AI funding for Welsh businesses

Business Wales runs funded skills programmes for businesses in Wales. Programmes, contribution rates and deadlines change, and announced funding is not always open to applications. Before you plan training around funding, check these points with Business Wales.

• Whether the programme is open to new applications, and for which sectors
• Whether your business and the training you want are eligible
• What share of the cost the programme covers, and the date by which training must be completed

Eligibility decisions are made by Business Wales, which can confirm the current position for your business.

Skills funding contributes towards the cost of training staff. Each programme sets its own rules on which training qualifies, such as accreditation or a recognised industry standard.

Applications go to Business Wales, which checks eligibility and confirms how much of the cost it will cover.

Ask about timings when you apply: how long a decision takes, when training must be finished and whether you can make more than one application.

Funded training prepares a team to use AI tools. Building a system that runs part of a process is a separate piece of work, which we scope against a named task.

For example, in our own projects, first-pass contract review at a law firm fell from an average of 72 minutes to 11, and client review preparation time at a financial services firm was cut by about two-thirds. Each result covers one task in one business.

Funding decisions and build decisions can be made separately. A business can take funded training without commissioning a build, and a build can go ahead without funding.

Funded programmes can set a date by which training must be completed. Ask Business Wales for the current date and work backwards from it, allowing time for the decision, scheduling and releasing staff.

Where a build is already scoped, the training can focus on the system the team will be running.

The Welsh Language Standards apply to specified organisations, mainly public bodies and some regulated sectors. Whether they apply to a private business depends on what it does and who it works for.

A business that provides services under an agreement with a Welsh public body should check whether that agreement brings it within scope. The Welsh Language Commissioner publishes guidance on this, and this page is not legal advice.

A business may choose to offer services in Welsh whether or not it has a duty to. Where a business wants to, a deployment can handle enquiries, quotes and documents in Welsh and English.