The Birth of Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence Technologies, 2001

After the first AI chat on ai-snack.com in 1998 came the birth of Artificial Intelligence as a business name: Artificial Intelligence Technologies at ai-technologies.co.uk, the first to talk about Artificial Intelligence on a UK web address. AI.com sold for a reported $70 million in 2026, but AIT was trading under the name in 2001.

Artificial Intelligence Technologies (AIT) was a Birmingham software and training company run by proprietors P. Maddox and J. Moore, on +44 (121) 602 2486. Visit the archive page here: artificialintelligence.com.ai.

Metis: available now

AIT's headline product was Metis, an education software suite. The homepage announced that "AIT has now released its education software suite Metis into public alpha", with an Alpha page for feedback and bug reports. A starter course was planned for the Spring 2002 release, and an advanced Metis: Editor course used a user-group format so schools could share ideas while they learned.

Training in Microsoft Access

AIT taught beginner and intermediate courses in Microsoft Access 97 and 2000 for groups of 5 to 10 people. Each course lasted a day, with theory in the morning and practical work in the afternoon, held on site and tailored to the business. Paul Maddox took the bookings.

Simple IT

"Is your business or organisation lost in the new 'computer age'? If so, AIT can help." Simple IT offered face-to-face, friendly computer advice with no jargon, no support contracts, no general quotes and no purchase markups. AIT gave free advice, quotes and surveys, bought equipment at the cheapest price it could find, and charged only for the engineer's time.

From AI Technologies to AI agents

The name that began with school software and Access courses now belongs to a group that builds AI agents for business at artificialintelligence.com.ai. Read the story that came first: the history of AI chat. See the Artificial Intelligence Technologies profile.