Edinburgh SMEs can get up to £25,000 for AI projects. Edinburgh businesses looking to introduce artificial intelligence can apply for between £2,500 and £25,000 through Scottish Enterprise's AI Adoption Grant. The scheme covers up to 50% of eligible project costs and can support feasibility work, pilots, implementation, staff capability and governance for responsible AI use. Projects must be completed by 31 March 2027. For local firms considering AI, the money raises a practical question, alongside which tools to use and what they might save: who checks the work AI produces before somebody acts on it? Scottish Government figures show why that question is becoming harder to ignore. In June 2026, 34.8% of businesses with 10 or more employees and a presence in Scotland were using some form of AI. Among businesses with 10 to 249 employees, the figure was 33.3%. AI is already part of Edinburgh business. Edinburgh already has a strong base of companies working with AI and data. Skyscanner was founded in the city and still has around 420 people based at its Edinburgh office, with technology and engineering making up a large part of the team. Edinburgh-headquartered CreateFuture is also working with Skyscanner on areas including data and AI tooling. CreateFuture was also named an OpenAI Select Partner in July 2026, reflecting the level of AI engineering already underway in the city. And earlier this summer, Multiverse opened an AI engineering hub in Edinburgh, with plans to create 200 jobs across Edinburgh and London. Edinburgh247 covered that move in July. For most local SMEs, though, AI adoption is likely to be less dramatic. It may start with staff drafting emails, summarising meetings, researching suppliers, analysing data or producing first versions of documents. That is also where mistakes can quietly slip through. Not every AI mistake carries the same risk. A poor suggestion during a brainstorming session is easy to discard. Incorrect wording in a contract, a misleading summary of a job applicant or an error in financial information is another matter. Behavioural scientist Dr Gleb Tsipursky argues that businesses should put clear guardrails around AI before it becomes embedded in everyday workflows. His new book, The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results, puts human judgement at the centre of that process. "Treat Gen AI as an assistant to humans so you elevate judgment, compress cycle time, and compound learning." - Dr Gleb Tsipursky That principle is useful for smaller businesses because it does not require every AI task to be treated the same way. Lower-consequence work, such as brainstorming, rough drafts, and internal summaries, may only need a quick sense check. Customer-facing or operational work needs more attention. Emails, recommendations, and material that influences another person's next action should have a named reviewer checking accuracy and context. Higher-consequence work, including hiring, legal commitments, financial decisions, confidential information, or safety-related tasks, should have clear human approval and accountability. Tsipursky describes a guardrail map as one of the practical tools businesses can build alongside an adoption plan and measures for tracking results. For a small firm, that could be as simple as a one-page document explaining what staff can use freely, what needs to be checked, and who is responsible when something goes wrong. What the Scottish Enterprise grant can support. The Scottish Enterprise scheme is not limited to buying software. Eligible work includes identifying AI opportunities, testing the feasibility of an idea, running pilots, introducing systems into existing workflows, and building staff capability. It can also support the processes and governance needed for responsible AI adoption. Businesses must have more than 10 employees, be based in an area supported by Scottish Enterprise, and have a clearly defined AI project or business challenge. Funding is competitive, and projects must be approved before funded work begins. For an Edinburgh company already experimenting with AI, the application process could therefore be a useful point to decide not only what to automate, but also what should remain under human control. Measure whether AI actually helps. Using more AI doesn't automatically mean a business is improving. The more useful measures are tied to outcomes: time saved, faster response times, fewer errors, and less rework. Tsipursky's book makes the same point, arguing that businesses should build measurement into AI adoption rather than treating usage itself as proof of success. If staff repeatedly have to correct the same kind of AI output, tighter controls may be needed. In some cases, AI may simply be the wrong tool for that job. For Edinburgh SMEs looking at the Scottish Enterprise grant, the more useful question may be: where does AI genuinely improve the work, and where should a person remain in charge? Dr Gleb Tsipursky is a behavioural scientist and author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results, published by Georgetown University Press.

Meet Kelly Griffith, its new SVP of Coaching & Delivery. By Team Multiverse 10 September 2026 Its new coaching lead joins from EZRA. Her first priority: give coaches their time back. Today Kelly Griffith joins Multiverse as Senior Vice President of Coaching & Delivery. Coaching is one of the things its customers and learners tell Multiverse Group they value most. As a company that relentlessly backs human agency, Multiverse Group know the value that a direct relationship with a human expert can provide. Kelly now leads the largest team at Multiverse. She joins from EZRA, the industry leading professional coaching platform, where she spent seven years as Chief Coaching Officer, building the coaching community from the ground up to over 4,500 professionals in over a hundred countries. A tested, qualified coach herself, she has done the work she now leads. She also knew Multiverse Group before she joined Multiverse Group. Multiverse has been an EZRA customer, so she watched how Multiverse Group work from the other side of the table. Kelly Griffith, SVP of Coaching & Delivery: "The core of an apprenticeship has always been that key relationship between an expert and a learner. Scaling that in the AI era is a critical mission, and the brilliant team of Multiverse coaches have a special role to play. "I've followed Multiverse for many years, including as a customer, but this moment, with the company accelerating growth and impact across Europe, feels like an inflection point. I'm thrilled to join." She joins to lead a team of expert practitioners. Multiverse coaches spend an average of five years working in industry before they coach in an area. More than 100 hold advanced degrees and there is an astrophysicist and a former Air Force Lieutenant among them. Crucially, learners do not get one generalist stretched across the whole programme. The team is structured to ensure learners access the right specialists at each stage: Launch Coaches to set them up, Technical Instructors to teach the content, Cohort Coaches to drive application in the day job, and Success Coaches to see them through end-point assessment. Calibre on the way in is only half of it. Multiverse Group hire, train and evaluate every coach against its Compass Framework, and coaches then complete an average of 60 hours of technical upskilling a year to stay current. Its learners consistently rate their coaches above 9 out of 10. Kelly's first priority is time. Specifically, giving it back to that team. That work is already underway. Atlas, its AI coach, has cut the share of coach time spent on routine support from 41% to 18%, resolving 88.3% of inbound queries about scheduling and platform navigation. Atlas answers the questions that require a response within 5 minutes at 11pm at night. Coaches answer the questions that fundamentally affect how someone works. Kelly now owns how those two things fit together across 40,000+ learners in the UK and Europe. Euan Blair, CEO and Founder of Multiverse: "As AI procurement continues at pace, there's a gap opening up between the capability of the tools and the capability of the workforce to use those tools." "Our expert human coaches are a key part of closing that gap: they drive accountability and guide learners to apply their skills in meaningful ways. Kelly built one of the largest coaching operations in the world, and we're delighted to have her now leading the largest team at Multiverse." Multiverse Group sat down with Kelly in her first week for a interview on why she joined, and what she's looking forward to most. What are you most excited about? "Unlocking time for its coaches. Creating time for them to drive the most impact with learners. "AI adds real value in the flow of work, for time constrained tasks and the urgent things you need help with right now. That work does not need a human doing it. "But at the core of it, the human coaches are the ones who then have more time to work with learners on their goals, their ambitions, their values, what motivates them. To help them unblock challenges and become the best they can be in the workplace." Why Multiverse? "Every business now has to show how it builds value from AI. Multiverse is a long way ahead of the market on that. That is exciting to walk into." What will coaches notice first? "Time with me, and time with each other. "Coaches are the most wonderful group of people to work with. Many of the best are senior individuals moving into another chapter of their careers, people who see people development as something they love doing. Multiverse coaches are cut from the same cloth." Team Multiverse