According to a new survey from OpenAI, the UK’s small and medium business adoption of AI is showing regional divide in uptake.

The research shows that almost all SMBs in London (93%) are using AI tools on the daily, above the national average of about four in five.

This is in stark contrast to several other regions in the UK, however, showing a deep AI divide. While AI adoption is strong overall, there are still major gaps.

For instance, about a quarter of small businesses in Yorkshire and Humber (26%) do not use AI at all, while about three in ten in the South West (28%) are yet to adopt AI.

In Scotland, about a quarter (24%) of small businesses do not use AI.

Unsurprisingly, the tech industry outpaced other sectors in terms of adoption, with only 5% from this sector saying they are yet to use AI at all.

The majority of businesses not using AI at this point include sole traders (37%) and micro businesses (25%) out of the 1,000 businesses surveyed by OpenAI.

Of the businesses that use AI, seven in ten (71%) say that it makes them more effective as business leaders, citing benefits such as time saved (45%), reduced errors (34%), and decreased costs (24%).

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In the UK, OpenAI found that its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, was the most popular tool, used by 64% of surveyed businesses, followed by Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot (both 42%), and Anthropic’s Claude (11%).

Businesses yet to adopt AI into their technology stack say that a lack of training and skills (28%) is the main barrier to uptake.

“UK SMEs are already saving over half a day a week thanks to AI, but those benefits aren’t evenly shared,” Sanj Bhayro, managing director EMEA sales at OpenAI, said.

“Gaps are emerging across regions, business size, and how deeply firms are able to use AI in practice. Without action, the smallest businesses risk being left out of the next wave of growth.”