Nearly 100 firms working on artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help boost productivity have been awarded Government funding to boost their projects.

Ninety-eight schemes, including plans to use AI to reduce train delays and improve the efficiency of prescription deliveries, have been awarded a share of £32 million.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said the projects are spread across the UK and involve more than 200 businesses and research organisations, and will contribute to Government plans to boost productivity.

AI has become the key innovation area in the technology sector, with governments joining the biggest tech firms and start-ups around the world in looking for ways to harness the emerging technology.

At the moment, the most common use has been generative AI tools, used to create new content – text, images, audio or video – from scratch based on a simple prompt, but many other areas of use are also being explored.

Minister for digital government and AI Feryal Clark said: “AI will deliver real change for working people across the UK – not only growing our economy but improving our public services.

“That’s why our support for initiatives like this will be so crucial – backing a range of projects which could reduce train delays, give us new ways of maintaining our vital infrastructure, and improve experiences for patients by making it easier to get their prescriptions to them.

“We want technology to boost growth and deliver change right across the board, and I’m confident projects like these will help us realise that ambition.”

Among the projects to receive funding is one from Nottingham-based Anteam, which will see the company working with retailers and the NHS to improve the efficiency of their prescription deliveries using AI algorithms by matching needs to existing journeys, but also looking for under-utilised capacity and cutting carbon emissions.