• Swindon & Wiltshire Education, training and skills
• Monday October 19 2026

Bristol named one of UK’s most AI-ready universities for next generation of businesses

The University of Bristol has been named one of the UK’s top 10 universities for creating the next generation of AI businesses, according to a new report.

The study, from money.co.uk, ranked 146 UK universities on their ability to develop AI talent and translate it into commercial innovation.

It comes as the UK government aims for the country’s small and medium-sized businesses to become the most digitally capable and AI-confident in the G7 by 2035.

University of Bristol was named as the third most AI-ready university in the report, which analysed universities across three areas – AI and AI-related education, graduate employment and university spinout activity.

Bristol combines strong performance across education, graduate outcomes and business success, offering one of highest numbers of AI and AI-related courses in the analysis, at 27.

University of Bristol also has 51 active spinouts across engineering, physical sciences and mathematics. It also has two identified as AI-specific, helping it achieve the highest overall ranking.

Imperial University London was crowned as the best university in the UK to leverage AI potential.

Bristol also records a 64 per cent full-time employment rate among recent STEM graduates, while Imperial had a 72 per cent employment rate.

The analysis also found that some of the UK’s most established universities have particularly large commercial ecosystems.

The University of Cambridge has 174 relevant spinouts, the highest figure in the study, while the University of Oxford has 123. However, Cambridge offers 12 AI and AI-related courses and Oxford offers 15, compared with Imperial’s 31.

The top 10 most AI-ready universities

1 – Imperial College London

2 – University of Leeds

3 – University of Bristol

4 – University of Birmingham

5 – University of Liverpool

6 – Loughborough University

7 – University of Edinburgh

8 – University of Surrey

9 – University of Nottingham

10 – University of Oxford

Joe Phelan, money.co.uk business finance expert, said: “Our findings come as AI becomes increasingly accessible to smaller businesses, potentially lowering the cost and expertise required to launch and grow a company.

“While AI is often associated with technology companies, it can also help businesses across sectors automate tasks, understand customers, develop products and compete with larger organisations.

“This means the next generation of AI-enabled businesses may not necessarily be traditional AI startups. They could include small businesses using AI to build new products, improve existing services or operate more efficiently.

“The universities producing graduates with those skills, while also supporting spinouts and commercialisation, could play a huge role in determining what the UK’s next generation of small businesses looks like.”