Present study aims to predict the effect of Ti, B, Cu and Ni on continuous cooling transformation diagrams of low carbon (0.04–0.05 wt%) steels by artificial neural network model. The predicted results are validated with dilatometric studies. Comparison of the phase fields in different continuous cooling transformation diagrams demonstrated that in Ni containing 1.5 wt% Cu-added Ti–B microalloyed steel it is possible to achieve dual phase (ferrite–martensite) microstructure in directly air-cooled condition (ie, at cooling rate close to 1 C/s) by suppressing pearlite formation. Addition of Cu has remarkably improved the hardness of the dilatometric samples.