The news: Huntington Bank launched an AI-powered banking platform to attract and strengthen relationships with small businesses, per a press release.

The 1866 Studio, powered by Google Gemini, uses AI agents to help small-business owners navigate registration and licensing, create marketing campaigns, and evaluate their readiness for financing. 

Non-customers can access the most basic level, which Huntington President Brant Standridge believes will be a customer acquisition tool, per Banking Dive.

Why it matters: Competition for small-business customers is stiff and extends beyond traditional deposit accounts and lending products. 

Banks and fintechs are expanding their offerings to become more deeply embedded in businesses' daily operations.

• Square refreshed its credit card and bill payment offerings to capture more of merchants' financial activity. It also expanded its small-business lending program to extend credit to 50% more eligible merchants.
• Fiserv and Western Alliance Bank also expanded access to Clover, illustrating how banks can use merchant technology partnerships to strengthen their small-business propositions.
• Global Payments introduced its Genius retail point-of-sale system, combining payment processing with inventory management, customer analytics, and promotional tools to become more embedded in merchants' daily operations.

Huntington's approach differs by targeting entrepreneurs before they need additional banking services. Rather than requiring an existing financial relationship, the bank is offering tools that can attract business owners during the earliest stages of launching and operating a company.

Implications for banks: Huntington's strategy could get the bank in front of small businesses earlier in their financial journeys—building loyalty among basic users of the new AI system.

Insights from those interactions could help Huntington offer relevant financial products to make a better case for switching banks or using more of Huntington’s services.

But attracting small-business owners early is only half the battle. Banks also have to overcome the complexity of switching financial institutions, which can involve moving deposits, updating vendor payments, transferring payroll, and redirecting recurring transactions. Banks need to make that transition as seamless as possible, offering dedicated onboarding support and tools that minimize administrative burdens and business disruptions. Otherwise, even a compelling value proposition may not be enough to convince business owners to switch.

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