You want to try AI in your business, but you do not know where to start, and paying someone before you know what you need feels like a risk. The good news is that a fair amount of free or low-cost help exists in the UK. This guide sets out what there is, who it is for and which piece to use first.
Key takeaways
- Start with the free front door for your nation: business.gov.uk in England, Business Gateway in Scotland, Business Wales, or nibusinessinfo.co.uk in Northern Ireland.
- Free AI training for you and your staff is available online through the government's AI Skills Hub.
- Fix the security basics before you connect AI tools to your systems. The NCSC's free toolkit and a free 30-minute Cyber Advisor call help with that.
- Help to Grow: Management is a subsidised leadership course, not AI training, but it helps you decide where AI fits.
- Grants exist, mainly through Innovate UK's BridgeAI, but they fund specific projects and are competitive.
Where should I go first?
Go to the general business support service for the nation you trade in. These services are free, and they point you to local advisers, events and funding you would not find on your own.
- England. The government launched business.gov.uk in July 2025 as the online channel for the Business Growth Service, its support offer for small and medium-sized businesses.1 It asks you a few questions and then lists the support, funding and guides that fit. It also offers free training through its Business Academy.2 England also has a network of local Growth Hubs, managed by a mayoral combined authority or a local authority and funded by government.3 Your Growth Hub can often put you in touch with local AI and digital programmes. Use the Growth Hub finder to find yours.
- Scotland. Business Gateway is a publicly funded service with free one-to-one advice, webinars and local offices. When we read its site, it listed an AI Adoption Programme.4
- Wales. Business Wales is run by the Welsh Government and offers fully funded specialist advice and free online courses.5
- Northern Ireland. nibusinessinfo.co.uk is Invest Northern Ireland's free online business advice service.6
Free AI training for you and your team
Since January 2026, the government's AI Skills Boost programme has offered free online AI courses to every adult in the UK. Some take under 20 minutes. People who finish receive a virtual AI foundations badge, and the courses were checked against a Skills England benchmark.7 The courses sit on the AI Skills Hub.
This is the cheapest useful step most small businesses can take. A team that understands what AI tools can and cannot do will spot good uses faster and make fewer risky ones. Our guide to free AI training in the UK explains how to run it in a small team.
Leadership help: Help to Grow: Management
Help to Grow: Management is a 12-week course for business leaders, delivered by business schools through the Small Business Charter. When we checked on 14 November 2026, it cost £750 per participant, with the government funding the remaining 90% of the course cost. It runs for about 50 hours, around 4 hours a week. It is open to businesses with 5 to 249 employees that have traded for over a year; charities are not eligible.8
It is a management course, not an AI course. It earns a place here because the hard part of AI adoption is usually deciding what to change in the business, and that is what the course works on. Check the current terms on the Small Business Charter site before you apply, as they can change.
Security help before you connect AI tools
Many AI tools need access to your email, files or customer records. If your basic security is weak, connecting them makes it worse. Two free NCSC services help:
- The Cyber Action Toolkit, launched in October 2025, is a free, personalised online tool for sole traders, micro businesses and small organisations. It works through three levels: Foundation, Improver and Enhanced.9
- A free 30-minute consultation with an NCSC-approved Cyber Advisor, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses working towards Cyber Essentials, the government-backed baseline standard.10
Our guide to AI security for small businesses goes further.
Grants: BridgeAI and others
Innovate UK's BridgeAI programme funds businesses to adopt AI, mainly in priority sectors. Its year-three review, published in March 2026, says it has supported more than 5,000 organisations and allocated £74.6 million in grant funding.11 Grants are competitive, have fixed deadlines and usually need you to put in some of your own money. Read our guide to AI grants and funding in the UK before you spend time on an application.
What free help will not do
Free services help you understand your options and point you to programmes. They will not usually design or build an AI system for your business. When you get to that stage, you will need to pay for help. Our guides on writing an AI project brief and choosing an AI consultant explain how to do that well, and the directory lists people who offer it.
For how the national plans fit together, see what the UK's AI plans mean for SMEs.
- Visit the business support service for your nation and answer its questions.
- Ask your Growth Hub (England) about local AI or digital programmes.
- Sign yourself and one colleague up for a free AI Skills Boost course.
- Run the NCSC Cyber Action Toolkit.
- Write down one task that takes too long, to take to an adviser.
Sources
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Department for Business and Trade, "The launch of the digital Business Growth Service and business.gov.uk", published 31 July 2025, https://digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/31/the-launch-of-the-digital-business-growth-service-and-business-gov-uk-helping-businesses-start-and-scale/, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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Department for Business and Trade, "Business support", business.gov.uk, undated, https://www.business.gov.uk/business-support/, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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GOV.UK, "Director information hub: regional support for companies in England", published 14 May 2024, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/director-information-hub-regional-support-for-companies-in-england, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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Business Gateway, home page, undated, https://www.bgateway.com/, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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Welsh Government, Business Wales home page, undated, https://businesswales.gov.wales/, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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Invest Northern Ireland, nibusinessinfo.co.uk home page, undated, https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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DSIT and Skills England, "Free AI training for all, as government and industry programme expands to provide 10 million workers with key AI skills by 2030", published 28 January 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-ai-training-for-all-as-government-and-industry-programme-expands-to-provide-10-million-workers-with-key-ai-skills-by-2030, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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Small Business Charter, "Help to Grow: Management course FAQs", undated, https://smallbusinesscharter.org/help-to-grow-management/course/faqs, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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National Cyber Security Centre, "Small businesses to receive cyber security boost with new toolkit from experts", published 14 October 2025, https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/small-businesses-receive-cyber-security-boost-with-new-toolkit-from-experts, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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National Cyber Security Centre, "Helping small businesses with free, hands-on cyber consultancy", published 15 July 2026, https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blogs/helping-small-businesses-with-free-hands-on-cyber-consultancy, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩
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Innovate UK Business Connect, "Innovate UK BridgeAI annual report: year three in review", published 9 March 2026, https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/perspectives/innovate-uk-bridgeai-annual-report-year-three-in-review/, accessed 2026-11-14. ↩