UK leads AI adoption as returns lag behind investment

UK organisations are adopting artificial intelligence across their businesses faster than peers in any other country, according to research from SAS with input from IDC. The study found, however, that returns on those investments are lagging deployment.

The share of UK organisations describing their AI approach as integrated or transformative rose to 60% from 29% in a year, the fastest shift among the 28 countries surveyed. Over the same period, the proportion taking a short-term view of AI fell to 7.1% from 40%.

Three-quarters of UK organisations plan to increase AI investment over the next 12 months. Yet the UK's AI Impact Index, which measures realised business value, stood at 51.7, compared with a Trustworthiness Index score of 60.5.

That left an 8.8-point gap between trust measures and business results. The UK's trust score also remained slightly below the global average of 61.3, despite rising from 58.2 a year earlier.

The research was based on responses from 2,699 decision-makers across 28 countries and five regions, covering banking, insurance, life sciences and the public sector. UK figures came from 200 respondents in the earlier survey wave and 267 in the later one.

While adoption moved quickly, the study pointed to weaker foundations in data quality and explainability. Those shortcomings appeared to be limiting organisations' ability to turn wider AI use into measurable returns.

Data quality

Data Quality & Governance was the UK's weakest trust dimension, with a score of 56.5. Among the major markets compared in the study, that left the UK behind Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the United States, and 3 points below the global benchmark of 59.5.

At the same time, awareness of the issue increased sharply. The share of UK organisations naming data quality as a critical factor for AI reliability jumped from about 20% to 69.3%, making it the most cited factor in this year's findings.

On data infrastructure, 53.9% of UK organisations were classed at managed or optimised level, slightly ahead of the 52% global figure. However, progress towards fully optimised data infrastructure was slow across markets, with only 17.5% of organisations globally reaching that stage.

Dr Iain Brown, Global Head of AI and Data Science at SAS, said: "UK organisations are moving faster than any other market we studied, replacing isolated AI experimentation with enterprise-wide deployment. It shows real intent. Right now, organisations can show they're moving fast on adoption, but that speed isn't yet converting into business results. The fix starts with the data underneath the AI: until that foundation is strong enough to support real explainability, the UK's trust score will keep outpacing what AI can actually deliver."

Explainability gap

The UK also fell short on Explainability & Fairness, scoring 57.1 against a global benchmark of 60.4. That 3.3-point gap was the country's widest shortfall against the benchmark across any trust dimension.

On that measure, the UK trailed Germany, Spain, France and the United States, although it was narrowly ahead of Italy. The issue was not confined to Britain: lack of explanation was the most common reason respondents globally gave for overriding AI recommendations.

Chris Marshall, Vice President at IDC, said: "As AI becomes more autonomous, organisations face a new challenge: maintaining confidence in systems people don't fully understand. Our findings show that stronger oversight, explainability, accountability and data foundations are becoming prerequisites for scaling AI successfully."

Despite the weaker scores, the UK's trust gap, defined as the distance between what people believe AI can do and what governance can demonstrate, narrowed to 7.2 points. That was smaller than the gap reported in the United States, Spain, Germany, France and Italy.

This did not mean the UK had the strongest governance among those markets, because its overall Trustworthiness Index remained below the global average. It did suggest, however, that confidence in AI among UK organisations was more closely aligned with what governance structures could support.

There were also signs of relative progress in business impact. The UK's Impact Index rose by 3.5 points over the year, while Spain's fell by 7.9 points and France's dropped by 6.1 points, even as governance measures improved in those countries.

Globally, organisations with trustworthy AI practices were 15 times more likely to report strong or high return on investment than those without, at 62% compared with 4%. In the UK, the findings indicated that governance and oversight alone were not enough to close the gap unless businesses improved data quality and made AI outputs easier to explain and assess.