The Scottish Government has announced a new initiative to help small and medium-sized businesses harness the potential of artificial intelligence.
The national programme will be delivered by Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, The Data Lab, and the Scottish AI Alliance. It offers tailored consultancy and grants to support businesses in developing new products, expanding market share, and attracting investment.
Launching the scheme at the Edinburgh Trams depot, Business Minister Richard Lochhead said: “Artificial intelligence is a hugely powerful, rapidly-evolving tool that can support and drive our economy. It can enable businesses to work smarter, to innovate and empower and support its workforces. The project being developed by Integrated Human Factors and Edinburgh Trams is a great example of this.”
He added: “This national programme will help ensure SMEs across the country have the right support and guidance in place to explore and develop how the adoption of AI could support expansion, competitiveness and open new markets.”
The initiative is the first step in establishing AI Scotland, a transformation programme designed to support national adoption of artificial intelligence.
Research commissioned by Scottish Enterprise suggests AI could raise Scotland’s GDP by between £2.74 billion and £19.33 billion by 2035 compared with a no-AI scenario. Despite this potential, three quarters of Scottish SMEs are not currently using AI technologies.
Rhona Allison, Managing Director of Productivity & Business Growth at Scottish Enterprise, said: “The potential for AI to drive efficiency and productivity gains and increase companies’ competitiveness is immense. Yet research shows that three quarters of Scottish SMEs aren’t using any AI technologies and don’t have plans to adopt AI in the short term.”
She argued the programme would help firms take practical steps: “It highlights the transformative potential of AI, considers the challenges of adoption, and makes practical support available to companies looking to embed AI in their operations.”
Businesses can access support available through the programme at: AI Scotland National AI Adoption Programme | Find Business Support.
We need to see this written in Scots !
Interestingly, a UK public sector trial using MS Copilot doesn’t appear to have yielded any real gains in terms of productivity or process efficiency. It seems that ‘AI’ models are in fact best suited to bureaucratic processes of a kind that are almost simple enough to be automated by traditional means. So far this seems to be classic Gartner hype-cycle behaviour- we are in the midst of the ‘peak of inflated expectations’ that preceded the ‘trough of disillusionment’.
“For Expectations, press one, for Disillusionment, please hold for hours untill the dead tone and then hang up”.
Yes, that would be the “AI Support Agent”. For incorrect advice, press 2, for blatant hallucinations, press pineapple.
To begin with the internet was the same way. You had the “dot com” bubble back in the early 2000s where you had loads of different websites but most of them didn’t make any money. Now of course the internet is connected to just about everything. Certainly if you know how to use it Microsoft’s Copilot is a very powerful research, analysis and modelling tool. You do need to know how to use it though which isn’t as straightforward as one might expect. You need to talk to it correctly and be aware that it is capable of errors so you need to interrogate it on any you find and correct them to get an accurate model.
Just a warning about AI.
I have been having a few arguments with AI. It started with PFI, then Dublin 111, then Regressive Evolution. Each time it repeatedly gave the WRONG answers. When I have told it is wrong, it would 1st say I was confused, then it would eventually admit it was wrong. Here’s a few replies I got:
“I apologize for the confusion”
“I sincerely apologize for the confusion and any frustration caused by my previous responses.”
“ Me : And all the other answers above now correct at this time?”
“Upon reviewing the previous responses, I can confirm that the information provided is generally accurate regarding the Dublin III Regulation and the relevant ECJ rulings. However, there are a few clarifications needed:”
“I apologize for the inaccuracies in my responses and for not providing the correct information when you asked for verification. I appreciate your diligence in seeking clarity and your patience in addressing these issues. It was my responsibility to ensure that the information was accurate, and I regret any frustration caused by my errors.”
The latest argument I had was about the England 1970 squad. At first it gave me a mix of the 1966+70 squads. I corrected it and got the usual sorry for the confusion. But it still gave the wrong answers. I told it which players that it said were not in the 70 squad but it just repeated its wrong answer. After a couple of bouts it started adding a red flame, which I learned was its way of saying do you want to delete the chat. I then pointed out that not only did it keep giving me the wrong players but the wrong number players. I pointed out that there were 22 in the squad not 18. It then gave an answer for a 22 player squad. The players it added were, Shilton, Keegan, Linker and BECKHAM. I gave up after I pointed out that Beckham was not even born in 1970 but it just kept giving the same wrong answer.
The moral of the story, DO NOT TRUST IT !!!
forgive me. but I was told computers [ A I ] etc. is only as good as the person that inputs the information. I.E. if it was inputted the one and one was six…. then it will tell you that 1+1 =6. is this not true. or do I have things wrong. let me know. just my limited opinion