# BidSkim

> BidSkim monitors UK public procurement notices from Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales, scores them against a supplier's business profile and sends the matches that fit. BidSkim Research publishes data reports built from the same procurement record.

## Research

- [Artificial intelligence in UK public procurement, 2022 to 2026](https://bidskim.com/research/ai-in-uk-public-procurement-2022-2026): 2,008 AI-related procurements published by 615 UK public bodies from January 2022 to August 2026, with £1.83bn in published contract awards. Buyers, suppliers including Palantir, SME and overseas shares, generative AI and data-centre spending. By Seamus White, published 2026-09-15, licensed CC BY 4.0.
- [Full report](https://bidskim.com/research/ai-in-uk-public-procurement-2022-2026/full): sector tables, value rules and the classification method.
- [Report PDF](https://bidskim.com/research/ai-in-uk-public-procurement-2022-2026/ai-in-uk-public-procurement-2022-2026.pdf)
- [All figures with chart data](https://bidskim.com/research/ai-in-uk-public-procurement-2022-2026/figures.zip)

### Key figures from the report

- How much has the UK public sector spent on AI contracts? UK public bodies published £1.83bn of AI-related contract awards between January 2022 and August 2026, across 1,470 awards with a published value. It is the value of contracts awarded, not money paid. Over the same period 615 public bodies published 2,008 AI-related procurements.
- Does the total include framework agreements? No. Only the contracts awarded under a framework are counted. A framework ceiling is a spending limit shared by many buyers over several years, so it is not a purchase.
- How many AI contracts do UK public bodies publish each year? 271 in 2022, 303 in 2023, 399 in 2024 and 555 in 2025. The first eight months of 2026 had 480, a pace of about 720 a year.
- Which companies win the most UK government AI contracts? By number of awards, Beam (77), VivaCity (47) and Voicescape (39). Seven of the 18 most frequent winners are SMEs. By published value, Palantir (£553.0m), Quantexa (£186.0m) and HPE (£175.9m).
- How much UK public sector AI money goes to Palantir? Palantir holds £553.0m across 17 awards with a published value, 30% of all published AI contract value and more than any other supplier. Its two largest agreements are with the Ministry of Defence (£240.6m) and NHS England for the Federated Data Platform (£182.2m).
- How much UK public AI spending goes to overseas companies? Suppliers headquartered overseas or under foreign control hold 65% of published AI contract value, £1.19bn, from 33% of valued awards. UK suppliers won 67% of the awards and hold 35% of the value. US companies alone hold 46%, £847.5m, and 52% counting the UK companies they own.
- How much UK public sector AI money goes to US companies? US-headquartered suppliers hold £847.5m, 46% of the £1.83bn of published AI contract value since January 2022. Counting UK companies with US owners, such as SeeByte and PA Consulting, it is £956.7m, 52%. Most of it is Palantir (£553.0m) and HPE’s hardware for Isambard-AI (£175.9m).
- Which public bodies buy the most AI? The Ministry of Defence is the largest buyer by number and by value, with 114 AI-related procurements and £541.0m in published value. Next by number are the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (96) and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (62). Next by value are NHS England (£230.8m), the University of Bristol (£187.5m) and HM Revenue & Customs (£179.1m). As a sector, local government publishes the most AI procurements, 475.
- What kind of AI are UK public bodies buying? Mostly tools in use. Research and evaluation fell from 23% of AI-related procurements in 2022 to 6% in 2026. The largest categories are sensing & physical-world vision (396), casework, documents & automation (291) and research, safety & innovation funding (261). In 2026, 31% of procurements that state a technique name a generative or language-model one, up from 3% in 2022.
- Do SMEs win UK public sector AI contracts? SMEs win most of the contracts but little of the money. They won 53% of valued awards (777) and hold 16% of published value (£300.5m). Half of all AI contracts are under £106k.
- How were the AI contracts identified? From every notice on Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales. 16,870 candidate procurements were read in full and classified against a written definition of AI-related work. 737 of the 2,008 included procurements (37%) never use an AI term, so a keyword search of the portals would miss them.

### Citation

White, S. (2026) Artificial intelligence in UK public procurement, 2022 to 2026. BidSkim Research, Procurement Data Series No. 1. Version 2026-10-07. Available at: https://bidskim.com/research/ai-in-uk-public-procurement-2022-2026

## Product

- [How it works](https://bidskim.com/how-it-works)
- [Features](https://bidskim.com/features)
- [Data sources](https://bidskim.com/data)
- [Pricing](https://bidskim.com/pricing)
- [Data for journalists](https://bidskim.com/data-for-journalists)