Guides · Updated 2026-10-18

UK small business AI statistics 2026

Around 3 in 10 UK businesses (30%) said they used at least one type of AI technology in September 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics. For firms with fewer than 10 employees the figure was 29%, and for firms with 250 or more employees it was 51%. Other surveys put small business use far higher or lower, because they ask different firms different questions. This page collects the figures from official and reputable UK sources, quoted exactly, with what each one actually measured.

How we checked: we read every figure on the publisher's own page or report on 18 October 2026 and copied it exactly. We haven't rounded, combined or estimated anything. Where a survey only covers larger firms, or a specific group such as FSB members, we say so. If you quote a figure, link to the original source, not to us.

The headline numbers

Figure	What it measures	Source	Published
30%	UK businesses using at least one AI technology, September 2026	ONS, Business insights and impact on the UK economy	8 October 2026
29%	Businesses with fewer than 10 employees using AI, September 2026	ONS, as above	8 October 2026
38%	Businesses with 10 or more employees using AI, September 2026	ONS, as above	8 October 2026
51%	Businesses with 250 or more employees using AI, September 2026	ONS, as above	8 October 2026
9%	All businesses using AI when ONS first asked, September 2023	ONS, as above	8 October 2026
16%	UK businesses (5 or more employees) currently using at least one AI technology, fieldwork February to May 2025	DSIT, AI Adoption Research	28 January 2026
14%	Micro businesses using AI in the same DSIT survey	DSIT, as above	28 January 2026
55%	Small firms using AI, FSB survey of 904 small business owners, November 2025	FSB press release	16 June 2026
54%	Firms actively using AI, BCC survey of 668 businesses, mostly SMEs	British Chambers of Commerce	18 March 2026
71%	UK firms using AI, Bank of England Decision Maker Panel, November 2025 to January 2026 (firms with 10+ employees, employment-weighted)	NBER working paper 34836, Firm Data on AI	February 2026, revised March 2026

Why the figures range from 14% to 71%

These numbers don't contradict each other as much as they seem to. They measure different things:

Who is asked. ONS samples businesses of every size across the economy. DSIT only surveyed firms with at least 5 employees. FSB surveyed its own small business audience. The Bank of England's Decision Maker Panel samples firms with 10 or more employees and its AI results are weighted by employment, so big employers count for more.
Who answers. The Decision Maker Panel targets chief executives and finance directors. In a small firm, the owner may not know that a member of staff uses ChatGPT on their phone.
What counts as AI. ONS asks about specific technologies such as text generation with large language models. Other surveys ask a broader "are you using AI?" question.
When. DSIT's fieldwork was in early 2025; ONS's latest is September 2026. Use is rising quickly, so a year makes a big difference.

The authors of the Bank of England-linked study make the same point in their conference slides: "It matters what question you ask, when you ask, which firms you ask, and who in the firm you ask."

If you need one official figure for UK small businesses, use the ONS number for firms with fewer than 10 employees (29% in September 2026), and say which month it refers to.

Office for National Statistics (BICS)

ONS asks about AI in its fortnightly Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS). The figures are official statistics in development, from a voluntary survey; Wave 165 ran from 21 September to 4 October 2026 and had a 25.7% response rate.

From the 8 October 2026 bulletin:

30% of businesses reported using at least one type of AI technology in September 2026, up 20 percentage points from 9% in September 2023.
38% of businesses with 10 or more employees used AI, up 3 percentage points from June 2026.
29% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees used AI.
Among businesses with 10 or more employees, the most used technologies were text generation using large language models (21%) and visual content creation (19%).
60% of businesses in information and communication used AI, the highest of any industry.
Of businesses with 10 or more employees using AI, 38% said administrative and clerical roles were most affected, and 24% said creative or design roles.
6% of those firms reported reduced headcount as a result of AI; fewer than 1% reported an increase.

From the longer ONS article Artificial intelligence in UK businesses: 2023 to 2026 (20 July 2026, mostly June 2026 data):

AI use among firms with 10 or more employees rose "from around 12% to around 35%" since late 2023.
28% of businesses with 0 to 9 employees reported using at least one AI technology, compared with 49% of those with 250 or more.
Construction had the lowest use at 13%; information and communication the highest at 58%.
Adoption is shallow: the average number of AI technologies per adopting business rose "only modestly, from around 1.4 to 1.6".
Only 10% of AI-using firms with 10 or more employees use AI extensively. Among the smallest firms (0 to 9 employees) that use AI, 17% report extensive use.
41% of businesses with 10 or more employees reported no barriers to AI adoption. Lack of expertise is one of the most cited barriers; cost affects around 7% to 14% of businesses across size bands.
Only 11% of businesses with 10 or more employees said more than half of their workforce had received AI-related training.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

DSIT commissioned IFF Research and Technopolis Group to interview 3,500 UK private sector businesses with at least 5 employees between 12 February and 2 May 2025. The AI Adoption Research report was published on 28 January 2026 and updated on 13 February 2026. Its findings:

16% of businesses were using at least one AI technology, 5% planned to, and 80% neither used AI nor had plans to.
51% did not see AI as relevant to their organisation.
Large (36%) and mid-sized (23%) businesses were more likely to use AI; micro businesses less likely (14%).
88% of construction businesses neither used nor planned to use AI, along with 86% in retail and distribution, 90% in transport and storage and 88% in hotels and catering.
85% of AI users used it for natural language processing and text generation; 7% used agentic AI.
53% of AI users used it constantly and 27% at least weekly.
The most common reasons for not adopting were a lack of identified need and limited AI skills and expertise. Among firms that faced them, ethical concerns were rated the most significant barrier (80%), followed by high costs (76%) and unclear regulation (72%).
75% of AI users reported improved workforce productivity, but 77% had not yet seen a change in revenue; 12% reported an increase.

The government's 28 January 2026 announcement of free AI Skills Boost training, aimed at 10 million workers by 2030, summarised the research: "only 21% of UK workers feel confident using AI at work", and "micro businesses 45% less likely to adopt AI than large businesses". In the same release, FSB's Policy Chair said "just under half (46%)" of small businesses say they don't yet have the skills or knowledge to use AI well.

Federation of Small Businesses

FSB surveyed 904 small business owners between 11 and 24 November 2025. Its 16 June 2026 press release reported:

55% of small firms now use AI, up from 20% in 2023.
92% are worried about AI risks, up from 73% in 2023.
The top concerns were inaccurate responses (54%), security (39%), abuse of intellectual property (39%), lack of transparency about how models are trained (38%), legal liability (30%) and uncertainty about using AI legally, ethically and responsibly (27%).
59% reported productivity gains, 24% higher revenues and 22% said AI helped them grow; fewer than one in ten (8%) said it helped reduce staff levels.
Firms adopting AI in the previous 12 months reported an average revenue increase of three per cent.

FSB's headline "£42 billion" figure is a scenario, not a measurement: it assumes the number of non-users halves and existing users increase use by 50%. The full report, The Confidence Code, was published on 27 July 2026.

British Chambers of Commerce

The BCC, working with the University of Essex's ESRC Centre for Micro-Social Change, surveyed 668 UK businesses, most of them SMEs. Its 18 March 2026 release and report found:

54% of firms were actively using AI, up from 35% in 2025, 25% in 2024 and 23% in 2023 (earlier BCC surveys).
95% of SMEs using AI said it had had no impact on workforce size over the past year; 86% said job roles were unchanged.
About one in ten SMEs were adopting bespoke AI rather than generic tools.
14% of SMEs investing in AI training expected headcount reductions over the next 12 months.

Bank of England Decision Maker Panel

The Decision Maker Panel (DMP) is a Bank of England survey of senior executives. Between November 2025 and January 2026 it asked UK firms the same AI questions as central bank surveys in the US, Germany and Australia. The results are in an NBER working paper, Firm Data on AI (February 2026, revised March 2026), whose authors include Bank of England staff. The views are the authors', not the Bank's.

71% of UK firms were currently using AI (employment-weighted), compared with 78% in the US, 65% in Germany and 59% in Australia.
89% of UK firms reported no impact of AI on employment over the past three years, and 89% no impact on productivity.
Over the next three years, UK firms expected AI to raise productivity by 1.9% and to lower employment by 1.4%.

Remember these are mostly medium and large firms, weighted by employment. They tell you about the economy, not about a typical sole trader.

What this means for a small business

Three patterns hold across every source:

Most use is light. ONS finds adoption is shallow and DSIT finds most users rely on text generation. The typical small firm is using a chatbot to draft emails, quotes and posts, not rebuilding its operations. Our guide to your first three AI tasks is a sensible starting point.
Jobs haven't been hit much yet. ONS (6% reduced headcount), BCC (95% no impact) and the DMP (89% no impact) all point the same way, though firms expect more change ahead. See will AI take jobs in the UK?
Skills and trust hold firms back more than price. Lack of expertise (ONS, DSIT), the 46% skills gap (FSB) and 92% worried about risks (FSB) outweigh cost. A short written AI policy and free training go a long way.

Cost does matter for the smallest firms. If you're weighing up subscriptions, compare current UK prices in our UK AI price table.

How to quote these statistics properly

Give the figure exactly as published, with the month the data refers to (not just the publication date).
Say who was surveyed: "UK businesses with fewer than 10 employees" is not the same as "UK small businesses" in every survey.
Don't average figures from different surveys.
Link to the original publisher.
Check for a newer release. ONS publishes BICS results every two weeks, and its AI questions recur, so the 30% figure will be updated.

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FAQ

What percentage of UK small businesses use AI?

It depends on the source. ONS found 29% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees used at least one AI technology in September 2026. FSB found 55% of small firms used AI in November 2025. BCC found 54% of mostly SME firms in early 2026. Quote the source and date with any figure.

Which source is the official one?

The Office for National Statistics' Business Insights and Conditions Survey is the UK's official source, classed as official statistics in development. DSIT's AI Adoption Research is government-commissioned research. FSB and BCC are business groups surveying their audiences.

Is AI use growing among UK businesses?

Yes. ONS figures rose from 9% of all businesses in September 2023 to 30% in September 2026. For firms with 10 or more employees, use rose from around 12% in late 2023 to 38% in September 2026.

Which UK industries use AI least?

In ONS's June 2026 data, construction had the lowest share of firms using AI, at 13%. DSIT's 2025 survey found 88% of construction firms neither used AI nor planned to.

Is AI causing job losses in UK small businesses?

Not widely so far. ONS found 6% of AI-using firms with 10 or more employees reported reduced headcount in September 2026. BCC found 95% of SMEs using AI reported no impact on workforce size over the past year.