Artificial intelligence is no longer a promise reserved for large corporations. After months of rhetoric about productivity, automation, and competitiveness, the government has decided to bring AI down to the level of small and medium-sized businesses with a new €600 million grant aimed at facilitating its adoption in 25,000 companies. The measure, framed within the IA360 plan, still has to clear many questions but seeks to accelerate the integration of AI solutions into the productive fabric, increasing the share of Spanish companies using this technology in the coming years.
The initiative arrives at a decisive moment. Generative AI has become popular in marketing, customer service, sales, programming, and administration, but its use in SMBs remains uneven. Many companies have tested tools, some have bought licenses, and others have only begun to ask what AI can really do for their business. The new grant aims precisely to address that leap: moving from curiosity and isolated use to concrete deployment projects.
There it is, probably, the main difference with programs like Kit Digital or Kit Consulting. The new grant does not seem designed solely to fund subscriptions to tools, but to support more complex actions: integration, deployment, adaptation to internal processes, and validation of results.
Pedro Rico, founder of Fandit, summarizes it clearly: “The main difference is that now we’re talking about deployment. It’s like the logical evolution of Kit Consulting, where one would ‘recommend’ or ‘advise’ on what changes or approaches should be taken. Now we’re talking about carrying out a concrete deployment with specific objectives. It may even be that licenses aren’t acceptable, which was encouraged in Kit Digital, and that the focus of the grant would be on deployment, integration, and validation of AI systems or agents.”
The nuance matters. In recent years, many SMBs have associated digitization subsidies with standard solutions: a website, a CRM, an office tool, a basic management system, or a software license. AI, however, requires a different approach. It’s not enough to grant access to a platform. For real impact, it must connect with the company’s data, its processes, how it sells, its customer-service channels, its administrative management, or its production model.
In other words: the SMB doesn’t need to “have AI”; it needs to know what it wants it for.
From the technology grant to a business project
The big challenge of the AI Grant will be to prevent it from turning into another sales race to push generic packages. AI can help an SMB automate customer responses, classify documents, prepare budgets, analyze sales, forecast demand, optimize inventories, generate content, detect issues, or assist with administrative tasks. But each case requires diagnosis, integration, and ongoing monitoring.
A consulting firm does not have the same needs as a storefront, a clinic, a manufacturing company, or a distributor. Nor do they start from the same level of data, digital maturity, or internal capacity. Therefore, a useful deployment should begin with basic questions: what problem do you want to solve, what data does the company have, what tasks consume the most time, what processes can be automated, what risks exist, and how will the results be measured.
The government has tied this initiative to a regional network of technology centers, known as the Neurona Network, which would help demonstrate and deploy AI solutions in businesses, especially SMBs facing higher entry barriers. However, as we noted at the outset, many uncertainties remain. Not all details are known about per-company amounts, requirements, eligible expense types, the profile of suppliers, the justification system, or success criteria.
For Rico, that lack of concreteness is evident: “So far, a lot of talk; it seems more like an idea announcement than something concrete. In theory they will speak with certain Autonomous Communities; logically, it would make sense to study how they have already done it in regional calls that have existed for some time to anticipate problems and inefficiencies.”
That prior learning will be key. Spain has already accumulated experience with mass digitization calls, both at the national and regional levels. Some have helped accelerate investments, but others have drawn criticism for excessive bureaucracy, scarce customization, or results not aligned with business expectations.
The precedent of Kit Digital
The AI Grant is inevitably born under the shadow of Kit Digital. That initiative mobilized thousands of SMBs and freelancers toward digital solutions, but it also left important lessons. Some segments of the business fabric took advantage of the subsidies to advance their online presence, management, or cybersecurity. Others, however, felt that the results did not always align with their real needs.
The difference with AI is that the risk of a poor deployment can be greater. A barely useful website may have little impact. A poorly integrated AI solution can generate errors, automate wrong processes, expose sensitive data, frustrate the team, or create an unnecessary tech dependency.
That’s why one of the keys will be to define exactly what is subsidized. Pedro Rico doesn’t believe the program should fund simple licenses: “No, I don’t think so. Another issue is that an intermediary ends up disguising the resale of licenses as deployment. After seeing iPhones being given away with Kit Digital, nothing would surprise me anymore.”
The warning points to the heart of the problem: if the grant is poorly designed, it could end up incentivizing the resale of tools rather than real transformation. If designed well, however, it could help thousands of SMBs take a real productivity leap.
The small SMB at the center
The government has set a goal of reaching a much broader slice of Spain’s business landscape with AI. The question is who will be able to best take advantage of the grant. Large companies have been investing in AI for some time, with tech teams, data departments, and the capacity to experiment. Small SMBs, by contrast, typically start from a weaker position: less budget, less time, less technical know-how, and greater reliance on external providers.
That’s why Rico believes the program should focus especially on them: “Yes, it should, especially for the small ones; I hope it centers on them because the large ones have already made big investments in the last year and a half.”
The argument makes sense. If the aid ends up benefiting mainly mid-sized companies with more internal capacity, the impact on the digital divide will be limited. If, instead, it enables small businesses to incorporate intelligent assistants, document automation, analytics tools, or well-implemented sector-specific solutions, the effect could be far more transformative.
What should an SMB ask before applying
The arrival of the grant can generate excitement, but it’s also wise to avoid rushed decisions. AI is not an obligation nor a trend that should be adopted without criteria. For many SMBs, the first step won’t be to hire a solution, but to organize processes, digitize basic data, or train the team.
Rico recommends prudence: “When it comes to the SMB, think carefully about how to use the grant and whether you really need it. There are many people who were genuinely dissatisfied with the results of Kit Digital. On the administration side, it’s a major challenge. It might be a good idea to ask providers to benchmark prior offers and the final results, so you can learn more about how much it costs to do what.”
That reflection opens an interesting avenue: demanding more transparency about funded projects. Not only how much is subsidized, but what is deployed, how much it costs, what results it generates, and which providers meet expectations best. In the AI realm, where grandiose marketing messages abound, measuring results will be essential.
A SMB should ask at least five questions before applying: what process you want to improve, what savings or improvements you expect, what data you will use, who will supervise the tool, and how you will verify whether the project has worked. Without those answers, the aid can become subsidized spending, but not necessarily a useful investment.
In short, the AI Grant could be one of the most relevant measures to bring AI closer to Spain’s SMBs. But its success will depend less on the budget size and more on its operational design. The €600 million signals ambition; real deployment will require clarity, oversight, capable providers, and well-defined projects.
