New research commissioned by digital consultancy CreateFuture has found that 58% of UK business decision-makers do not currently view AI adoption as a ‘strategic priority right now’, with more than a third (38%) also admitting they still lack a clear AI vision or strategy. Even among those companies that do have an AI strategy in place, 43% admit that they are only in their early stages.
The research which features in CreateFuture’s latest insights report, From Hype to Reality: Research from the Frontline of the UK’s 'AI Revolution’, saw over 1,000 UK-based business decision-makers giving their opinions on the barriers holding their AI adoption journey back.
High implementation costs were cited by 86% of respondents as a deterrent to investment. Data privacy and security risks also emerged as top concerns, with 39% of respondents identifying these as key barriers to adoption. This caution is also reinforced by widespread regulatory uncertainty, which the report found to be an influencing factor for 95% of organisations.
Although nearly all of the respondents (98%) recognised the need for formal training to help their workforces effectively engage with AI technologies, over 40% cited a lack of training and tooling as barriers to fully capitalising on AI’s potential.
Euan Andrews, Founder and CEO of CreateFuture, said:
"Our research shows that 58% of UK business decision-makers don't currently see AI adoption as a strategic priority. At CreateFuture, we're bucking this trend. We view AI as an accelerator, powered by our people. That’s why we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We’ve embarked on an AI enablement journey, providing baseline AI understanding across our entire company and augmenting that with role-specific training.
"This approach has already yielded early significant results, such as increased productivity and improved output quality when modernising code. This 'AI for all’ approach makes CreateFuture stand out as a business that has made AI adoption a priority, and it’s how we’re helping our clients unleash their potential.”
Jeff Watkins, Chief Technology Officer at CreateFuture, added:
“If adopted correctly AI can be a truly transformative technology which can unleash huge value and opportunities for organisations - with the potential to do the same for the UK economy at large. Unfortunately, our findings suggest that when it comes to AI adoption, the UK’s business community could be in danger of missing a huge growth opportunity due to a lack of vision, strategy and prioritisation in its boardrooms, with a lack of skills and in-house expertise also threatening to compound these factors.
“At CreateFuture, we’ve just embarked on our own AI enablement journey with a view to empowering our people, our clients and the communities we serve. As a result, we know all too well the importance of setting a clear vision and strategy, whilst putting the right training in place for employees to ensure we make the biggest positive impacts with AI augmentation. Without these ‘fundamentals’ in place, organisations will struggle to take their workforces on the journey with them and see their AI ambitions eventually falter. In short, the so-called ‘toe-dippers’ need to turn their reluctance into positive action for the sake of their business by seeking out the right advice, practical insight and evidence-based expertise - all of which CreateFuture can offer as a result of its AI endeavours to date.”
As well as the many barriers to entry for UK organisations, the CreateFuture research does show that 46% of business decision-makers believe AI technology will be essential for their company’s long-term competitiveness and innovation. Furthermore, despite these reservations, 83% of companies plan to increase their AI investment over the next year - indicating that while a full strategic commitment to AI may still be developing, UK businesses acknowledge its growing importance.
