New research shows 68% of small businesses want to learn what agentic AI could do next

UK small businesses have a clear AI problem: confidence is racing ahead of real-world use. New research from the Small Business Institute and Accio, Alibaba.com’s agentic AI platform, found that 70% of 1,000 small business owners feel somewhat or very confident using generative AI, but fewer than half, 48%, use it regularly.

That gap shows up in what people are actually doing with the tools. Nearly three quarters, 74%, use AI for content creation and marketing. Only a third use it for data analysis or reporting. And just 5% have brought it into supply-chain management, even though that is the kind of work where automation could make a serious difference.

The bigger story is that most firms seem stuck at the easy end of the spectrum. AI has become part of daily work for many entrepreneurs, but mainly as a helper for straightforward tasks rather than something that changes how the business runs. The study says that’s where agentic AI comes in: tools that can research markets, evaluate suppliers and handle day-to-day operations on a business’s behalf.

There is already real curiosity. Awareness is still thin, with 44% of small businesses saying they have heard of agentic AI and 5% using it regularly. But 68% want to learn more about what it can do, from comparing information to moving tasks closer to completion. Six in ten believe it could improve work-life balance, and half think it could free up time for marketing and finding new customers.

Michelle Ovens CBE, CEO and founder of Small Business Britain, called the findings both encouraging and revealing, while Michelle Lau, Managing Director of Alibaba.com, said current adoption is still surface-level. That sounds about right. Plenty of businesses have bought the chatbot; fewer have let AI anywhere near the messy bits that actually eat time.