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The UK government is testing two distinct AI chat services to make official business guidance easier to navigate. GOV.UK Chat is available in the GOV.UK app for questions across government information, while the Department for Business and Trade’s separate business.gov.uk webchat remains in private beta in the latest official status record reviewed, dated 30 July 2026. Neither should be mistaken for a single, fully launched small-business chatbot across GOV.UK.
What the two government chatbots do
Both services let people ask questions in everyday language, but they have different audiences, access routes and purposes. GOV.UK Chat is a broad guide to government information. The DBT webchat is aimed at exporting and business-support questions.
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| Service | Purpose and sources | Access and status in the latest cited records | Human support |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK Chat | Answers questions using information across GOV.UK, with relevant source links and signposting to official tools. | Available in the GOV.UK app. GDS confirmed the app experience on 19 August 2026. | It is a guide to information, not a replacement for every helpline or individual adviser; other support remains available. |
| Department for Business and Trade Webchat | Responds to natural-language questions about exporting and business support using specified GOV.UK and business.gov.uk material; the transparency record describes summaries with references and onward links. | Private beta in Great Britain in the DBT record dated 30 July 2026. A November 2025 product blog described invite-only access for selected business.gov.uk account holders. | The November 2025 product blog says users with more complex export questions can connect with export advisers. |
The records do not establish a common performance benchmark for the two services, so their reported figures should not be compared as if they measured the same thing.
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The 2024 business-user trial
On 5 November 2024, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced a further test of GOV.UK Chat, then described as an experimental generative-AI chatbot. The plan was to link it from 30 business pages, including pages about setting up a business and searching for a trade mark, and make it available to up to 15,000 business users. That was planned capacity, not a reported final user count.
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The idea was to draw together guidance that could otherwise take time to find across multiple pages. The announcement gave examples of questions about tax and support, including “How do I set up a limited company?” and “What government support is available to help my business grow?”
For that 2024 stage, the department said its in-house team was building the tool with OpenAI GPT-4o. It described safeguards against illegal requests, sensitive financial information and political questions, and said the AI Safety Institute had been consulted. The department also warned that generative AI could give inaccurate answers. These are descriptions of the 2024 design, not a statement of the current GOV.UK Chat technology.
The same announcement said nearly 70% of users in the first trial agreed the chatbot’s answers were helpful, while fewer than 15% disagreed. It also said further development and testing were needed to meet GOV.UK’s accuracy standards.
What GDS reported from later pilots
In a retrospective published on 16 March 2026, the Government Digital Service (GDS) said it had run two public pilots over 18 months. More than 10,000 users asked 26,000 questions on subjects including tax, benefits and visas. Those totals cover both pilots; the detailed participant counts below are parts of that total, not additional users or questions.
- The first web pilot recruited 10,136 people, who asked 23,838 questions.
- A later app research version had 641 TestFlight users, who asked 2,670 questions over four weeks.
- GDS used surveys, manual answer reviews, performance analysis, diary studies, usability testing and observation.
GDS said its evaluated accuracy score rose from 76% at the earliest benchmark to 90% across all topics in its latest reported evaluation. Subject-matter experts and automated evaluation were used, and an answer counted as accurate only when it met the standard of published content. GDS notes that an answer could be marked inaccurate for covering only some aspects of a question. The 90% is therefore an evaluation result across topics, not a guarantee that every answer is right or a small-business-only score.
Other measures in the March report were 73% of surveyed GOV.UK app users finding Chat useful, 64% being satisfied, an 88% answer rate for in-scope questions and an average answer time of 10.7 seconds. GDS also reported 508 jailbreak attempts during the pilots and said safeguards prevented all of them. It described a speed-versus-accuracy trade-off and said satisfaction increased when faster answer speeds were simulated. These are pilot findings attributed to GDS, not promises about every use of the service.
Where GOV.UK Chat is available now
GOV.UK Chat launched in the GOV.UK app on 14 May 2026, following a soft launch on 26 March. The app release describes it as a way to ask questions about information across GOV.UK and receive answers with relevant links and signposting to official tools. GDS’s 19 August 2026 design post says the app experience focuses on quick answers based on GOV.UK guidance.
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The launch is not evidence that the assistant has been rolled out across the GOV.UK website. The 2024 announcement discussed possible wider use after testing, but the latest status material cited here confirms app availability rather than a full website launch.
Onboarding in the app explains what the assistant covers, warns that AI can make mistakes and encourages users to check the linked sources. It also explains how conversation data is used. For an important decision about tax, eligibility or compliance, follow the official source links and contact the relevant service if the answer is unclear.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the DBT business webchat differs
The separate tool is named “The Department for Business and Trade Webchat” in DBT’s algorithmic transparency record dated 30 July 2026. That record lists its phase as private beta in Great Britain and says it answers natural-language questions about exporting or business support from specified GOV.UK and business.gov.uk URLs.
The same record says the webchat is built on Microsoft Copilot Studio and used GPT-5 at release. DBT says its team does not train or further develop the model. It describes filtering personal data before messages are passed to the agent, advises users not to enter personal or commercially sensitive information, and says transcripts are retained for 90 days for monitoring and evaluation. These details apply to the DBT webchat, not GOV.UK Chat.
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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteA DBT product blog dated 27 November 2025 described the Export Support Chatbot as an invite-only private beta for randomly selected business.gov.uk account holders, with an export-focused two-month trial. It said the chatbot used verified government and partner sources with citations and let users connect with export advisers for more complex questions. The 2026 transparency record continues to identify the related webchat as private beta.
DBT’s business roadmap listed a Business Growth Service launch in July 2025, an AI summary tool for funding options in August 2025 and a webchat trial with 5,000 exporters in October 2025. The roadmap said successful testing could lead to expansion to domestic businesses; it does not confirm that this expansion occurred.
What this means for a small business
- For general questions about government guidance, try GOV.UK Chat in the GOV.UK app and use its source links to verify the answer.
- For exporting or business-support questions, the DBT business.gov.uk webchat is a separate service and remains identified as private beta in the July 2026 transparency record; access may be restricted.
- Do not enter personal or commercially sensitive details into the DBT webchat, as its transparency record specifically advises against doing so.
- Use official pages, advisers or helplines for consequential decisions or questions requiring individual assessment. A chatbot summary is a starting point, not a substitute for that support.
In 2024, then Science Secretary Peter Kyle said the government was putting the technology through “extensive trials with thousands of real users before it is used more widely.” That statement described the government’s rationale; the later pilot evaluation and current service status provide the evidence of what has since been tested and released.
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