Business

In the bustling marketplace, small businesses constantly strive to stand out. Competing against larger corporations with vast resources often feels like an uphill battle, especially when it comes to creating tailored customer experiences. Historically, deep personalisation required significant manpower and investment, often placing it beyond the reach of smaller players. However, the rapid advancement and increasing accessibility of AI are rewriting this narrative, offering small and medium-sized businesses powerful new tools to understand and connect...

For years, online casinos have been the digital equivalent of fluorescent-lit rooms with no clocks, an endless scroll of games that looked fun enough until you tried to withdraw your winnings and realized it was easier to get a refund from an airline. The basic idea hasn’t changed in decades: play fast, lose faster, and don’t ask too many questions. But lately, there’s been a quiet shift. A new breed of gambling platform is emerging...

Conversational AI platform Manychat has raised $140 million in growth capital to accelerate its global expansion and enhance its AI-driven solutions for customer engagement. The round was led by growth equity firm Summit Partners and brings the company’s total funding to $163.3 million since its founding in 2015. Manychat helps more than one million businesses across over 170 countries automate and personalise conversations with customers on major social and messaging platforms including Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp,...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will travel to Washington this week to make the case for global free trade at the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings, as Britain faces mounting pressure from punitive tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. Reeves will use the high-profile forum — attended by global finance ministers and central bankers — to stress the importance of open trade for economic resilience and growth, both in the UK and worldwide. According to a...

Fuel Ventures has led a £3 million investment round in 51toCarbonZero, a fast-growing climate-tech platform helping businesses transition to net zero while driving operational performance. The round, which included support from angel investors, builds on Fuel Ventures’ previous backing and reflects the company’s strong growth trajectory. 51toCarbonZero’s cloud-based platform helps organisations measure, manage and reduce their carbon emissions, supporting a wide range of sectors including advertising, entertainment, logistics, automotive, finance, food and beverage, and sport....

Small and local businesses across the UK are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to boost productivity and efficiency, according to new research that highlights the technology’s growing appeal for time-poor entrepreneurs. A study led by Professor Ross Brown at the University of St Andrews Business School found that UK SMEs using AI tools could achieve productivity gains of between 27 and 133 per cent. The findings, based on interviews with nearly 10,000 businesses conducted...

More than eight million people will find themselves paying higher rates of income tax by the end of the decade due to the long-term freezing of tax thresholds, according to the UK’s official forecaster. In projections released alongside the March spring statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that 8.3 million people would be pulled into the tax system or pushed into higher tax bands by 2029-30 as a result of so-called fiscal drag...

The UK government has been accused of “sabotaging” its own tourism industry after new figures revealed that international visitor spending fell by more than £2 billion in 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels, despite a global recovery in travel. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), overseas visitors spent £40.3 billion in the UK last year, a 5.3 per cent drop from 2019. The council warned that the shortfall reflects deliberate policy decisions that...

The pound climbed to its highest level in seven months on Tuesday and gold prices surged to a record high above $3,500 per ounce, as investors dumped equities in favour of traditional safe-haven assets amid deepening fears over US political interference in monetary policy. Sterling briefly broke above $1.34 against the dollar — its highest since September — before easing to $1.338. Against the euro, the pound gained 0.12 per cent to reach €1.163, on...

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has defended the government’s proposed Employment Rights Bill, dismissing warnings from business leaders that it would place undue pressure on employers already dealing with tax hikes and rising wage costs. Speaking to The Times, Nowak argued that the bill was long overdue and aimed at ending exploitative workplace practices. “This is about weaning a layer of employers off low-paid, insecure employment,” he said. “We need...