Small Businesses: Artificial Intelligence
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2025 to Question 34047 Small Businesses: Training, what steps his Department is taking to support SMEs to adopt AI; and whether this support includes management-practice support to maximise productivity gains.
Answered by Blair McDougall
To ensure AI is widely adopted by businesses and workers across the economy, government is working with 11 industry partners to provide 7.5 million workers with essential AI skills by 2030.
The Help to Grow: Management scheme, which helps SME leaders with management skills to help boost productivity, already includes a module on digital transformation.
Additionally, the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce has set out ten recommendations to drive SME digital and AI adoption, including: a new public-private initiative for SMEs, evidence gathering on firm-level financial support for digital, and economy-wide reforms. We will report on progress in Spring 2026.
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