Enterprise Nation develops UK's first AI-powered business support search engine

Enterprise Nation has announced it is developing the UK's first business-focused AI-powered search engine that will surface accurate technical information from trusted support organisations, government resources, grant providers and expert advisers rated by the firm.

Ask EMA uses a hybrid of secure machine learning AI models and intelligent search capabilities to deliver a personal business assistant that leans into the firm's decades of deep knowledge and intuitive human experience in providing practical business support, while testing the results through its community of 140,000 start-ups and small businesses.

Still in the beta phase, Ask EMA is already capable of gathering resources from rigorously tested UK-based support organisations, government and vetted sources while understanding important contextual nuances like business phase, sector and region.

The agile feature can also detect when a more human intervention would be helpful and surfaces external support via rated expert advisers, unlike generic AI chatbots.

Emma Jones, CEO and founder of small business support platform and membership community Enterprise Nation, said:

"We've been experimenting with expanding the role of AI assistance in the support we deliver for the past 18 months.

"While chatbots responding with generic answers is fine in a casual setting, when you are looking for compelling support to help you through a very specific business challenge, sifting through the broadbrush results they generate can be frustrating.

"Ask EMA applies our detailed knowledge and implicit understanding of the UK's business support landscape, with all its complicated and ever-changing nuances to simplify the experience for the founders of start-ups and small businesses.

"To get this right, we are leaning into our willing and supportive140,000-strong community to test iterations as our tech team constantly launches new updates.

"We believe by cutting through the overwhelming amount of information currently available, we can genuinely help small firms to identify the support they need to grow more quickly and accurately."

Ask EMA is based on two main technologies, Bing Web Search (Azure Cognitive Search) to draw current business information from curated sources and Open AI models (GPT-4o) to deliver clear, contextual advice.

The feature has already been launched to all of the firm's 140,000 UK members, allowing the platform to gather both quantitative data and qualitative feedback via regular surveys and focus groups.

Enterprise Nation is in the process of implementing model training that will assess Ask EMA's response quality and refine these based on how users engage from any given prompt, while constantly ensuring accuracy.

Over time, the firm believes Ask EMA will also be able to surface real-time opportunities to expand - such as export contracts or government procurement and relevant grant funding and investment, as well as advice.

A chat prompt on the main Enterprise Nation website asks users to type in a question and surfaces answers tailored to businesses, for its signed-up members who have given consent, it can pull in background information such as the age of the business, location and sector, allowing a more rounded and accurate response.

Emma added:

"This functionality is specifically designed for business with an implicit understanding of the type of business it is -- and it generates answers based on fundamentals. For example, offering a funding option that is within the grasp of a new small business founder -- not an established firm with 50 employees.

"Over time Ask EMA will be able to deliver real-time growth opportunities as well as accurate advice."

The firm is already in talks with financial institutions, local authorities, and corporate stakeholders with a view to embed Ask EMA into existing business support frameworks.