Can a grant or digitalisation voucher pay for AI tools in AutoCAD? (2026)

• A subscription or licence: the programme reimburses part of what you pay a software vendor for a period, usually inside a wider project. Pilotaż AI names licences, subscriptions and abonaments for AI systems; KMU.DIGITAL counts cloud licences for up to 12 months of the project; the Grow Digital Voucher covers software and digital tools.
• Implementation and consulting: hours of an implementation partner or a consultant. cadssistant is self-serve, so that line is your own time or your consultant's, not the vendor's.
• Training: KFS, PARP's automation competences programme and the regional BUR operators pay for courses delivered by a registered provider, never for the software. A course on working with an AI assistant in AutoCAD can be funded this way; the seat cannot.
• Never: costs incurred before the application is filed (Dig.IT says so outright, and the other programmes apply the same incentive rule), and updates to a system you already run.
• The ceiling across all of them is de minimis aid: €300,000 per company over three years.

Inno_Lab Pilotaż AI is PARP's pilot for SMEs implementing artificial intelligence, run with the Ministry of Development and Technology: a non-repayable grant of up to 300,000 zł covering up to 70% of net costs, in two stages, preparing the implementation and then a test implementation. The costs the pilot names: implementation services and consulting, specialist software and developers' services, and licences, subscriptions and abonaments for AI systems. PARP announced it for SMEs in priority sectors, construction, manufacturing, transport and warehousing among them. The first call ran from 14 October to 16 December 2025. Advisers announce the next for the fourth quarter of 2026; on 2026-10-30 PARP had published neither the call nor its rules, so amounts and sectors can still change. Source: the call page at PARP. The Polish details, including how to word the application, are in Jakie dofinansowanie można dostać na AI w AutoCAD?.

Dig.IT (Agencja Rozwoju Przemysłu, European Funds for a Modern Economy) funds digital transformation in manufacturing SMEs and production services with at least five closed financial years: 150,000–850,000 zł at up to 50%, projects of at least 300,000 zł net, software (off the shelf or custom) as a mandatory cost, areas including AI, automation and data analytics, cloud and cybersecurity, up to 40% of the budget on machines, sensors and training, everything finished by the end of 2028. Call 2/2026 takes applications from 2 to 30 November 2026 and may close after ten days if the applications exceed twice the budget. Construction is outside its scope; a steel-structure, joinery, precast or ductwork manufacturer that drafts in AutoCAD is inside it. Source: digit.arp.pl.

Training. KFS, the National Training Fund, reimburses employers for staff training through the county labour office: up to 90% for employers with up to nine staff, 70% above that, capped at 200% of the average wage per person; the 2026 priorities name digital and AI skills, the provider must be listed in the Baza Usług Rozwojowych, the calls are local and short, and training cannot start before the agreement is signed (the 2026 priorities). PARP's "Kompetencje z automatyzacji dla transformacji cyfrowej" (78 mln zł, six regional operators, recruitment from September 2026 to December 2028) funds training, mentoring and coaching in automation and AI as de minimis aid (PARP's announcement). Regional BUR operators fund 50–100% of a development service depending on the region, for owners and board members too.

• Ireland: the Grow Digital Voucher through the Local Enterprise Offices pays 50% of digital tools and software, up to €5,000, and the government's own list of AI supports names AI tools among them (gov.ie).
• Austria: KMU.DIGITAL's implementation funding paid 30% of a project between €2,000 and €30,000, at most €6,000, only after a funded consultation by a certified digital consultant, with cloud licences counted for up to 12 months of the project. On 1 November 2026 kmudigital.at said the budget of KMU.DIGITAL 4.0 was fully exhausted, that no applications for consulting or implementation funding are possible, and that the programme is not continued after 2026.
• Czechia: OP TAK's "Digitální podnik – digitální technologie" funded advanced software, hardware and services for SMEs in transition regions with a CZK 1 billion call; a new call was planned for spring 2026. Check the current status with the Agentura pro podnikání a inovace (the 2026 call list).
• Malta's Digitalise Your SME scheme added €100,000 for AI-related interventions in 2026; its last cut-off was 30 September 2026.
• Germany: go-digital and Digital Jetzt have ended; the Mittelstand-Digital centres give advice, not grants. What remains runs through the Länder, led by the Digitalbonus Bayern (up to 50%, licence and service fees for up to 18 months, AI named as a funding area): the German page Welche Förderung gibt es für KI-Software in AutoCAD? lists every state programme with its status. Switzerland has no federal digitalisation voucher; Innosuisse funds research projects with a research partner, not software subscriptions.
• No EU-wide SME digitalisation voucher exists; the DIGITAL SME alliance has proposed one. Poland has no tax relief for AI adoption; business chambers have asked for one.

• Name the process, not the tool: drafting installation plans and schedules in AutoCAD, producing sheet sets, bills of materials from drawings. Programmes fund a change in a process.
• Say what the assistant does in that process, in the words the recipes use: counts blocks into a schedule, renumbers tags, moves objects between layers, aligns sheet viewports, exports coordinates to Excel.
• Measure before you apply: hours a week spent on those tasks today, and by whom. The application and the final report both want a before-and-after figure.
• Put the cost on its own line: a subscription per seat per month or per year (cadssistant: Pro €49/month, Max €149/month, VAT excluded), with the dates it covers. A test stage of a few months on Pro fits most pilot budgets.
• Data: your DWG is never uploaded; the assistant reads parts of the open drawing and sends them with your message to the AI model provider. The privacy policy names the providers, which is what a data-protection annex asks for.
• Implementation hours: cadssistant installs as an AutoCAD plug-in, works in AutoCAD 2024 and newer, including the industry toolsets on Windows, and needs no API key or separate model subscription, so the implementation line is your own time or a consultant's, not the vendor's.