Monthly incorporations
Companies incorporated each month with “AI” in their name, any current status. The busiest month so far was July 2025, with 413. Each of the last 4 months, to September 2026, was below the same month a year earlier.
By year
3,642 AI-named companies were incorporated in 2025, 8.7 times the 2020 figure of 420. 2026 to date is ahead of the same months of 2025 by 8%.
| Year | AI-named | All companies | AI share | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 420 | 776,944 | 0.05% | n/a |
| 2021 | 394 | 768,798 | 0.05% | −6% |
| 2022 | 481 | 802,467 | 0.06% | +22% |
| 2023 | 1,512 | 896,572 | 0.17% | +214% |
| 2024 | 1,958 | 844,294 | 0.23% | +29% |
| 2025 | 3,642 | 829,933 | 0.44% | +86% |
| 2026 (Jan to Sep) | 2,951 | 595,285 | 0.50% | +8% |
Change is on the previous year; for 2026 it is on the same months of 2025. AI share is AI-named incorporations as a percentage of all incorporations.
The latest 12 months
| Month | AI-named | All companies | AI share | A year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 297 | 68,379 | 0.43% | 361 (−18%) |
| Aug 2026 | 264 | 58,356 | 0.45% | 305 (−13%) |
| Jul 2026 | 372 | 68,370 | 0.54% | 413 (−10%) |
| Jun 2026 | 314 | 63,625 | 0.49% | 370 (−15%) |
| May 2026 | 339 | 62,569 | 0.54% | 282 (+20%) |
| Apr 2026 | 409 | 67,637 | 0.60% | 247 (+66%) |
| Mar 2026 | 365 | 74,137 | 0.49% | 261 (+40%) |
| Feb 2026 | 261 | 60,477 | 0.43% | 249 (+5%) |
| Jan 2026 | 330 | 71,735 | 0.46% | 253 (+30%) |
| Dec 2025 | 268 | 51,043 | 0.53% | 172 (+56%) |
| Nov 2025 | 291 | 59,762 | 0.49% | 176 (+65%) |
| Oct 2025 | 342 | 75,943 | 0.45% | 185 (+85%) |
A year earlier shows the same month of the previous year and the change from it.
By industry
Active AI-named companies by the industry code (SIC) they filed. Software development and IT consultancy lead. A company can file up to four codes, so rows overlap and do not add up to the total.
| Industry | SIC code | Active companies | Share of active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software development | 62012 | 3,638 | 40.1% |
| IT consultancy | 62020 | 2,643 | 29.1% |
| Other IT services | 62090 | 1,700 | 18.7% |
| Management consultancy | 70229 | 734 | 8.1% |
| Data processing and hosting | 63110 | 680 | 7.5% |
| Advertising agencies | 73110 | 326 | 3.6% |
| Other education (training providers) | 85590 | 314 | 3.5% |
| Other research and development | 72190 | 289 | 3.2% |
Share of the 9,072 active AI-named companies on 8 October 2026.
By city
Active AI-named companies whose registered office address contains the city name. London dominates, partly because many formation agents and virtual offices that provide registered addresses are in London.
| City | Active companies | Share of active |
|---|---|---|
| London | 3,885 | 42.8% |
| Manchester | 187 | 2.1% |
| Birmingham | 154 | 1.7% |
| Cardiff | 112 | 1.2% |
| Glasgow | 108 | 1.2% |
| Bristol | 83 | 0.9% |
| Edinburgh | 80 | 0.9% |
| Cambridge | 77 | 0.8% |
| Leeds | 73 | 0.8% |
| Oxford | 65 | 0.7% |
| Belfast | 34 | 0.4% |
Text match on the registered office address, so "London Road" in another town also counts. See the caveats below.
Survival by year of incorporation
For each year of incorporation, how many AI-named companies are still active today and how many have been dissolved. Younger cohorts have had less time to close, so the rates are not directly comparable across years.
| Incorporated | Total | Active | Dissolved | Other | Still active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 420 | 205 | 211 | 4 | 49% |
| 2021 | 394 | 182 | 201 | 11 | 46% |
| 2022 | 481 | 230 | 245 | 6 | 48% |
| 2023 | 1,512 | 739 | 763 | 10 | 49% |
| 2024 | 1,958 | 1,125 | 823 | 10 | 57% |
| 2025 | 3,642 | 3,031 | 604 | 7 | 83% |
Status on 8 October 2026. Other covers liquidation, administration and similar statuses.
What this means for UK businesses
Most AI-named firms are very new. 5,948 of the 9,072 active companies (66%) were incorporated between January 2025 and September 2026. A company name costs little to register, and a new company says nothing yet about what it has delivered.
If you are buying AI work, check the track record behind the name: systems the supplier runs in production, references you can call, and who will actually do the work. Ask for a fixed price against a written scope, and confirm in the contract that you own the code, the data and the accounts it runs on. Our guide to choosing an AI consultancy in the UK sets out the questions to ask.
Not every firm lasts: of the AI-named companies incorporated in 2020, 49% are still active. Growth in new firms points to strong interest in AI services, and more choice for buyers, but it does not measure adoption or revenue. We run our own AI products and work at fixed prices; see how on our AI consultancy page.
Methodology and caveats
- Source. Result counts from the public Companies House advanced company search, fetched on 8 October 2026 (method version 1.0). Each row in the dataset stores the exact query string.
- Name matching undercounts. Only companies with the word “AI” in the registered name are counted. Many AI businesses, including some of the best known, do not use it, so this is an indicator of new AI-branded firms, not the size of the UK AI sector.
- Name matching also overcounts. Some names use “Ai” as a word or a personal name with no link to artificial intelligence. We do not remove these by hand, so the series stays reproducible.
- City means registered office. The city figures match text in the registered office address, which is often an accountant, a virtual office or a company formation agent rather than where the business operates. A street name such as “London Road” elsewhere also matches.
- Counts change. Companies House updates records continuously: companies dissolve, change name or are restored. Past months can move slightly between refreshes. Each monthly update re-fetches the latest 13 months, so cite the update date you used.
- Industry codes are self-declared. Companies choose up to four SIC codes themselves, and none of the codes in use here is specific to AI.
- All-companies comparison. All-companies counts are the result count of the same search with no name filter. Not capped in testing (for example 68,379 for September 2026).
- Licence. Companies House data is public sector information. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Download, cite and contact
Every figure on this page in one long-format file: monthly counts, the active snapshot, and cohort survival, with the fetch date on each row.
How to cite
Augustova, UK AI Company Tracker, updated 8 October 2026, https://www.augustova.co.uk/uk-ai-company-tracker
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
For journalists: for questions about the data, a custom cut or a comment, email zain.m@augustova.co.uk.
Changelog
- 8 October 2026First publication: monthly incorporations from January 2020, active snapshot by industry and city, survival by cohort year.
Common questions
How many AI companies are there in the UK?
On 8 October 2026, 9,072 active companies on the Companies House register had "AI" as a word in their name. That is a count of names, not of every business working in AI: many established AI firms do not use the word in their name, and a few names use "Ai" as an ordinary word. Treat it as a consistent indicator of new activity rather than a census.
How many AI companies are there in London?
3,885 of the 9,072 active AI-named companies (43%) give a London registered office address. A registered office is a legal address, often an accountant or a company formation agent, so the figure says where companies are registered rather than where their staff work.
How many AI companies were founded in 2025?
3,642 companies with "AI" in their name were incorporated in 2025, against 1,958 in 2024 (+86%). That is 8.7 times the 2020 figure. Of the 2025 intake, 3,031 were still active on 8 October 2026.
Are more AI companies being set up in 2026?
Yes, so far. From January to September 2026, 2,951 AI-named companies were incorporated, up 8% on the 2,741 formed in the same months of 2025. September 2026 alone saw 297. Each of the last 4 months was below the same month a year earlier, so growth has slowed.
How is the UK AI Company Tracker counted?
Every figure is a result count from the public Companies House advanced company search, filtered on the word "AI" in the company name and on incorporation date, company status, SIC code or registered office text. We run the same queries each month with a published script and keep the query strings in the dataset, so anyone can reproduce a number.
Can I use this data?
Yes. The underlying data is Companies House public sector information under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Download the CSV, and cite "Augustova, UK AI Company Tracker, updated 8 October 2026, https://www.augustova.co.uk/uk-ai-company-tracker". Journalists can email zain.m@augustova.co.uk for custom cuts.