Search for "Ai grants Scotland" and you'll find plenty of confident articles. A good number of them are describing money that no longer exists.
This page is different in one boring way. Every fund below was checked on the date above, against the official source, not against someone else's blog. Where a fund is dead we say so. Where nobody knows yet, we say that too.
First, the graveyard
The DigitalBoost Development Grant closed in May 2023. Three years on, blogs still recommend it. If an article mentions it as live funding, stop reading that article.
More recently, two Scottish Enterprise funds have gone the same way. The Ai Adoption Transformation Fund and the Ai Adoption Feasibility Fund offered between £2,000 and £25,000 towards bringing in outside Ai expertise. Both pages now return "Service Not Found" on Find Business Support.
That's not an error. The £1 million pilot programme they belonged to required every project completed and paid by 31 March 2026. The money was spent, the pages came down and the internet didn't notice.
What's paused
The Highlands and Islands Digital and Technology Adoption Capital Grant is real and worth knowing about. It funds the adoption of digital technology, including Ai and software development, for organisations based in the HIE region.
But it's paused. HIE stopped taking new Expressions of Interest until the end of August 2026 because demand was too high. The programme is expected to run until March 2029, though it will close early if the money runs out first.
The practical advice: if you're in the Highlands and Islands, have your digital plan ready now so you can enquire the day it reopens. HIE recommends a digital action plan or feasibility study before applying, and their separate Digital Specialist Advice Grant offers up to £5,000 towards exactly that. That grant was listed as available when we checked.
Two things to know before you count on HIE money. Businesses mainly in retail, food and drink, personal services or business services appear in the exclusions. And you'll need at least three quotes from potential suppliers, which is a sensible discipline whether a grant demands it or not.
What's coming
Scotland published a five-year Ai strategy in March 2026. Its flagship commitment for small businesses is a revitalised National Ai Adoption Programme, delivered through a new body called AI Scotland alongside an Ai Leadership Academy for business leaders.
As of today, that programme exists in name. The AI Scotland site invites businesses to register interest through partner organisations, with detail on support and how to apply "to be published in due course".
Translated from government: the old money has closed, the new money has been announced and nobody can apply for anything yet. If you want to be near the front of the queue, register interest now through The Data Lab, Scottish Enterprise, HIE, Business Gateway or South of Scotland Enterprise. It costs nothing and takes minutes.
What's open right now, if you're in Ayrshire
While the national picture is between chapters, two local schemes are live.
North Ayrshire Council's Business Support Fund offers flexible grant and consultancy funding to help new and existing businesses survive and grow. It's assessed case by case rather than published as a fixed amount, and enquiring is free. The council's business team responds within five working days.
East Ayrshire's beReady programme is the most concrete offer in the county. Grants run from £500 up to a maximum of £750 or £3,000 depending on the project, and businesses in the beDigitalReady stream can apply for funding towards a digital marketing campaign or a new website. A £3,000 grant against a website build changes the arithmetic considerably.
Neither scheme shouts about itself. That's rather the point of this page.
The rules we'd want you to know
Nobody can tell you that you're eligible for any of these except the body that runs them. Criteria shift, budgets empty and several schemes want you talking to Business Gateway or a council adviser before anything is signed. Treat everything above as a map, not a promise.
One more honest note. Grant funding is a lovely discount on a project you were going to do anyway. It's a poor reason to do a project you weren't. Decide what the business needs first, then see if someone will help pay for it. Not the other way round.
We keep this page current because we build websites, business software and mobile apps for Scottish SMEs, and it helps our clients to know where the money is. If a fund above has changed since the date at the top, tell us and we'll fix it.