Boosting SME Survival Rate by enabling convenient and accessible Cash Flow Management via Artificially Intelligent Virtual Assistants.

通过人工智能虚拟助理实现方便易用的现金流管理，提高中小企业生存率。

• 批准号: 78064
• 金额: $ 25.04万
• 依托单位: ACTION ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=78064
• 关键词: Boosting; SME; Survival; Rate; enabling

COVID-19 has placed tremendous strain on many SMEs' finances. Falling demand has threatened commercial viability, especially for businesses with low cash reserves or unstable cash flows. 80% of SME failures are a result of cash flow problems. Deloitte's report 'COVID-19: Managing Cash Flow' (2020) highlighted the centrality of effective cash flow management to businesses' chances of surviving the pandemic.This project aims to provide a tool that makes it easy and quick for non-experts to understand and better manage their company's cash flow. The technology proposed makes cash flow management simpler, quicker, and more accessible for all SMEs. This will be achieved by building an artificially intelligent Virtual Assistant (VA) that is permanently on call for users via text or voice interfaces. Business owners can access the VA to interrogate their cash flow positions using normal, conversational language through a range of channels including instant messenger, Webchat, or via the phone using automatic speech recognition. Open banking integration will help pull information into one place. Market distribution will be via partnerships with existing suppliers of services to SMEs.The objective is to save thousands of UK businesses over a five-year period; this will be achieved by reducing the failure rates of the SMEs using the proposed service.The VA bypasses the need to use financial terminology because users can express themselves naturally. For example, a business owner may say: "I reckon a third of my clients are slow paying. Who are they and how long are they taking on average, and can you tell me what I'm owed?". Responses will be immediate, providing up-to-date information from both bank accounts and accounting packages - all presented back to users in everyday natural language. Business owners and managers can then take action or request more detail.

COVID-19 给许多中小企业的财务带来了巨大压力。需求下降威胁到商业生存能力，特别是对于现金储备低或现金流不稳定的企业而言。 80%的中小企业倒闭是由于现金流问题造成的。德勤的报告“COVID-19：管理现金流”（2020）强调了有效的现金流管理对于企业在大流行中生存的机会的中心作用。该项目旨在提供一种工具，使非专家能够轻松快速地了解和更好地管理公司的现金流。所提出的技术使所有中小企业的现金流管理变得更简单、更快捷、更容易实现。这将通过构建一个人工智能虚拟助手（VA）来实现，该助手通过文本或语音界面永久为用户待命。企业主可以通过即时通讯、网络聊天或使用自动语音识别的电话等一系列渠道，使用正常的对话语言访问 VA，询问其现金流状况。开放式银行集成将有助于将信息集中到一处。市场分配将通过与现有的中小企业服务供应商合作进行。目标是在五年内拯救数千家英国企业；这将通过降低中小企业使用拟议服务的失败率来实现。VA 无需使用金融术语，因为用户可以自然地表达自己的意思。例如，企业主可能会说：“我认为我的三分之一的客户付款速度很慢。他们是谁，他们平均花了多长时间，你能告诉我欠我什么吗？”。响应将是即时的，提供来自银行账户和会计包的最新信息 - 所有这些信息都以日常自然语言呈现给用户。然后，企业主和经理可以采取行动或请求更多详细信息。