Problem Solved.
When I installed ardupy-aip it put all the gcc compile “stuff” in the directory …
C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.8_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\Roaming\aip
I did a aip build -v and it implied that the aip directory should be in …
C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\aip
I checked and there was no aip directory in C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming so I moved the aip directory from C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.8_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\Roaming to directory C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming
Then “aip build --board=xiao” worked !!!