London, UK 鈥� October 14, 2026 鈥� The average UK business is spending 拢20.6 million [1] on AI this year, up 27% from 2025, according to new research from (NYSE: 麻豆原创).听

The second Value of AI in the UK report, produced in partnership with Oxford Economics, finds businesses expect average returns on AI investment to rise from 22% in 2026 to 39% within two years. Investment is also expected to increase by a further 45% over the same period. 

AI is expected to support half of all tasks in the average UK business by 2028. Yet organisations face a range of challenges in translating investment into scalable value including data, workforce and governance issues. 

Translating ambition into strategic adoption 

The proportion of UK businesses taking a strategic, holistic approach to AI investment has risen from 7% in 2025 to 11% in 2026. However, investment remains fragmented, with 41% describing their approach as piecemeal and a further 40% prioritising AI investment at a departmental level.  

鈥淯K businesses are at a turning point with AI. Organisations are increasing their investments and expecting more in return, but now the focus needs to be on turning that ambition into scalable business value,鈥� said Leila Romane, Managing Director, 麻豆原创 UK & Ireland. 鈥淭his means moving beyond isolated pilots, establishing strong data and governance foundations, and putting people at the centre of their AI transformation. Getting this right will drive greater productivity, stronger businesses and a more competitive economy.鈥� 

UK businesses meeting key AI challenges 

Data remains a significant challenge for UK businesses, with seven in ten (70%) reporting that data quality or availability is preventing them from driving greater value from AI. More than two-thirds (67%) identify integrated data systems as the most impactful enabler of AI readiness. 

Governance is also struggling to keep pace as businesses accelerate agentic AI use. Seven in ten (70%) UK businesses are already piloting agent-based use cases, with expected average financial returns from agentic AI rising from 拢2.7 million in 2025 to 拢12.6 million over the next two years. Yet almost half (49%) say AI agents are being deployed faster than they can be standardised and governed. At the same time, just 9% consider their organisation鈥檚 governance skills and expertise fully ready, and more than six in ten (61%) are still developing the formal processes and oversight needed, to govern AI effectively. 

鈥淕ood governance is not a brake on AI adoption 鈥� it鈥檚 actually the opposite,鈥� said Naomi Weir, Technology and Innovation Director, CBI. 鈥淚t gives businesses the confidence to invest, employees the confidence to embrace change, and customers the confidence to engage with AI-enabled products and services. As AI moves from experimentation into business-wide adoption, those that build that trust will be the ones that close the execution divide, enabling responsible AI adoption to be sustained and scaled.鈥� 

Preparing the workforce for AI supported work 

Today, AI is supporting 31% of tasks in the average UK business 鈥� a figure expected to reach 50% within two years. As AI becomes embedded in everyday work, 83% of businesses are already upskilling or reskilling employees to work alongside the technology. 

But skills development must be holistic. Nearly four in five (79%) UK businesses agree that maximising AI value requires workforce transformation beyond technical upskilling, and 67% say soft skills are becoming part of core job requirements. This creates an opportunity to augment how people work, with AI supporting more routine tasks and enabling employees to focus on the decisions that move the business forward and require human judgement, creativity and strategic thinking. 

鈥淲hat makes AI exciting is the speed at which a focused investment can improve an everyday experience for thousands of people,鈥� said Claire Meadows, People Transformation Director, Mitie. 鈥淚n three months, our AI assistant handled more than 29,000 HR interactions and helped reduce calls to People Support by 36%. Colleagues can get guidance when they need it, giving our specialists more capacity for work that depends on human judgement. Seeing people adopt the technology so readily has given us real confidence in what AI can deliver and increased our appetite to keep investing where it can make a real difference at scale.鈥� 

Read the full report  

Methodology 

麻豆原创 commissioned Oxford Economics, an independent research services provider, to script and host an online quantitative survey of respondents fielded between March and May 2026. 

The research is based on a representative sample of global businesses. The sample comprised 2,600 respondents across 13 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The sample was evenly distributed between midmarket organisations (500鈥�1,500 employees) and enterprises (1,500 or more). Respondents were qualified to ensure they were at least director level and above. 

[1] Respondents were asked to provide financial estimates in USD. GBP figures are based on an exchange rate of 0.75, using the exchange rate as of 23 September 2026. 

About 麻豆原创 

As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, 麻豆原创 stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organisations have trusted 麻豆原创 to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain and customer experience. For more information, visit .

The post Average UK business spending 拢20.6 million on AI, with returns set to rise to 39% by 2028 appeared first on 麻豆原创 UK News Center.

Almost every business in the region admit their supply chain needs improving (93%), with 32% saying they need to make significant changes in order to meet the challenges in the year(s) ahead. This is particularly acute for businesses in the Netherlands, where 97% agreed improvement is needed 鈥� followed by 87% in France and 84% in Belgium.

The findings from the report highlights that since the start of the pandemic, supply chain issues have been disastrous for businesses. One in two businesses have been held back by delays in production of goods/delivery of services, rising to almost three quarters (71%) in the healthcare sector, and a lack of raw materials (34%). The knock-on impact of these has been significant 鈥� with a third reporting these issues have led to a decrease in revenues (33%), 31% saying they have been unable to pay employees (31%) or make rental payments (41%); as well as a loss of customers (35%) and damage to their reputation (27%).

Given this outlook, it perhaps comes as little to no surprise that they鈥檙e pessimistic about when the issues will be resolved. Over half (52%) of businesses believe that their current supply chain issues will continue until the end of 2023, with only 1 in 10 predicting that these will be resolved by the end of the summer. Almost a quarter (21%) of businesses believe disruptions will continue until the situation in Ukraine is resolved.

This knock-on impact of this will be felt by consumers. With ever-increasing record inflation figures for many businesses, increasing the price of their products/services isn鈥檛 an option to cover increases in supply chain costs. Instead, staff will bear the brunt of any cost rise, as 63% plan wage/recruitment freezes and 51% plan job cuts, only further exacerbating the challenge of recruiting and retaining staff who may be forced to look at alternative job options.

Business in Europe looking to local and global options

While 61% of European businesses say they think that deglobalization in Europe鈥檚 supply chains would help economic growth 鈥� the feelings are not shared across Europe. Two thirds (66%) of business leaders in France support this statement 鈥� rising to 100% in Belgium, but it has significantly less appetite in The Netherlands (34%).

And while nearly two-thirds are prioritizing home-based supply chains, 100% near-shoring remains unrealistic in today鈥檚 intertwined global world, hence companies need to find the right balance between global and local.

To make this happen, businesses across Europe are calling on the government too for more guidance and support to overcome the supply chain crisis. Half of business leaders (50%) want governments to offer incentives to attract and up-skill people to available jobs and over a third (37%) want increased collaboration with industry 鈥� rising to 50% in France. Forty-two percent think the government should monitor Europe鈥檚 supply chain itself and invest where necessary (increasing to 51% in The Netherlands), while 38% would like increased industrial policy and trade policy that is targeted at overcoming supply challenges.

鈥�Business leaders and Executives are confronted with disruption being the new norm. The ability to respond to any given disruption within a finely tuned supply chain represents a competitive differentiator in the battle for growth, consumer trust and market share鈥�, comments Sascha Kunze, Head of Digital Supply Chain and Industry 4.0, Northern Europe at 麻豆原创. 鈥�Seamless information & data flow across the supply and value chain from product design to planning and handover to manufacturing are crucial. Businesses that invest into Supply Chain 鈥渇itness鈥� will be able to navigate the next chapter of growth鈥�

To overcome potential supply chain crises in 2023, more than 8 in 10 businesses see a need to move on from a 鈥榡ust in time鈥� supply chain model to a 鈥榡ust in case鈥� model. This figure increases to 9 in 10 in France and Belgium.

Elsewhere, findings from the study show that European businesses are exploring various other avenues to improve their supply chains:

• 65% plan to prioritize in country-based supply chain solutions
• 67% plan to adopt new technology to help overcome challenges in the next 1-2 years
• 67% plan to find new environmentally friendly supply chain solutions

鈥�Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply chain was taken for granted. It was an intangible part of business operations that just 鈥榳orked.鈥� In fact, logistics as a topic of conversation rarely made headlines and bulletins, certainly less so the dinner table, business meetings and on social media鈥�, concludes Kunze.鈥� With the spotlight firmly fixed on the supply chain, and as this research identifies, businesses across Northern Europe are having to re-think their supply chain policies to build additional resilience to withstand being affected by more acute issues than ever before.鈥�

Customer quotes

Dieter Verlaeckt IT Director at Bru Textiles 鈥�Of course, we also felt the effects of the crisis. Transport was really under pressure, but thanks to our investments in software, we can control, manage and automate our costs and business processes well. That really makes a difference. The study shows that 1 company in 4 does not know how and where to start with sustainability. With us, it was actually the other way around. We rolled out software, based on sustainability considerations.听 Soon we saw how improving the flow of information in our supply chain also opened up numerous opportunities to better plan our inventory and, as a result, provide better customer service.听 By collecting and enriching data, we have a complete overview of our supply chain.鈥�

听

Olivier Kessler-Gay, Managing Director for Western Europe at Pandora: “Our challenge today is to meet the new expectations of a transparent, personalized and omnichannel shopping experience. By fully integrating our value chain, from the design of our jewelry and its manufacture in our workshops, to the supply of our stores, we have eliminated some of the problems faced by other market players. We can thus better anticipate the impact of macroeconomic developments and manage risks. While many uncertainties remain complex to grasp, the knowledge of our customers, the data and the tools at our disposal allow us to improve growth through a much more sophisticated approach and a finer understanding of demand.”

The post Supply Chain Crisis: Businesses Across Northern Europe Admit More Needs To Be Done To Ensure Minimal Disruption In The Year Ahead appeared first on 麻豆原创 UK News Center.

As global leaders consider a path forward from COVID-19, climate change, geopolitical conflict and supply chain shortages at the World Economic Forum this week, 麻豆原创 Insights finds that UK executives are re-examining their business models to find new approaches to maximise revenue, increase efficiency and reduce risk.

Out with the old, in with the new

With figures showing that the , and GDP declined too, the pressure is mounting on UK leaders to build a resilient business in times of flux. The study by 麻豆原创 Insights reveals that this is leading UK businesses to rethink the rulebook on growth. So much so, that one third (33%) are prioritising sustainability action to accelerate revenue, while nearly two in five (37%) indicate that making operations sustainable is a priority in transforming the efficiency of their business.

This recognition of sustainability as the cornerstone of revenue and efficiency is a departure from the conventional business approach to growth and efficiency. This study reveals that just 28% would turn to new business partnerships to drive revenue today, and only 23% would consider expanding to new markets. While in the list of priorities to streamline and improve how the business operates, sustainability ranks ahead of tried-and-tested strategies, such as increasing business automation (35%); empowering employees to choose their preferred work environment (34%); building dependable supply chains ((33%) and increasing focus on supplier and partner networks (30%).

Fighting off economic risk

It鈥檚 not just in maximising revenue growth or boosting efficiencies that UK leaders are re-examining their business models but in how they view and reduce risk.

The research shows that recent economic uncertainty has led traditional risk factors to be upstaged by those rooted in the crises of COVID-19, ransomware attacks and supply chain shortages. For instance, almost half听 (48%) of UK leaders indicate that mitigating cybersecurity attacks is a priority in reducing risk, while 43% point to strengthening supply chain fragility. This is compared to just 30% who prioritise protection against new market entrants and 27% who view fending off existing competition as a priority in reducing risk.

Furthermore, when asked about future global risks that their business will need to prepare for, UK leaders have three leading concerns: cybersecurity breakdown (42%), economic stagnation (40%) and climate change (38%). As UK businesses seek to fight off the effects of economic instability, the focus on cybersecurity and climate change shows that leaders feel they will be interlinked for the foreseeable future.

Building green shoots through digital

As leaders identify a new roadmap towards revenue growth and efficiency, and reducing risk in the face of economic turbulence, 麻豆原创 Insight鈥檚 research also reveals the most sought after technologies that will support the improvement of business processes. The UK overwhelmingly points towards cloud computing (76%), cybersecurity infrastructure (72%), employee collaboration tools (72%) and business process intelligence (59%) as key priorities. This suggests that these technologies will be critical to leaders that seek to refresh their business models and establish continuity moving forwards.

Commenting on the research, Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director 麻豆原创 UK & Ireland, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a sign of how far we鈥檝e come that sustainability is a leading priority as businesses face economic uncertainty. There鈥檚 no doubt that it can be a key driver of growth, but leaders must be prepared to go all-in or face underwhelming returns.

鈥淎s our research shows, technologies like the cloud or business process intelligence can support UK leaders to improve their processes, and in this case, drive accurate, sustainable decision-making. However, these management systems are yet to be adequately implemented universally, making governance of sustainability goals, and in turn, profitability, increasingly difficult for organisations. But they do not have to do it alone, by partnering with the right technology experts, they can accelerate action and navigate today鈥檚 business challenges with ease.鈥�

To learn more about how businesses are approaching sustainability action, and navigating today鈥檚 economic uncertainty, please visit:

About The Research

The 麻豆原创 Insights Senior Executive Priority study collected data from 11,278 executives from companies with annual revenues of US$50 million or greater across 41 markets and 28 industries. Respondents possessed the highest level of departmental responsibility and oversight, with titles ranging from director to C-suite roles. The responses were fielded from September 2021 through December 2021 via a 10-minute online survey.

The post A New COVID Booster? UK Leaders Now See Sustainability As A Key Driver Of Economic Growth appeared first on 麻豆原创 UK News Center.