Barclays Partners with ExpectAI to Explore AI-Driven Sustainability Insights for UK SMEs

Barclays Partners with ExpectAI to Explore AI-Driven Sustainability Insights for UK SMEs

(IN BRIEF) Barclays has entered into a collaboration with ExpectAI to explore how artificial intelligence can help UK small and medium-sized businesses improve profitability while advancing sustainability goals. From early 2026, Barclays will test ExpectAI’s Una platform, which uses AI to create digital twins of SME operations and deliver actionable insights on carbon profiles, energy efficiency, and implementation pathways. The initiative will assess whether AI-driven sustainability insights can translate into measurable improvements in productivity, cost efficiency, and competitiveness, supporting Barclays’ wider strategy to work with clients on their transition and scale climate technology.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 17-Dec-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — Barclays has announced a new collaboration with ExpectAI, a technology company focused on applying artificial intelligence to help small and medium-sized enterprises improve profitability while advancing sustainability goals. The initiative forms part of Barclays’ broader efforts to work alongside clients as they navigate the transition to a lower-carbon economy and build long-term resilience.

Barclays is increasingly using artificial intelligence across its own operations to improve efficiency, enhance productivity, and strengthen client service. Through this collaboration, the bank is exploring how AI-driven tools can also support SME customers by linking sustainability insights directly to business performance and commercial outcomes.

SMEs play a central role in the UK economy, accounting for around half of private-sector turnover and employing approximately 60 percent of the workforce. Improving energy resilience while reducing emissions is therefore critical to the country’s economic transition. This initiative will examine whether advanced AI technologies can make sustainability improvements both practical and financially attractive for smaller businesses.

From early 2026, Barclays will begin testing ExpectAI’s Una platform using publicly available data. The AI-powered platform creates digital twins of SME operations, generating clear and actionable insights. Una is designed to provide businesses with adaptive carbon profiles, tailored energy-efficiency recommendations, and access to verified solution providers and funding partners to support implementation.

The testing phase will assess how the platform could create tangible value for UK-based SMEs, including whether AI-generated insights can help convert sustainability opportunities into measurable gains in productivity, cost efficiency, and overall competitiveness.

Daniel Hanna, Group Head of Sustainable and Transition Finance at Barclays, said the collaboration reflects the bank’s belief that AI platforms will play an increasingly important role in sustainability-related decision-making. He noted that the initiative aims both to support the growth of an emerging climate technology company and to help clients better understand how sustainability initiatives can drive business value.

Anand Verma, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ExpectAI, said the collaboration aligns closely with the company’s mission to help SMEs become more profitable, productive, and sustainable. He highlighted Barclays’ long-standing focus on supporting SMEs and its commitment to helping clients through the transition as key reasons for partnering on the initiative, adding that ExpectAI looks forward to demonstrating the potential value for UK businesses.

The collaboration with ExpectAI supports Barclays’ climate ambition as set out in its Transition Update and reflects its approach of working with clients on their transition, financing the transition, and helping to scale climate technology solutions.

Notes to editors:

¹ https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/small-business-survey-2023-businesses-with-employees/longitudinal-small-business-survey-sme-employers-businesses-with-1-to-249-employees-uk-2023; https://accountancyage.com/2025/06/09/cash-flow-pressures-climb-as-57-of-uk-smes-warn-of-rising-costs/; https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/impact-of-higher-energy-costs-on-uk-businesses

About Barclays
Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customers and clients, and by geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by our service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group.

About ExpectAI
ExpectAI is a UK-based artificial intelligence company founded to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) achieve higher profits and lower emissions. Its AI platform builds digital twins of businesses to generate precise operational insights that reduce costs, improve performance and accelerate profitable decarbonisation. The company’s flagship product, the Una platform, provides SMEs with adaptive carbon profiles, tailored energy-efficiency recommendations and connections to verified solution providers and finance partners to accelerate delivery. ExpectAI’s vision is to enable SME Superintelligence—giving every business the context, insights and actions needed to thrive in a more sustainable economy.
www.expectai.com

Media Contact:

Tel: 0345 7345345
Email: ukpressoffice@barclays.com

SOURCE: Barclays