Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of financial services firms in promoting the adoption of AI tools among UK small and medium-sized enterprises; and how this is being considered in government policy on SME digitalisation.

Adoption of Artificial Intelligence can unlock significant productivity gains. It is important for government to work in partnership with industry, including financial services firms, to support Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with this.

The Department for Business and Trade created the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce and are leading a series of roundtables to tackle barriers SMEs face when adopting digital technologies. Members include Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Mastercard and Visa.

Innovate UK’s Next Generation Professional and Financial Services programme supports digital innovation and adoption across financial services. Within this, the Future Finance strand accelerates uptake by providing targeted support to Financial Services firms.