Re-Evaluation of Resource Dependence in AI Enabled SME Financing

SMEs are suffering from various financial constraints, mostly relying heavily on traditional financial institutions for their survival (Kadzima et al., 2025). Usage of Resource Dependence Theory (RDT), this paper is examining how AI is transforming small business funding by optimizing their internal resources and transitioning the firms from these immediate and short-term loans (Pérez-Campdesuñer et al., 2026; Wu & Liao, 2025). Advanced AI replaces the intuition-based decisions with precise and robust data, resulting in a significant increase in the firm's bargaining power while having credit negotiations and enabling their access to long term capital (Hamdouni, 2025; Sanga & Aziakpono, 2023). However, this work also highlights a paradox. While achieving towards financial autonomy, firms are also getting exposed to new constraints by shifting their reliance on the third-party software, technological infrastructures and opaque algorithms (Gaviyau & Godi, 2025; Suhrab et al., 2026). Digitization is also reshaping the structures of RDT instead of eliminating it completely (Yordanova & Hristozov, 2025). For a successful navigation of this whole shift, this paper is emphasizing that digital financial literacy and proper managerial competence is critical for a proper transition of AI outputs into strategic decisions, resulting into a robust governance and regulatory framework for sustainable development (Schrank & Kijkasiwat, 2025, p. 202; Tandilino et al., 2025).