The average UK business is spending £20.6 million [1] on AI this year, up 27% from 2025, according to new research from SAP SE (NYSE: SAP).

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.

“UK 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,” said Leila Romane, Managing Director, SAP UK & Ireland. “This 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.”

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 £2.7 million in 2025 to £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’s 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.“Good governance is not a brake on AI adoption – it’s actually the opposite,” said Naomi Weir, Technology and Innovation Director, CBI. “It 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.”

Preparing the workforce for AI supported work

 Today, AI is supporting 31% of tasks in the average UK business – 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.

“What makes AI exciting is the speed at which a focused investment can improve an everyday experience for thousands of people,” said Claire Meadows, People Transformation Director, Mitie. “In 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.”

Read the full report here.

 

Methodology

SAP 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 (500–1,500 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 SAP

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