding up credit approvals. Lloyds sees its investment in automation and digitisation as critical to delivering for customers at scale, helping remove friction from straightforward, predictable tasks that businesses want to complete quickly and digitally. A director managing cash flow, or handling daily operations simply wants fast, reliable technology to do the job. In turn, this strengthens the bank’s ability to provide relationship banking where it adds the greatest value.

Lloyds, for example, has developed ‘single view’ technology that gives relationship managers an instant, accurate picture of a client’s complete lending position. By eliminating manual data entry, this tool allows for quicker and safer lending decisions, while partnerships with fintechs like payment giant Stripe help clients collect revenues cost-effectively.

Navigating beyond the ‘happy path’

But businesses, Murphy concedes, don’t always stick to that happy path. When economic or political uncertainty jars its course, a dashboard can’t offer reassurance. “When a client is under pressure, they need speed, but also experienced supporters,” says Murphy. “That’s where the value of a strong banking relationship comes into its own.”

Crucially, this means keeping a human in the loop. While automated risk systems and algorithm-driven credit models provide a fast baseline, Lloyds ensures its relationship managers have the authority to challenge or override automated outcomes. If a computer-generated model flags a risk due to a temporary, seasonal dip in cash flow, an RM who knows the management team and local market can step in to correct the digital verdict, ensuring human judgement remains central to funding decisions.

This human filter is just as vital when turning the bank’s own data into a strategic business tool. Through a tie-up with Google, Lloyds puts its aggregated, anonymised payment data to work uncovering real-world insights for customers.

In one case, it helped a private medical practice work out where to open its next site by cross-referencing local spending patterns on health and wellness. In another, a major healthcare developer used the tool to analyse regional demographic and spending trends to identify the perfect locations for new care home facilities.

“The tech uncovers the data pattern,” Murphy says, “but the RM is there to challenge the models, understand the human context, and help the customer navigate it.”

Real judgment beats the balance sheet

That judgment perhaps helps most in complex lending, particularly for businesses with smaller internal finance teams and ambitious growth plans. Bristol Beer Factory, an independent craft brewery built around community impact, needed to scale production.

A £1.1 million Capital Import Finance and Hire Purchase package from Lloyds helped it open a new 12,000 sq ft facility, boosting its eco-friendly output and expanding its carbon-capture capabilities. “The brewery’s RM had championed the business for over a decade,” Murphy says. “They were able to look far beyond the balance sheet to tailor a finance package to match their cash flow needs. The expansion completely transformed their efficiency, increased output, and slashed costs.”

A similar pattern of long-term trust runs through McLaren Packaging, a Scottish multi-generation family business employing over 300 people in the manufacturing of premium, sustainable packaging solutions. It was a relationship Murphy experienced first-hand during a recent visit to their facility. After their relationship director supported the company through a decade of growth, Murphy says that “the financial director told me he views the relationship team as an extension of his own internal management team.”

So can Murphy ever envisage a time when business banking is entirely digitised? “I foresee a time when it is much more automated than it is today, and that shift will happen fast,” she says. Automation, in Murphy’s view, makes human judgement, sector knowledge and empathy more important, not less.

Ultimately, by automating routine paperwork and back-office admin, technology is giving relationship managers the gift of time, allowing them to step out from behind their desks and spend it where it matters most: with their clients.

“The future of business banking is actually more human,” the banking chief insists. “Growing businesses don’t want order-takers, but knowledgeable, empathetic banking managers with deep sector and local knowledge, who become a business’s strategic support. Technology will continue to strengthen and ease that relationship, but it will never replace it.”

All lending is subject to status. Relationship managers available for businesses with a turnover of £3m and over. Eligibility criteria apply. Lloyds Bank data correct as of April 2026. Figure includes clubs, charities and societies.

Lloyds and Lloyds Bank are trading names of Lloyds Bank plc. Registered Office: 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN. Registered in England and Wales no. 2065. Telephone: 0207 626 1500.

Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority under Registration Number 119278.