AI adoption grant draws unexpectedly high demand

Estonia’s Enterprise and Innovation Foundation has proposed increasing this year’s budget for a grant supporting companies adopting artificial intelligence after applications exceeded the available funding by more than twofold, ERR reported.

Applications opened on August 24, but the foundation closed the application round at 4 p.m. the same day because it received so many submissions.

The total grant budget for 2026 and 2027 is 2 million euros. Of that amount, 1.1 million euros had been earmarked for distribution this year.

“We therefore want to use as much of the funds planned for the measure as possible already now, when companies’ readiness to implement AI solutions in their operations is clearly evident,” said Silja Elunurm, head of the innovation services development team at the foundation.

The foundation has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to increase this year’s allocation to the full 2 million euros. This would allow it to support 100 company projects instead of 55.

The grant is paid retrospectively after a project has been completed and the recipient has submitted a report. The foundation checks whether the results have been achieved and approves the report. Recipients must also demonstrate the results with a short video.

Applicants must describe a specific problem or process they want to improve using AI, the planned activities and the expected result. The project’s outcome must be verifiable at least on the basis of a prototype or test results.

The measure is intended to help companies move from experimenting with AI to implementing it in a practical and effective way. Expected benefits include higher productivity, increased sales or export turnover, improved cost efficiency and greater automation of business processes.

Payments will probably be made during the following year.