University of Edinburgh named one of UK's most AI-ready universities for next generation of businesses

University of Edinburgh named one of UK's most AI-ready universities for next generation of businesses

16 October 2026

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

Edinburgh combines strong performance across education, graduate outcomes and business success, offering one of the highest-number of AI and AI-related courses in the analysis at 26.

University of Edinburgh also has 31 active spinouts across engineering, physical sciences and mathematics. It also has one 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.

Edinburgh also records a 63% full-time employment rate among recent STEM graduates, while Imperial had a 72% 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."

Ends

Methodology

money.co.uk looked at the 146 UK universities, based on institutions from the official Universities UK recognised bodies register, alongside other institutions that legally hold university status.

We analysed AI and related courses, using UCAS data, to identify all courses held at each university that reference AI/Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, data science/scientists, robotics and automation in the course name.

Where the same course appeared multiple times because of sandwich years, industrial placements or part-time study options, these were removed to avoid duplication. Where courses were offered at multiple levels or were otherwise distinct qualifications, they were retained as separate courses.

HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) data was used to assess graduate outcomes, using the most recent available dataset for the calendar year 2023/2024. We looked at graduates in computing, engineering and technology, and mathematical sciences, as these subject areas encompass the majority of AI-related study. The percentage in full-time employment was calculated based on the total number of respondents who provided an outcome.

We also analysed HESA's University Spin-out register to identify spinouts that are currently active and classified under engineering, physical sciences or mathematics, providing the total number of relevant spinouts associated with each university.

Alongside this, we identified AI-specific businesses associated with each university, defined as businesses with a .ai domain or with "AI" or "artificial intelligence" in their name.

Each data point was assigned a weighting out of 25, with the exception of general spinouts, which were weighted out of 10, to create an overall index score out of 110.