Every UK business model scored on two independent axes: whether AI can do the work instead of the incumbent, and whether AI raises demand without replacing anyone. Judged on nine anchored criteria by decomposing where the billable hours actually go, then matched to live company counts. Click any point, row or quadrant.
Bubble area is active companies aged 5yr+. Counts are register counts and are an upper bound where a SIC code is shared between subsectors.
| Subsector | Disp | Tail | 5yr+ | Fit |
|---|
How to read it. The axes are independent, so a subsector can score high on both or neither. Cut lines sit at the universe median, which makes quadrant membership a statement about relative position rather than an artefact of where the thresholds were drawn. Fortified is the hunting ground: demand rises with the AI build-out and the work still cannot be done without a person.
How each subsector was scored. Nine criteria, five for displacement and four for tailwind, each scored 0 to 4 against written level anchors by decomposing the value chain. The axis score is the weighted mean rescaled to 0 to 5. The judgment is human; the arithmetic is code. Open any subsector to see every criterion, its level, and the anchor sentence that level means.
Where the counts come from. Live from the Companies House advanced-search API across all
731 five-digit SIC codes, filtered to active companies incorporated five or more years ago. The
universe is cut finer than SIC, so where a code is claimed by several subsectors the count is an
upper bound; each subsector shows its count basis and a lower bound from exclusively
claimed codes. These are register counts, not qualified targets.
What it does not do. No financials by subsector, because the UK small-company P&L exemption means most are not filed. No ownership filter. Scores are screening-grade: a reproducible ranking from stated criteria, not diligence. It narrows where to look. It does not tell you what to buy.
Every weight and threshold is a file. Change one, re-run, and the map moves. Nothing here is hard-coded into the chart.