For small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution represents both the most profound challenge in decades and the greatest opportunity.
“How do you leverage technology to jump over the potholes that are out there for SMBs? How do you create a drone that’s going to fly over the experience and get you where you need to go?” René Lacerte, CEO and founder of BILL, told PYMNTS during a discussion for the 2025 “What’s Next in Payments” series, “November: The Year of the CEO.”
That “drone” is a stand-in for AI and other technology that can leapfrog traditional inefficiencies instead of merely patching them.
“If I asked SMBs what they wanted, they would say A, B and C,” Lacerte said. “Our job as technologists is to say, you don’t need A, B and C anymore, because we’re going to get you straight to D with the drone. And that’s the AI implication.”
The CEO of BILL talks about entrepreneurs not as market segments but as the backbone of communities.
“They’re the glue behind many communities … the creative spark, whether that’s a favorite restaurant or clothing store. It’s also where people work in a community,” Lacerte said.
And up and down the Main Street backbone, the influx of AI-powered capability is redrawing competitive lines, compressing innovation cycles, and democratizing tools for SMBs that were once the exclusive domain of global corporations.
Reinvention as Leadership DNA
If there’s a recurring theme in Lacerte’s leadership philosophy, it’s reinvention. The need for constant evolution, accelerated by technology and macroeconomic shocks, has defined his approach to leading BILL through what he described as “an intensity of change” unlike anything he’s seen before.
“Any word you can think of with ‘re’ — reinvent, reframe, reengage — this is what’s happening right now,” he said. “The world went from COVID, to supply chain issues, to shifting government policies, and now to AI.”
Each disruption forced companies to adapt faster, to stay fluid in both mindset and structure.
“If you’re not prepared for change, if you actually resist change, that is when you fail. … You have to have endurance,” Lacerte said. “You have to rely on your vision and your leadership. And you have to develop those skills each and every day.”
In the age of AI, this ethos of continuous reinvention has taken on new urgency.
“AI is going to be a big innovation tool for companies like us,” he said, highlighting AI not as a threat but as an inflection point. “It’s going to be great for SMBs.”
Balancing Short-Term Pressures With Long-Term Vision
Still, every new opportunity carries the temptation of distraction.
“You’ve got all this stuff coming in, right? What are you not going to do?” Lacerte said. “The hardest decisions are always around what not to do.”
After all, for CEOs, the art of leadership can often come down to balance: managing the immediate while planning for the far horizon.
“There’s only two people in the world that think about their kids’ happiness 50 years from now,” he said. “That’s the parents. The analogy is true for executives. … There’s only a handful of people that have thought about BILL 50 years from now, how to make sure BILL is going to be successful long after I’m gone.”
That durability, for Lacerte, begins with fundamentals: empathy for customers and employees alike.
“Durable businesses really survive because they’re built that way from day one,” he said. “You can’t turn a bad business into a durable business. A durable business has always been durable. … It’s always about listening to the customer, having empathy for the employee experience. … You’ve got checkpoints every mile that you’ve got to make.”
Ultimately, Lacerte believes leadership is inseparable from culture.
“Nobody talks 20 years from now about how much they were paid. They talk about what they built, the team they worked on, and whether they liked doing it.” He said, “People don’t just work for a paycheck. They work with their heart and soul when they actually love the job they’re doing.”
Building the Intelligent Platform for the Future
Looking ahead, Lacerte envisions BILL becoming what he called “the intelligent financial operations platform for SMBs,” noting that AI could soon make financial management nearly invisible.
“A year or two from now,” he said, “there could be a touchless experience for an SMB, so they don’t have to think about financial operations, and workflows can manage themselves. That’s ultimately what we all want.”
For Lacerte, this isn’t just about automation; it’s about empowerment. When technology handles the mundane, humans can return to creativity. That vision, of a seamless, intelligent platform humming quietly in the background of small business life, captures the blend of technical ambition and human empathy that defines BILL’s brand.
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/