Smeweb iconSmewebSep 18, 2026

UK small businesses facing ‘AI productivity gap’

Small business owners' confidence in using artificial intelligence (AI) is running significantly ahead of the way businesses are utilising AI tools, new research reveals. A study of 1,000 small firms by the Small Business Institute and Alibaba.com found 70% are somewhat or very confident using generative AI, but only 48% are using it regularly.

UK small businesses facing ‘AI productivity gap’

Share this story

Send the public story page.

Useful takeaways from this story.

Small business owners' confidence in using artificial intelligence (AI) is running significantly ahead of the way businesses are utilising AI tools, new research reveals.

A study of 1,000 small firms by the Small Business Institute and Alibaba.com found 70% are somewhat or very confident using generative AI, but only 48% are using it regularly.

Building the complete brief

The page is ready to read now. The fuller skim-friendly version will appear here automatically.

The useful part

Small business owners' confidence in using artificial intelligence (AI) is running significantly ahead of the way businesses are utilising AI tools, new research reveals. A study of 1,000 small firms by the Small Business Institute and Alibaba.com found 70% are somewhat or very confident using generative AI, but only 48% are using it regularly.

Keep reading in the app

Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.

Open in app