BT Business today launched AI from BT, a new portfolio of practical and secure solutions designed to help UK businesses adopt AI with confidence and drive UK growth. The move reflects BT’s ambition to help businesses unlock the benefits of AI, while overcoming the complexity, uncertainty and security concerns that continue to hold many organisations back.
New BT research reveals that while almost two thirds of small business owners (65%) believe AI could significantly benefit their business, more than half (56%) say they are not yet realising its full potential. Many are unsure where to start, needing a trusted partner to help them adopt AI securely and use iteffectively. As the UK’s largest provider of business connectivity and technology solutions, BT is uniquely placed to provide this support.
BT is launching AI Receptionist, a new, powerful tool to help businesses manage customer enquiries around the clock and ensure they never miss another call. To support small businesses with AI, BT is also launching a free AI Adoption Hub. The Hub provides practical guides, prompt packs, expert insights, and real-world examples of businesses using AI, giving businesses the confidence to unlock the value of AI and work smarter and safer.
Research reveals small businesses are struggling to keep up with customer enquiries and losing out on growth as a result – with over two thirds (67%) saying on an average day they miss at least one call that they believe results in losing business. The findings also detail the commercial opportunity for small businesses, with a predicted £3.7 billion revenue being lost annually due to not always being able to answer the phone.
Phone calls remain the number one preferred way to contact a business, but failing to answer has a major impact on purchasing decisions. 75% of potential customers will give businesses three call attempts before giving up on them, and 58% of respondents said they would go so far as telling friends and family to avoid businesses that failed to pick up.
Jon James, CEO, BT Business, said: “AI has the potential to be a huge boost to small businesses and to drive the UK’s growth, but many businesses are struggling to know how to begin and how to adopt simply and securely. That’s why BT – the UK’s most trusted network for business – has created AI from BT: a portfolio of practical, secure AI solutions backed by BT’s expertise and support.
AI Receptionist is the first step in the journey, helping businesses capture every opportunity, reduce admin and deliver responsive, personalised service around the clock, while keeping their customer data protected.”
Michelle Ovens, CEO and Founder, Small Business Britain, said: “Small businesses can often feel they are fighting a losing battle, having to cover everything from finance and HR to marketing with limited headcount. AI can be an incredible help, and when utilised correctly, it is a cost-effective and fast way of managing the front line of customer service. We know that time-poor customers want quick resolutions,and when businesses can’t provide this, revenue is lost. For small businesses, that can be the difference between being able to grow and expand, or not.”
With nearly three fifths (58%) of small and medium-sized businesses spending between 30 minutes and two hours every day answering customer phone calls, and 85% saying this interrupts their ability to complete other work, AI Receptionist provides a range of services to help organisations concentrate on growing their business:
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Always-on service: Answers calls 24/7 and handles routine enquiries
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Simpler appointment management: Schedules appointments, sends confirmations and integrates with Outlook and Google Calendar
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Better follow-up: Captures and transcribes conversations and generates insights from customer interactions
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A tailored customer experience: Learns from business information and offers customisable voice and accent options
It is designed for sectors where incoming calls are an important route to bookings or new work, including:
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Trades and field-based businesses: capturing enquiries and arranging appointments while people are on-site
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Estate agents: qualifying enquiries, routing callers and helping arrange viewings
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Healthcare and professional practices: handling routine appointment requests and directing callers to the appropriate team
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Legal and financial services: capturing initial information and connecting clients to the right specialist
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Retailers: answering product, availability and promotion questions while employees support customers in-store
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Pubs, restaurants and hospitality businesses: answering booking and opening-hours enquiries while staff serve customers
BT’s AI Receptionist is available on flexible contracts and can be set up quickly through a self-service portal, enabling businesses to begin using AI with minimal technical expertise. It works across any UK fixed or mobile network, allowing businesses to keep their existing number without changing or replacing their phone system – and is built with security in mind, with customer data remaining private and not used to train AI models.
The launch will be supported by a major above-the-line advertising campaign that uses a busy pub to show how AI tools from the UK’s most trusted network for business can manage routine tasks and allow businesses to concentrate on customers. The campaign spans television, video-on-demand, radio, digital audio, podcast sponsorships, social, out-of-home and in pub activations.
Methodology
BT Business commissioned research with Censuswide, a member of the British Polling Committee, to understand how the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses use AI and handle customer calls, alongside how consumers experience trying to reach businesses. The SME survey sampled 1,500 decision makers aged 25+ at UK SMEs (businesses with fewer than 250 employees) across all 12 UK regions, with fieldwork between 23 and 28 September 2026. The consumer survey sampled 2,000 UK adults aged 18+, nationally representative, with fieldwork between 23 and 25 September 2026.
Economic modelling to estimate revenue lost to missed calls
The estimate uses findings from the SME survey, which asked respondents how much revenue their business had lost to missed calls so far this year. Each banded answer was valued at its midpoint, “don’t know” responses were excluded. As fieldwork took place in late September, answers were treated as covering nine months and scaled up to a full year (multiplied by 12/9). Business numbers and turnover come from the Department for Business and Trade’s Business Population Estimates 2025.
1–9 employees: average annual loss of £1,597 × 1,150,875 businesses = £1.84bn
10–49 employees: average annual loss of £3,753 × 220,085 businesses = £0.83bn. This equals 0.106% of the band’s total turnover (£776.2bn).
50–249 employees: 0.106% × total turnover of £948.6bn = £1.01bn. Respondents in this band reported implausibly low losses relative to turnover, so the 10–49 share of turnover was applied instead of their answers.
Total: £3.67bn a year, or approximately £71m a week. The figure is based on respondents’ own estimates and is indicative.
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BT Business launches AI from BT, a portfolio of practical, secure solutions to help UK firms adopt AI with confidence and drive UK growth
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New AI Adoption hub introduced as research reveals two-thirds of small businesses see the potential benefits of AI, but more than half are not yet realising its full value
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AI from BT also features AI Receptionist – which helps businesses answer calls 24/7, reduce admin and capture more customer opportunities – supported by a major advertising campaign
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UK small businesses lose £3.7 billion a year through missed calls, while 67% miss at least one potentially valuable call on an average day
For more information, visit business.bt.com/ai-for-business
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