Strategic planning helps businesses anticipate and prepare for future challenges and opportunities. While large corporations invest heavily in specialized teams and external consultants to manage their strategic foresight, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) typically lack the resources, skills, and time needed for thorough strategic planning. Consequently, SMEs often struggle with long-term survival and growth. This research project explores how SMEs could leverage recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), specifically self-learning AI tools like ChatGPT, to enhance their strategic foresight capabilities. AI technologies have become widely accessible and hold significant potential for SMEs to efficiently gather, analyze, and interpret large amounts of strategic information, which could help mitigate resource constraints. Through a carefully designed, five-stage research process involving interviews, workshops, scenario planning exercises, and reflective sessions with SME owner-managers, the project aims to: (1) understand business owners’ attitudes and concerns regarding AI, (2) assess the advantages and barriers to AI adoption, (3) identify practical applications for AI in SME strategic planning, and (4) address ethical considerations and risks associated with AI usage. The ultimate goals of the project include developing clear guidelines for SMEs to integrate AI into their strategic processes and formulating policy recommendations to help regulate AI's implementation effectively and ethically. Outcomes from this research will be widely shared with both the academic community and SMEs, fostering better strategic practices, informed policy-making, and improved long-term sustainability for small businesses.