UK founders see AI-first startups rising, trust costs soar

Research published by Estonia's e-Residency programme suggests UK founders expect most new startups to be built around artificial intelligence by the end of the decade, even as many smaller firms keep hiring tight and shift spending towards security and online verification.

The survey of 250 UK entrepreneurs and SME leaders found 75% believe most new startups will be "AI-first" by 2030. It also found 70% think companies that fail to adopt AI will be outcompeted within five years.

Alongside optimism about AI, the research points to a growing focus on "digital trust" as a commercial requirement for companies that sell online, handle data, or operate across borders. Respondents said the ability to prove identity, protect customers, and reduce online risk is increasingly shaping where and how they scale.

Trust spending

Digital trust ranked highly among priorities tied to international growth. Some 88% said it will help determine which startups succeed globally, while 85% said reliable digital infrastructure matters as much as physical infrastructure for business continuity.

The findings also suggest that trust influences buying decisions. In the survey, 84% said digital trust rivals product quality and price in customers' purchasing decisions.

Respondents reported rising online risk. Some 73% said they faced at least one challenge linked to online risk or misinformation in the past year, and 26% said AI-generated fakes or profiles had already damaged trust in their sector.

That mix of AI adoption and perceived risk is adding costs for smaller companies. Respondents reported spending an average of 16% of their operational costs on digital trust and security. The research described this as a growing "trust tax", covering measures such as security controls, compliance work, and identity checks.

Government action also featured in the results. Some 84% said they want a stronger government role in digital resilience, and 78% said companies that ignore trust risk could be excluded from key markets.

Skills gap

The research also highlights continued concern about specialist skills. Some 89% of UK founders said domestic skills shortages have limited growth, with 29% reporting a critical impact in the past year.

Cybersecurity emerged as the sharpest gap. Four in five respondents (80%) cited it as a skills shortage. The research framed this as a constraint on small teams trying to build and scale AI-centred products while meeting security and regulatory expectations.

The survey also asked about pressures beyond technology and regulation. It found 37% cited financial insecurity linked to business survival as a key challenge. Some 34% reported difficulty balancing family or personal life with founder responsibilities, while 18% cited isolation and lack of mentorship as ongoing obstacles to growth.

The findings come as ministers promote wider AI training. The UK Government has pledged to give 30 million people access to AI skills training. The research argues that founders still see a mismatch between broad training programmes and the specialist expertise needed in areas such as AI safety, data engineering, and cybersecurity.

Cross-border routes

The study presents Estonia's e-Residency programme as one option for founders building companies that trade internationally. Launched in 2014, it provides non-residents with a digital identity that enables remote access to Estonian digital public services, including tools for company administration.

More than 135,000 people from 185 countries have become e-residents since the launch, according to programme figures, founding more than 39,000 Estonian companies. It also reported that more than 5,400 UK e-residents have founded more than 1,400 Estonian companies.

Liina Vahtras, managing director of e-Residency, said the UK's ability to retain and grow ambitious startups will depend on the foundations available to them as AI becomes more central to products and operations.

"UK founders are asking for the right foundations to realise their AI potential. Without that, the UK risks seeing its most ambitious startups build and base their companies elsewhere."

"The starting point for those foundations is secure digital identity. e‐Residency shows how this future can work in practice: digital trust starts with giving every founder a digital identity they can rely on, so they can create and run companies remotely with seamless compliance and access to wider talent, spending more time innovating with AI and less time battling bureaucracy. For UK founders, AI creates the opportunity, but trusted digital first systems will determine who can truly go global."

The research was commissioned by e-Residency and conducted by Vitreous World through an online quantitative survey of UK-based entrepreneurs and SME leaders. All respondents were director-level or above and worked in organisations with 5-100 employees.