As of 13 August 2026, AI can choose a printer for your small business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a blank document and record your monthly page volume, colour split, must-have features, available space, connection method, budget including its VAT position, and preferred warranty or support.
   2. Open the manufacturer pages and at least one UK retailer page for printers that appear suitable, then copy the current specifications, consumable yields, prices, availability and warranty wording into the chatbot with the page links.
   3. Paste the prompt and your requirements into a chatbot, then ask it to exclude every model that misses a must-have requirement.
   4. Ask the chatbot to produce the comparison table and show the running-cost calculation from the cited consumable yields and prices, separating verified facts from assumptions.
   5. Open each cited manufacturer and retailer page and compare the drafted specifications, prices, stock position, consumable yields, warranty and VAT treatment against the live page.
   6. Remove any model whose current price, availability or required feature cannot be confirmed, then ask the chatbot to revise the shortlist using only the remaining evidence.
   7. Send the final model, fallback and total purchase information to the person who controls your business budget, then buy only after confirming delivery, warranty and consumable availability.

   Prompt

   Help me choose a printer for my small business in the UK. Use the requirements below and do not invent missing facts.
   
   Business requirements:
   - Business type and typical documents: [describe]
   - Estimated pages printed per month: [number or range]
   - Black-and-white pages compared with colour pages: [describe]
   - Required features, such as automatic duplex printing, scanning, copying, an automatic document feeder or fax: [list]
   - Users and connection method, such as USB, Wi-Fi, Ethernet or mobile printing: [describe]
   - Available space and maximum printer dimensions: [describe]
   - Maximum purchase budget, stating whether it includes VAT: [amount and VAT position]
   - Preference for inkjet, laser or no preference: [describe]
   - Need for low ongoing cost, high speed, photo quality or quiet operation: [rank these]
   - Expected ownership period and warranty or support preference: [describe]
   - UK retailers or suppliers I can buy from: [list, or say none]
   
   Research current UK manufacturer and retailer pages where you can. Separate verified facts from assumptions, show the source and date for every current price, availability statement and specification, and say when a source is missing. Compare no more than five suitable models in a table covering purchase price, VAT position, print technology, print speed, duplex printing, scan and copy features, connectivity, dimensions, warranty, replacement consumables and estimated running cost. Calculate running cost only from consumable page yields and prices that you can cite, and show the calculation rather than guessing. Exclude any model that fails a stated must-have requirement. Recommend one model, name one fallback, explain the trade-offs, and list the exact checks I must complete on the manufacturer and retailer pages before buying. Do not present the recommendation as certain if the evidence is incomplete.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.