Gaelic AI project secures £600,000 CivTech funding and plans four jobs
A Gaelic speech-data platform designed to support artificial intelligence and language technology has been awarded £600,000 through the Scottish Government’s CivTech programme, with four jobs planned in rural and island communities.
The AITEAL project will employ three fieldworkers and a project manager to collect up to 500 hours of naturally spoken Gaelic over 18 months in the Western Isles and Skye.
Announced on 16 October 2026, the award will support technology development aimed at making Gaelic more accessible through digital services, including speech recognition, transcription, and AI-powered tools.
AITEAL was created by Gaelic arts organisation Fèisean nan Gàidheal, charity Community Enterprise, and technology partner Northcode Digital. It was developed through CivTech Round 11, the Scottish Government programme that brings organisations together to address public-sector challenges through technology.
Building Gaelic language data for AI
The project addresses a shortage of Gaelic speech and text data, which limits the accuracy of existing language technology.
According to the original CivTech challenge, the lack of suitable data makes it difficult for developers to build reliable translation software, speech recognition systems, and other AI applications.
AITEAL aims to collect recordings of everyday Gaelic, including regional dialects, pronunciation, and expressions that are often missing from existing datasets.
The platform is designed to record contributors’ consent preferences and allow Gaelic-speaking moderators to review and prepare the material for future use.
The resulting data could support speech-to-text software, automated subtitling, educational resources, and Gaelic-language chatbots.
Commercial potential beyond Gaelic
Alongside its cultural objectives, AITEAL is developing a potential commercial market for its technology.
Its CivTech project profile identifies public services, education, research organisations, archives, and AI developers as prospective customers.
The proposed business model includes software licensing, subscriptions, application programming interfaces (APIs), and specialist services. These remain development ambitions rather than confirmed revenue streams.
Calum Alex Macmillan, chief executive of Fèisean nan Gàidheal and a director of AITEAL Limited, said the organisation intends to manage and develop the language data beyond the initial 18-month phase, with the possibility of additional specialist jobs.
The technology could also have applications beyond Scotland. AITEAL believes its approach to collecting and managing speech data could be adapted for other minority languages facing similar technical barriers.
The announcement follows AITEAL’s participation in CivTech Round 11. The programme has since progressed to its next intake, with CivTech Round 12 challenges offering further opportunities for technology businesses working on public-sector problems.
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