AI is rapidly becoming part of the everyday toolkit for UK SMEs, with businesses increasingly using the technology to support everything from software development and content creation to research, productivity and routine administration.
Our internal data shows just how quickly this shift has happened. The proportion of SME cardholders spending with AI providers has risen from 1.1% in Q1 2023 to 12.8% in Q2 2026, meaning more than one in eight businesses in the dataset were buying AI by mid-2026. Over the same period, AI’s share of total SME card spend increased almost thirtyfold.
To understand how this shift is changing SME spending behaviour, the team at Capital on Tap analysed internal business credit card transaction data from UK SME cardholders between Q1 2023 and Q2 2026. The analysis focuses on spending with identified pure-play AI providers, tracking changes in adoption, spending habits, provider preferences and the types of AI tools businesses are investing in.
The increase has been particularly pronounced over the past year, suggesting that adoption is accelerating rather than simply continuing at a steady pace.
AI’s share of total card spend has also grown substantially, rising from 0.005% in Q1 2023 to 0.146% in Q2 2026. While AI remains a relatively small proportion of overall SME expenditure, the scale of the increase points to a real shift in how businesses are allocating technology budgets.
