For many SMEs, sustainability is no longer a public relations issue – it is becoming part of everyday business survival. Customer expectations, supply chain demands and regulations are constantly changing, forcing smaller companies to keep adjusting how they work. Faced with this pressure and uncertainty, SME owners and managers often turn to technology for solutions: collecting more data, buying better software, building dashboards and using artificial intelligence to become more data-driven.

While this approach has obvious appeal, it also carries risks: more data does not automatically guarantee better decisions – sometimes it creates false confidence, especially when sleek dashboards become “comfort pictures” that make complex trade-offs look simpler than they really are and may help companies make poor decisions faster.