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Posted: Wed 10th Jun 2026
6 min read
On Tuesday 9 June, smack-bang in the middle of London Tech Week, Enterprise Nation hosted a Tech Hub reception at 11 Downing Street, with HM Treasury as host and the Chancellor of the Exchequer joining to close the evening's remarks.
Aptly held at the home of the country's economic decisions – with a full-house attendance from our community – the event focused on how AI can mould the future for the people who run the businesses that make up 99% of UK companies.
The room was buzzing with enthusiasm for change and a determination to make it.
Indeed, some of our long-standing partners were there to share in the moment, including NatWest, Vodafone, Dell, Canva, Square, Google, Sage, Microsoft, Constant Contact, OpenAI and BT.
Senior government representation joined in numbers, too, including AI and Online Safety Minister, Kanishka Narayan.
Aaron Asadi, CEO of Enterprise Nation, opened the evening, before handing over to Tom Guthrie, CEO of Sylva, for the and an organisational announcement.
Tom in turn handed to Becky Lane, founder of Floral Hire and a long-standing member of the Enterprise Nation community, who gave the speech of the evening.
In a heartwarming and inspiring address, Becky spoke about how AI is helping her grow Floral Hire and how it's removed barriers that her dyslexia had once placed in her way.
It was a reminder of what this work is actually for – not adoption rates for their own sake, but the specific moment when a tool does what a founder needed it to do.
The Chancellor then closed the opening remarks, before walking the room to meet our members.
Speaking on behalf of Enterprise Nation, Aaron Asadi shared news of what comes next.
In September 2026, Enterprise Nation will launch the SME Index – the first national intelligence platform built specifically for UK SMEs.
Aaron said:
"The SME Index will give a single live picture of the entire small business economy – all 5.7 million businesses – built from official data, trusted third-party sources and, crucially, Enterprise Nation's own 20 years of proprietary insight.
"It will not only show us all where the opportunities are by sector, by region and by demographic, but, thanks to our first-party data, and for the first time ever, how UK SMEs really feel about their future."
For too long, the institutions trying to support small businesses – government, banks, partners, the companies who were in the room – have been working from samples, surveys and snapshots.
The SME Index is Enterprise Nation's attempt to give them something better – a continuously updated, fully national view of the small business economy.
Tom Guthrie then took the room through the headline findings of the Strand Partners research.
Britain's small firms, the research shows, have gone digital – 57% now describe themselves as highly or moderately digital.
But on AI, most are still on the sidelines. Only 21% use AI regularly, and just 6% have embedded it into daily work across the business.
On comparable measures, UK small firms sit mid-table among advanced economies – level with the EU and the United States, but behind the Nordic leaders, where over a third of firms use AI.
When the research asked what's stopping them, business owners responded with the answers they give every day – cost (53%), skills (46%) and trust.
Only 22% would turn to government for help. The demand, in other words, is there. The right support isn't reaching them.
Closing that gap, Tom argued, needs more than good programmes. It needs delivery infrastructure built for the purpose.
And so, alongside the work of Tech Hub and the SME Index, he announced the launch of Impact Nation – Enterprise Nation's sister organisation, whose role is to build the infrastructure for AI adoption to grow the economy at the speed the UK actually needs.
Tom said:
"For the partners in this room, for HM Treasury and for the Chancellor, Impact Nation is how we turn this evening's commitment into lasting, measurable change for all of Britain."
What an evening at Number 11 makes clear is that the work of small business technology adoption is no longer a niche concern.
The Chancellor has made AI and innovation one of the central choices for the UK economy.
The OECD estimates that AI could add up to 1.3 percentage points to UK productivity growth over the next decade – a prize worth up to £140 billion of additional economic output by 2035.
The question isn't whether the UK will take part in the AI era, but whether the benefits will reach the 5.7 million small businesses that employ most of the country. Or, will they concentrate in the firms that already have the resources to capture them?
That's what Tech Hub exists for. It's why Enterprise Nation exists. And it's the standard against which every announcement made on Tuesday evening should be measured.
The Chancellor's presence in the room, the partners who funded the work, the founders who travelled to be there – all of it amounted to the same commitment: that the AI era should be one the UK enters together.
Enterprise Nation extends its thanks to HM Treasury for hosting, to the Chancellor for joining, to Tech Hub partners Sage, Google, Square and Dell Technologies for making the work possible, and to every member of the Enterprise Nation community who continues to remind the organisation why this work is worth doing.
Learn more about how small businesses across the UK are getting to grips with AI technology, in this new research from Enterprise Nation. View the report
