At 2 o'clock in the morning, a light was still on in an office in Binjiang District, Hangzhou. Zhao Qiming, the founder of an intelligent hardware company with an annual revenue of 30 million yuan, is repeatedly revising a supplier contract on the screen. This is the seventh contract he reviewed this week, with a value of only 500000 yuan, but the vague statement about intellectual property ownership has made him hesitant to sign it.

Last year we suffered losses, "Zhao Qiming said with a bitter smile." A seemingly standard procurement contract, because it did not clearly stipulate the ownership of the secondary development results, resulted in us investing 800000 yuan in research and development of improved technology, putting the company in an awkward position. The dispute ultimately ended in a settlement, but the company paid a compensation of 300000 yuan and a three-month delay in product launch.

Zhao Qiming's predicament is far from isolated. In China by 2025, this' contract anxiety disorder 'is spreading among over 50 million small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the same time, 2025 will become a key milestone for the modernization of China's tax collection and management. The fourth phase of the "Golden Tax Project" system has been fully launched, achieving real-time monitoring and intelligent analysis of national enterprise tax data; The deep data networking of tax, banking, market supervision, social security, customs and other departments has also built a "digital mirror" covering the entire lifecycle of enterprises.

Zhao Qiming's company once triggered a risk warning. In August 2025, the company received a special subsidy for participating in a government innovation project, and the financial personnel made a mistake in handling it, resulting in an abnormal increase in profits for the month. Three days later, the electronic tax bureau sent a letter of inquiry.

We were startled at the time and quickly conducted self-examination and rectification, "Zhao Qiming recalled." Later, we found out that the system would automatically compare the profit margin ranges of companies of the same scale and industry, and our data clearly deviated from the normal range

The level of refinement in regulation is reflected in regional differences. In the eastern coastal areas, due to the concentration of foreign trade enterprises, export tax rebate risk cases account for as high as 42%, while income concealment cases related to internet celebrity live streaming have increased by 12% year-on-year.

In this context, a trillion dollar market for "compliance anxiety" is taking shape. Conservatively estimated in the industry, among the 50 million small and medium-sized enterprises, enterprises with sustained demand for legal and tax services and payment capabilities account for about 10% -15%, or 5 million to 7.5 million. If calculated based on an average annual basic service fee of 20000 yuan, the potential of the compliance consulting market alone exceeds 100 billion yuan.

However, there is a huge gap between demand and supply. Even in non first tier cities, where the standards for legal and tax service fees may vary greatly depending on the size of the enterprise, traditional law firms typically have annual fees ranging from 100000 to 150000 yuan or higher, while accounting firms offer annual consulting services starting at least 80000 yuan. For small and medium-sized enterprises with a net profit margin generally between 5% and 8%, this is an unaffordable fixed expense.

What we need is not just an external consultant who charges by the hour, but a compliance partner who is always online, "Zhao Qiming said, echoing the voice of most small and medium-sized enterprise owners." It's best to remind me of risks before I sign the contract, help me calculate taxes when I pay my salary, and check materials before filing. But such legal and tax compliance support capabilities used to only exist in the legal departments of large enterprises

As compliance anxiety continues to spread to more industries and more and more small and medium-sized business owners are caught up in it, how to deal with such market difficulties has become a fundamental concern for people.

When 'not knowing' becomes the most expensive cost

Li Wei, who operates cross-border e-commerce in Yiwu, Zhejiang, experienced an event in 2025 that was enough to make her re-examine her business bottom line. Her company mainly exports daily consumer goods to Europe, with an annual sales volume of about 20 million yuan. Like many peers, she is always looking for ways to maintain profit margins amidst fierce price competition and constantly rising cost pressures. At an industry gathering, a so-called 'tax optimization' agency recommended a 'universal plan' to her.

This operation has been running for about a year and a half. Last year, the local tax department discovered multiple suspicious points in Li Wei's company's business data through the "Golden Tax Project" system.

I always thought it was just a radical tax plan, wandering in a gray area, until I received relevant documents from the tax department and saw the tax collection and management laws and even criminal law provisions cited in them, which made me realize the seriousness of the matter, "Li Wei recalled.

This reveals the core of the compliance dilemma faced by China's small and medium-sized enterprises: the vast majority of violations are not malicious, but stem from ignorance.

In 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 15 other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Compliance Awareness and Strengthening Compliance Management of Small and Medium sized Enterprises", which clearly pointed out that many small and medium-sized enterprises currently have prominent problems of weak compliance management awareness and insufficient professional capabilities.

This cognitive gap has been sharply magnified in the digital economy era. Traditional compliance risks mainly focus on industry laws and regulations, as well as professional financial accounting, while today's compliance matrix has expanded to dozens of dimensions such as data security, personal information protection, platform economy regulation, cross-border data transmission, ESG disclosure, and more.

A small and medium-sized enterprise engaged in cross-border e-commerce must face regulatory requirements from at least six departments, including customs, taxation, foreign exchange, market supervision, industry and information technology, and online information technology, "analyzed a partner of a cross-border legal service agency in Shanghai." And these regulations are still constantly being updated. For example, some regions will introduce new local laws, which put new requirements on the data localization of Chinese overseas enterprises. How many small and medium-sized enterprises can track these changes in a timely manner

Compliance risks are turning into real financial losses. A white paper based on the "2025 Blue Book on the Development of Small and Medium sized Enterprises" by the China Association of Small and Medium sized Enterprises shows that the direct economic losses caused by legal risks in domestic small and medium-sized enterprises account for an average of 12% of their annual operating income.

For small and medium-sized enterprises with profit margins generally hovering in single digits, this means that compliance fines may directly consume most or even all of their profits, becoming the "last straw" that crushes their operations.

The traditional solution is to hire legal advisors or purchase consulting services, but for small and medium-sized enterprises, both models have structural flaws.

In general, the traditional model of fixed annual fees is adopted for year-round legal advisory services, with annual fees often around 100000 yuan or even higher. The starting price for annual fees for senior lawyers in first tier cities is more likely to be over 200000 yuan. The compliance needs of small and medium-sized enterprises are "high-frequency, low value, and sudden" - reviewing a labor contract today, reviewing a lease agreement tomorrow, and consulting on tax issues the day after tomorrow. Each question may only be worth a few hundred yuan in consulting fees, but according to traditional models, it requires paying tens of times the cost.

Yang Zheshuai, a long-term associate professor at the School of Management of Zhejiang University, told reporters, "Under the traditional service model, companies either pay expensive fees for simple problems or choose to take risks without asking

The deeper problem lies in the unpredictability of service quality. Legal services and medical services are very similar, with serious information asymmetry, "Yang Zheshuai pointed out." It is difficult for parties to judge the level of lawyers, just like it is difficult for patients to judge the medical skills of doctors. This leads to small and medium-sized enterprises either paying too high a premium to find 'famous lawyers', or taking a chance in the low-priced market

But Professor Yang also introduced that leveraging the current trend of accelerated development in the AI big model industry, many senior legal and tax practitioners, as well as university scholars like him, are actively engaged in researching and developing higher quality AI legal and tax service application tools to help small and medium-sized enterprises solve the above difficulties in a targeted manner.

A media company in Hangzhou is using Nomibao to resolve labor disputes

The breakthrough path is both expected and unexpected

The Four Seasons Green Clothing Market in Hangzhou is always crowded with people, and now it is a new time for spring and summer clothing. Buyers shuttle through the narrow and lively market corridors, arguing with the stores about the next season's fashion trends. Wang Juan, a post-90s clothing wholesaler here, habitually opened a blue icon mini program called NomiLaw on her mobile WeChat endpoint when faced with several large order contracts.

This is a representative AI tax tool. Wang Juan, who was invited to try it out as early as the public beta stage, gave a one word review, 'Rampage'.

The latest trouble that Wang Juan encountered this time was that the supplier demanded that she accept the clause in the contract that "regardless of whether the goods are accepted as qualified or not, the payment must be made within 30 days" under the pretext of "industry practice". So she uploaded the contract to Nomibao, and the system not only marked the unfairness of the clause, but also provided a favorable legal basis for the payer. I had a clear idea in my heart, so I took this and went to negotiate. In the end, I changed the terms to payment based on the batch that passed the acceptance inspection, "Wang Juan said." For us small minded people, it's like a 'smart person' that we carry with us. It's not expensive, but it can be of great use in critical moments

The combination of "not expensive" and "top of the line" is undoubtedly a direct reason for small and micro business owners to "light up their eyes": AI products like Nomibao provide them with a "comprehensive and low-cost" solution, leveraging AI to obtain professional analysis in both legal and tax dimensions. If they need more in-depth and customized human services, they can also connect with lawyers or accountants at a more cost-effective cost with just one click.

And another 'unexpected' case comes from the mediation room of a street judicial office in a district of Hangzhou. The mediator Lao Zhang, who is handling a decoration contract dispute, also brought up NomiLaw.

This is the 'new equipment' that the institute will equip for each mediator by the end of 2025. Lao Zhang entered the vague extension liability clause in the contract into the Nomibao mini program, and the system quickly provided a specific analysis based on the corresponding laws and regulations, and listed the provisions based on the clause.

Let both parties see it, and they will be speechless on the spot, "said Old Zhang. This dispute, which could have entered the litigation process, was resolved within 30 minutes with the assistance of AI tools.

In Hangzhou, there are hundreds of grassroots law enforcement officers and mediators like Lao Zhang who use Nomibao, covering multiple grassroots governance organizations such as the Petition Bureau, Market Supervision Bureau, Judicial Office, and Police Station.

This is indeed an unexpected gain, "said the head of the founding team of NomiLaw in an interview." Our initial goal was to serve small and medium-sized enterprises, but in the pilot, we found that many staff members of grassroots governance organizations have given feedback that this tool is very 'handy'

He further explained that grassroots workers face a large number of complaints, reports, and disputes every day, many of which involve professional legal and tax knowledge. In the past, one had to either search for legal provisions themselves, which was inefficient, or consult higher-level departments, which made the process cumbersome. Now that we have this tool, we can quickly find evidence. If the parties don't believe us, they can also check and verify on site. The answers provided by the system are relatively consistent, and everyone takes a step back from this clear 'bottom line'. The efficiency of mediation naturally increases

This' accident 'precisely reveals the true pulse of the market: a tool that can simultaneously reduce the threshold for acquiring professional knowledge and the cost of use, and provide certainty, with a demand that spans both B-end and G-end, and market validation is also two-way. The mutual confirmation of "essential needs" from the enterprise side and "taking advantage of opportunities" from the government side constitutes a unique market entry path for legal and tax AI tools such as Nomibao.

At present, the functions of AI legal search tools or intelligent Q&A customer service on the market are relatively simple. Even popular general models like DeepSeek and Doubao still face two main concerns when using them: first, users are worried about "AI illusions", and the provided terms or precedents cannot be verified for authenticity. The answer content may seem reasonable, but I dare not use them directly; Secondly, when faced with specific demands such as "whether the contract can be signed", the general model often only outputs risk avoiding disclaimer phrases, and finally returns with the sentence "it is recommended to seek professional lawyer guidance", asking is equivalent to not asking. Taking Nuomi Bao as an example, its differentiation lies in the fact that it not only accumulates a large amount of real legal and tax data from law firms and audit institutions as the cornerstone of its consulting credibility, but also positions itself as a "collaboration and responsibility system" with evidence-based and more substantial decision-making reference value from its inception. The results that users can obtain through Nomibao are not just a sentence of 'there is a problem with this clause', but a structured and credible report: from the description and type of the problem, to the corresponding risk severity rating, from the specific location where the problem may occur, to the corresponding legal basis, modification suggestions, and even modified example clauses.

The essence of many similar products is that they are French language movers, search tools. After users pay, they do not care whether the product is understood or executed. Professor Yang Zheshuai, who has long been concerned about the development of AI+tax services, also pointed out that the design intention of products like Nomibao should be very concerned with user experience, because it needs to enable a small and medium-sized enterprise owner without any professional background to understand, learn, and truly operate according to AI's advice. ?

The output structure of Nomibao is indeed carefully designed based on the ultimate user oriented thinking: firstly, restate user questions in plain language to ensure accurate understanding; Secondly, provide clear conclusions and actionable recommendations for the first, second, and third steps; Finally, and most importantly, attach all the legal regulations, judicial interpretations, or real case evidence for the conclusions, and indicate the specific positions of the articles. This means that even if users have no knowledge of the law, they can verify the supporting materials and judge the credibility of their conclusions through the corresponding reference links at each step, thereby establishing preliminary trust in Nomibao.

As mentioned earlier, small and medium-sized business owners cannot afford long-term consultants, but occasional professional issues do exist; Grassroots governance requires quick professional judgment support, but it is impossible to have experts assigned to every position. When tax AI tools like Nomibao can provide standard, real-time, and evidence-based reference answers at extremely low marginal costs, it naturally embeds the workflow, embedding this lifecycle.

Ecological evolution: paradigm sublimation from "commercial products" to "quasi public goods"

The founding team leader of NomiLaw introduced that at present, NomiLaw's services are open for use by all public organizations, non-profit organizations, including government institutions. Whether it's the Nomibao mini program or the web version, in Hangzhou, from the municipal regulatory system to the judicial bureau system and some grassroots police stations, at least hundreds of government workers use it frequently on a daily basis, and users of public welfare organizations like Cloud Charity also benefit from it

In fact, laws and taxes naturally have a "universal" public attribute, "said Professor Yang Zheshuai, who is focusing on in-depth research on the entrepreneurial process of Nomibao." Based on this judgment, leveraging AI to design products to meet the basic needs of the majority of users, especially small and medium-sized enterprise users, is the value position anchored by AI tax tools like Nomibao from the beginning. ?

More and more small and medium-sized enterprises are seeing that the staff of grassroots governance organizations such as law enforcement and mediation can call the Nomibao system at any time to quickly identify relevant legal basis and precedents when handling disputes, making the mediation process smoother and the mediation results more convincing to all parties. Yang Zheshuai analyzed that when government law enforcement personnel, public welfare organizations, universities, and other parties start using the same set of tools like Nomibao and work based on relatively consistent professional standards, it itself sends a strong signal to society: this tool is not only reliable and authoritative, but also a truly trustworthy common compliance partner, which helps all parties to smooth out their poor understanding of legal and tax knowledge. Based on compliance consensus, it promotes the construction of a more efficient and harmonious public business ecosystem by all parties.

In fact, this amplified positioning as a "quasi public good" is reshaping the industrial ecosystem of AI services for law and taxation.

At the business model level, revenue from the commercial end feeds back into public services, and the widespread application of the public end provides a massive number of real-life case studies for product iteration, forming a virtuous cycle.

Deeper changes occur in the dimension of industrial governance. In multiple digital platforms of industrial clusters in Zhejiang, attempts have been made to integrate the risk monitoring capabilities of such tools.

For over 5.5 million private market entities in Zhejiang, this quiet and turbulent transformation means that once unattainable professional compliance services are now within reach through inclusive models.

The ultimate form of legal and financial services should be like air and water, an essential value for survival, but there should never be an unattainable threshold for obtaining them, "Yang Zheshuai described the significance of AI tax service tools such as Nomibao." Whether in tax services or other fields, the value of AI is to make this technology accessible, not to create a new charging project with technology, but to eliminate a common pain point that may hinder commercial vitality with technology. ?

It's late at night, Zhao Qiming turned off the lights in the office. Tomorrow, he will attend a workshop organized by the park to discuss regulations. One of the speakers will be officials from a local government department, who are said to share how to use digital tools for enterprise self inspection.

Zhao Qiming plans to go and listen. He vaguely felt that a new era was coming: in this era, compliance would no longer be a privilege or heavy burden for a few people, but an infrastructure that all responsible entrepreneurs could equally enjoy and support their steady and far-reaching actions. And technology is the key that opens this door.

(Zhao Qiming and Wang Juan are pseudonyms)