Worth Launches AI Decision Intelligence to Slash Small Business Credit Approval Times from Weeks to Minutes

Worth AI has launched Decision Intelligence, a platform designed to collapse the small business lending cycle from weeks into real-time approvals. For fintech professionals, this represents a significant shift in automated underwriting, moving beyond simple analysis to active resolution of identity and compliance data for credit cards, loans, and merchant accounts.

What was announced

Worth AI introduced Decision Intelligence to address the administrative friction that typically delays small business applications. While traditional banking institutions often require 30 to 60 days to process a business application due to manual verification of tax filings and state registrations, this new platform utilizes a database of over 350 million verified business identities to automate the process.

The technology centers on proprietary Crosswalking Technology, which verifies ownership structures and related entities before fraud checks or credit models are even initiated. If the platform identifies missing information, it does not simply flag the error for human intervention; it actively sources and resolves the data on behalf of the institution. This allows the system to act on the institution's specific underwriting policies immediately.

The launch also includes CODI (Continuous Decision Intelligence), a conversational agent that allows underwriters to query specific outcomes. Instead of a "black-box" result, human agents can ask why a case scored a certain way or identify exactly what documentation is missing. Furthermore, the platform provides ongoing portfolio monitoring, re-underwriting businesses the moment registration data, ownership, or processing profiles change, rather than waiting for an annual review cycle.

"We started Worth because we lived this problem ourselves. Even when small business owners are creditworthy, the system can't always see that clearly. Decision Intelligence gives our partners the data to move faster and the accuracy to decide better. When you reduce the noise in the decision, more capital flows to the businesses that should have had it all along and institutions that are looking to serve them."

Sal Rehmetullah, Chief Executive Officer - Founder at Worth AI.

The companies involved

Worth AI is an onboarding and underwriting platform provider that serves a client base including top-tier global banks and lenders. The company is led by a leadership team with deep roots in the financial technology sector, including Founder and CEO Suneera Madhani, Chief Executive Officer - Founder Sal Rehmetullah, and Jacques Fu, who serves as co-founder and Chief AI Officer. The firm focuses on leveraging large-scale data sets and artificial intelligence to streamline the complex requirements of commercial lending and merchant services.

The platform’s benchmarks are often measured against data from the Federal Reserve, the central banking system of the United States. The Federal Reserve provides the foundational economic data regarding small business lending timelines that Worth AI aims to disrupt. By operating at the intersection of regulatory compliance and automated data retrieval, Worth AI positions itself as a bridge between the rigid requirements of traditional finance and the speed expected by modern small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

What FF News has reported before

FF News has previously tracked the rising demand for capital and the technological evolution of business finance. In July, we noted that Small Business Loan Searches Hit Record Highs as Trump Tariff Deadlines Loom, highlighting the urgent need for faster access to liquidity. The move toward autonomous financial operations was also reflected in our coverage of Rivo Secures $3.1M to Launch AI-Powered Autonomous Cash Management Platform, which underscored the industry-wide push to remove manual bottlenecks. Additionally, we have covered the integration of legacy and modern systems, such as when Modern Treasury Integrates Physical and Digital Checks into Unified Payments API, and the financial pressures on fund managers in North American Fund Managers Hit Record FX Hedging Levels Amid $731,000 Average Losses.

What this means

This announcement places significant pressure on traditional credit bureaus and manual underwriting departments that still rely on static data and human-led verification. By automating the "resolution" of data mismatches rather than just flagging them, the industry is moving toward a model where the underwriter functions more as an auditor of AI logic than a data gatherer. The shift toward continuous re-underwriting also challenges the standard annual review process, suggesting a future where credit limits and account standing are fluid and reactive to real-time state filings. The primary question for the sector is whether legacy institutions can integrate such high-velocity decisioning without compromising their internal risk frameworks.