Meet the 12 Northern businesses leading the AI charge

1. ConnexAI, Manchester

ConnexAI is an award-winning conversational AI platform that is heavily tipped to become the North’s next unicorn. Founded by brothers Nick and Richard Mealey, the firm discreetly rebranded from Connex One to ConnexAI and is revolutionising the way that companies communicate with their customers.

In 2022, the firm closed a £93m Series C funding round, which included technology investment bank GP Bullhound.

ConnexAI provides cutting-edge, enterprise-grade AI applications, including AI Agent, AI Guru, AI Analytics, AI Voice, and AI Quality.

2. Matillion, Manchester

Matillion is a cloud data integration platform that achieved unicorn status in 2021 after raising £108m in Series E funding. The global shortage of data engineers has seen a surge in demand for its intelligent assistant, 'Maia'.

CEO Matthew Scullion explained: “Matillion is reinventing data engineering; solving a huge challenge as customers roll out AI projects which need fuelling with data.

“The more demand for AI, the more demand for data, and there simply aren’t enough human data engineers to fulfil the demand.

“With Matillion, and our agentic system of data engineers, Maia, we’re changing the foundations of how data work is done.

“End-to-end data engineering, self-correcting and continually learning and evolving, Maia is not only bridging the gap but, in many cases, doing work far better than human engineers could.”

3. Zuto, Manchester

Zuto is the Manchester-based FinTech on a mission to transform the car finance industry.

Zuto was founded in 2006 and now employs 500+ people across its Manchester headquarters and Macclesfield offices, with an annual turnover of £62m.

The company uses AI alongside human expertise to better understand their customers and personalise their offer.

CTO Gary Higham said: “We now use AI to analyse 100 per cent of our customer touchpoints across all communication channels, plus reviewing all online interactions in their digital portal. This allows us to quickly identify sentiment, needs, and emerging trends without the time limitations of a manual review or using sampled data.

“By spotting patterns and opportunities faster, we can address pain points and refine our service. This is also feeding into our product development. The result is a more responsive, personalised, and relevant car-buying experience - with AI helping us act faster for our customers.”

4. Purple, Oldham

Serial entrepreneur Gavin Wheeldon is on a mission to transform visitor experiences through his company Purple. In 2003, he launched his first business – Applied Language Solutions (ALS) – which he eventually sold to Capita for £67.5m.

In 2012 he launched Purple because of his growing frustration at the quality of the WiFi he experienced. Based in Oldham but working largely remotely, Purple has embedded AI into its business to help venues understand, identify and improve guest experiences.

Purple uses AI to automate workflows that research venues, find contact details and then generate personal letters, emails and AI phone calls.

Wheeldon added: “For mid-market and upwards we use an AI SDR (sales development representative) platform that looks for intent signals for potential buyers and creates sequences with AI to connect with them on LinkedIn and emails.

“Content-wise, we are using deep research with Gemini, other AI tools to create images and proofread before human review, which ends up in incredibly good content.

“We are using the tools extensively in development now with tools like Lovable for front-end and Cursor and Windsurf for backend coding, giving our developers superpowers to go faster.

“We also have AI peppered throughout the product, including a new product called Agents which follows up visits for our customers to their restaurants, shops, stadiums, etc., as if it were a human to check on the visit, triage issues and create support tickets if there were any issues and encourage rebooking or reviews.”

5. Redmoor Health, Chorley

Redmoor was founded in 2017 and helps NHS and social care organisations make the most of digital technology to improve patient outcomes. The company has grown to 35 staff and a turnover of £2.5m.

Founder Marc Schmid said the company has integrated AI across its services included AI-powered patient information videos; AI-assisted content creation; and data insights.

He said: “We use multilingual AI avatars of real clinicians to create fast, accurate and culturally appropriate health messages for GP practices and pharmacies, helping reach communities in over 120 languages without the cost or delay of traditional filming.

“AI helps us analyse digital engagement trends from NHS apps, online consultations and telephony systems so practices can make informed decisions about access and workflow. This has led to faster production times, more inclusive communication and better patient engagement, particularly in hard-to-reach groups.

“We believe AI will allow us to deliver better outcomes at lower cost for the NHS, while freeing up clinicians to focus on care.”

6. MyCardium AI, Liverpool

MyCardium AI uses AI to measure heart function when interpreting cardiac images. Launched in 2022, the start-up has grown to close to 30 staff and a multi-million-pound turnover.

Chief operating officer Antony Shimmin said: “AI is in our title, but it’s about using 'human in the loop' AI. We give more precise information, with greater speed and efficiency than existing methods. Humans/doctors are always the arbiter of clinical decision-making and they can review, change or ignore the analysis of our AI.”

7. The Data City, Leeds

Leeds-based The Data City was founded in 2017 and is valued at £19m with 28 staff.

The company uses a mix of AI, machine learning and data science to build software, analytics and data infrastructure to classify and understand every company in the UK and Ireland.

Co-founder and executive chair Paul Connell said: “We are an AI company (and) we use our own AI tools to find, match, classify and describe companies globally – AI is a foundational asset for our business. Our industry engine is powered by our own AI – simple as that.”

8. NIVO, Manchester

Manchester-based FinTech was spun out from Barclays in 2017 by co-founders Matthew Elliott and Michael Common to speed up processes without compromising security.

It helps lenders and brokers move from slow, manual, email-based processes to fast, compliant, mobile-first interactions — from identity verification to document collection and case packaging.

Nivo’s latest product innovation - Nivo AI - uses industry-specific AI to handle complex mortgage and specialist lending applications end-to-end.

Elliott said: “The AI assistant has been able to guide brokers through packaging cases so they are ‘right first time’ for lenders, cutting turnaround times from days to hours.”

Since launching Nivo has processed more than a million customers through its platform.

9. CGI (BJSS), Leeds

Leeds-based tech consultancy BJSS was acquired by Montreal-headquartered CGI earlier this year and employs 555 partners in Leeds.

Examples of the AI it used across its business include:

• CGI Machine Vision applies edge AI and machine learning to interpret videos and photos in a human-like way
• CGI is harnessing AI to enhance patient outcomes and revolutionise IVF treatment decisions
• CGI AIOps applies machine learning, automation, and data analytics to optimise IT operations in real-time

10. Voicescape, Salford

Founded in 1998, Voicescape employs 55 people and is a software business that provides tenant engagement solutions for social landlords and local authorities.

In 2021, Voicscape launched Caseload Manager (CM), the first technology of its kind in the sector to use AI and machine learning, alongside the organisation’s data science and behavioural insight expertise, to actively manage arrears.

Voicescape MD Gary Haynes said: “The system intelligently analyses payment behaviours, account history, and risk factors, automatically surfacing the highest-priority cases for officers each day. This has cut arrears case lists by 50 per cent.”

11. Relative Insight, Lancaster

Private equity-backed Relative Insight was launched in 2012 and its AI-driven customer intelligence platform combines proprietary AI with generative AI to transform customer feedback, surveys, reviews, transcripts, and social media content into intelligence that can be actioned immediately.

75 per cent of the firm’s revenue comes from the US and customers include the Tennessee Titans, LA Clippers, Comcast, Medtronic, and Delta Airlines.

CEO Ben Hookway said: “What truly sets Relative Insight apart is our focus on trustworthy, explainable, and operational AI.

“Our Accelerator AI tool, developed through our partnership with Amazon AWS, uses generative AI to transform these patterns into narrative reports tailored for business use, while our deterministic engine ensures everything is evidence-based and auditable.”

12. Sum Vivas, Liverpool

Sum Vivas creates AI-integrated virtual employees that enable organisations to engage with customers and staff in a more human, inclusive, and emotionally intelligent way.

Liverpool ONE, a retail and entertainment destination in the heart of Liverpool, deployed the firm’s ‘digital human’ Liv, a cutting-edge AI-generated assistant to interact with visitors in real-time, providing instant information.

CEO Rob Sims said: “We see AI as the engine that will allow virtual employees to scale globally.”