Edinburgh-headquartered CreateFuture has launched Scotland First, a programme aimed at helping Scottish organisations, from industry to the public sector, get AI out of the pilot stage and into production at scale.
The initiative comes as public bodies across Scotland face growing pressure to show measurable returns from AI. It draws on CreateFuture’s partnerships with Anthropic, AWS and OpenAI to give Scottish organisations direct access to expertise from the world’s leading AI labs on their latest models.
Its first event, a senior leaders’ dinner in Edinburgh next month, will examine why most AI pilots never scale and what sets the successful ones apart. Many of Scotland’s leading companies and the Scottish Government will attend.
Both CreateFuture and Version 1, the Irish-headquartered technology group it joined in April 2026, have extensive experience working with government and the public sector in Scotland. Last year, Version 1 was appointed Digital Support Partner to the Scottish Government’s Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate. The seven-year contract is worth up to £95 million and supports digital services for farmers, crofters and rural communities. Version 1 has also delivered work for the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
CreateFuture is on the Scottish Government’s Digital Technology and Cyber Services and Internet of Things dynamic purchasing systems. It is also on Lot 1 of the Crown Commercial Service’s Management Consultancy Framework Four. In 2020, xDesign, which merged with CreateFuture in 2023, built NHS 24’s Covid-19 information app in five days at the height of the pandemic.
Darren Dalrymple, industry director at CreateFuture and OpenAI Codex ambassador for Scotland, said: “We’re asking what needs to change for a Scottish organisation to get real value from AI. Scotland has an incredible opportunity with world-class universities, exceptional technical talent and established businesses operating on a global stage. But using AI and adopting it across an economy are two very different things. The next challenge is helping Scottish businesses fundamentally rethink how they operate.”
He said the firm had developed its own approach to the three main bottlenecks in scaling AI: understanding complex legacy estates, connecting fragmented data, and delivering AI-assisted software at pace.
“Right now, inside some of the most complex and regulated businesses in the UK, we’re seeing AI change how work actually gets done,” Dalrymple added. “That means legacy systems modernised in weeks rather than years, software shipped in a fraction of the time it took previously. That’s the gap Scotland needs to close, and we know how to close it because we’re doing it.”
CreateFuture is an OpenAI Select Partner and a preferred Services Partner of Anthropic. It is one of only five firms in Europe to hold the Anthropic accreditation. The firm says it now has hundreds of consultants externally certified across Anthropic, AWS and OpenAI.
Founded in Edinburgh 16 years ago, CreateFuture employs around 200 people in Scotland. It has delivered AI into production for clients including NatWest, Barclays, SSE, FanDuel, Skyscanner, Royal London and Aggreko. Together with Version 1, the combined organisation has more than 4,250 people and over £500 million in revenue.
Euan Andrews, CEO and founder of CreateFuture, said: “Scotland is our home, and we’re proud of what we’ve built here. With our experience and relationships with Anthropic, AWS, and OpenAI, we can bring world-leading AI expertise closer to Scottish businesses. We want Scotland to be recognised not just for AI innovation, but for how successfully we put it to work.”