The Department for Business and Trade published its SME Digital Adoption Taskforce 2026 update this week, setting out the government’s first concrete steps toward a stated ambition: making UK SMEs “the most digitally capable and AI-confident in the G7 by 2035.” For business owners who have watched a lot of AI policy announcements come and go without much changing day to day, this update is worth a closer look — it moves from strategy to specific, usable support.
The centrepiece is the Business Growth Service (BGS), launched last year as a single entry point for SME support and now being built out with a clear digital adoption remit. Alongside it, the taskforce is progressing an idea that could matter a lot for smaller businesses: a scalable, AI-powered “Chief Technology Officer as a service” aimed squarely at businesses that have no in-house tech leadership at all.
Why this update matters more than the last one
Government AI strategy documents are common; usable free services are rarer. What is different this time is the shift from “we plan to help” to describing an actual delivery mechanism. The update reports progress against all 10 recommendations from the taskforce’s final report, including roundtables with No.10 and major industry players to shape a forthcoming support package, and an 8-week discovery project specifically on how DBT can deliver scalable tech guidance to SMEs that would otherwise never get it.
For a business with no IT director and no budget for external consultants, the promise of tailored, AI-powered adoption guidance through a free government channel is genuinely useful — if it is well built. The Business Growth Service’s Business Academy is already offering on-demand digital skills content, and expert advisers through local Growth Hubs can point businesses toward the tools most relevant to their sector.
What to actually do with this now
Register your interest via your local Growth Hub. These are the delivery arm for this initiative, and getting into the conversation now — even before the full “CTO as a service” offering exists — puts you in a better position to benefit as it rolls out through 2026 and 2027.
Treat free guidance as a starting point, not a finish line. Government-backed advisory services are useful for orientation — understanding what AI tools exist and which categories are relevant to your sector — but they are not a substitute for someone assessing your specific workflows and data. That gap is exactly where firms like ApplyAI operate: helping UK businesses translate general AI awareness into tools that actually fit how their team works, rather than adopting technology because it was recommended in the abstract.
Don’t wait for the full rollout to start small. The taskforce’s ambition runs to 2035; your competitors are not waiting that long. If there is one clear administrative task — drafting, scheduling, data entry, customer response handling — that eats disproportionate staff time, that is worth addressing now rather than filing this update away as “something for later.”
The bigger picture
This update lands against a backdrop where AI adoption keeps getting cited as the biggest lever for UK productivity growth, and where SME owners increasingly report cybersecurity concerns, not lack of interest, as the real barrier to going further. A free, government-backed support channel addresses the awareness and access problem. It does not, by itself, solve the security and implementation problem — that still requires businesses to pick trustworthy partners and build good habits around whatever tools they adopt.
The takeaway
The Business Growth Service and its planned AI guidance function are worth registering for, particularly if your business has no dedicated tech leadership. But treat it as the front door, not the whole house — pair general guidance with a specific, practical look at where AI can save your business real time this quarter, not in 2035.
