79% of UK SMEs use AI. A new report shows where the best results come from.

UK small businesses have adopted AI. The Social Market Foundation's new report, published on 19 October, found that 79% of the 1,015 SME leaders it surveyed use it in some form.

That's the headline. The number that matters sits further down. Among firms using AI, 74% of those describing their use as advanced reported a revenue increase. For basic users it was 37%.

Advanced, in the report, means regular and built into how the business runs. Basic means occasional and ad hoc.

Most use is a chatbot

Of the firms using AI, 96% use a generative chatbot. 52% also use specialist tools built for a business function. ChatGPT leads at 68%, then Microsoft Copilot at 50% and Google Gemini at 45%.

The report found specialist tools were linked to slightly stronger and more consistent results than chatbots.

Fewer use AI where it pays

Among AI-using firms, marketing is the most common use at 50%, then administration and document management at 43%. Sales sits at 31%, HR and recruitment at 21%, and supply chain and logistics at 18%.

The report ranked sales, HR and recruitment, supply chain, operations and IT among the highest-value uses. These are process-heavy, structured jobs full of repetitive data and coordination. Administration, the second most common use, showed relatively weak results.

The authors warn that high uptake can create "a misleading impression of AI's potential".

Trust comes before cost

Asked what holds them back, firms named data security (33%), quality or reliability (31%) and a lack of technical skills (26%). Cost came seventh, at 19%.

Firms already using AI worry about these more than those who don't. On data security it was 36% against 18%.

Three questions for Monday

1. Where does your team use AI today? Drafting and document work is where many firms start. The report found its results were weak compared with other functions.
2. Which process costs you the most hours? Leads that go cold, data retyped between systems and reports built by hand are the usual suspects.
3. Who approves it? We build it so a person stays at the decision and AI does the repetitive part.

A caution on the numbers

This is survey data, and it's self-reported. The SMF notes that firms already using AI may be more likely to keep going if it worked, and that some gains may be credited to AI when they came from elsewhere. Intuit commissioned the survey. The SMF says it kept full editorial independence.

The £38bn to £47bn revenue estimate for British SMEs is an illustrative model built on the gains AI users reported. It isn't a forecast.

That's the work we do: AI built into your sales and operations, with a person at every decision. If you can tell us where the hours go, we'll tell you whether it fits. If it doesn't, we'll say so.

Get in touch

Source: Social Market Foundation, "Byte-sized growth: Supporting SMEs to get more from AI", 19 October 2026. Survey of 1,015 UK SME leaders, fieldwork 27 June to 9 July 2026. Read the report

‍