Operational resilience has become a board-level priority for businesses in the UK and Ireland, with senior leaders increasingly recognising its role in reducing incident frequency, improving recovery times, and supporting competitive advantage.
This is reflected in PagerDuty’s State of AI-First Operations report, which surveyed 1,000 IT and business decision-makers globally to assess organisational maturity and resilience.
In the UK and Ireland, the financial impact of IT incidents is significant. Around 65% of organisations report potential losses exceeding £225,000 per hour during major incidents, slightly below the global figure of 68%, but still representing a material risk for executives.
Beyond immediate financial losses, 53% of UK and Ireland organisations identify brand and reputation damage as the most significant cost of major incidents. Lost productivity and recovery costs are also commonly reported impacts of service disruption.
Operational resilience is increasingly being treated as a strategic business priority globally, with 68% of organisations in the UK and Ireland reporting improved resilience over the past year, broadly in line with global trends.
However, the report also highlights differences in investment patterns based on business performance. Organisations in the UK and Ireland experiencing revenue growth are more likely to increase resilience budgets compared with those reporting flat or declining revenues.
Attitudes towards AI in operations are generally cautious but positive. Around 41% of UK and Ireland organisations believe AI-driven automation could reduce service disruptions by at least 20%, although most continue to emphasise the importance of human oversight.
Many organisations are also aiming to maintain a balance between AI agents and human workers over the next three years as part of their operational resilience strategies.
Overall, the findings suggest that while operational resilience is firmly established as a priority for UK and Ireland organisations, differences in investment capacity and approach continue to shape how effectively it is implemented.
