UK AI maturity drops despite continued high investment

New research has found that UK enterprises have experienced a drop in AI maturity, despite rising investment and widespread experimentation with artificial intelligence.

The latest Enterprise AI Maturity Index from ServiceNow, conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics, reveals that the average AI maturity score for UK organisations has decreased by 9 points, from 44 last year to 35 this year. The research surveyed over 4,500 executives across the EMEA region, making these findings part of a broader trend affecting businesses as they respond to rapid AI advancements.

Widespread experimentation

According to the findings, more than half of UK organisations (56%) have launched over 100 AI use cases within the past year, indicating a strong appetite for investment and experimentation with artificial intelligence solutions. This mirrors a similar trend across Europe and the Middle East, where 47% of organisations have initiated over 100 AI projects in the same period.

Despite this enthusiasm, the survey indicates that only a small number of UK businesses are translating their investment and experimentation into mature AI capabilities. Just 9% of respondents claimed to have reached the 'augmentation stage,' described as the most advanced phase of AI maturity identified in the study.

"Whilst we're still in the early days of AI implementation, there is a clear ambition in the UK to not just invest in AI but become a European leader with this technology. The UK government's AI Opportunities Action Plan is just one recent example of the UK's commitment to turn this ambition into action. The focus now must be on scalable and effective execution," Damian Stirrett, Group Vice President & General Manager UK & Ireland at ServiceNow, said.

Governance challenges

The report highlights governance as a principal challenge faced by organisations as they seek to scale AI adoption. While the use of AI grows, issues around cybersecurity, privacy, and regulatory compliance become increasingly pronounced. The number of UK organisations reporting significant advancements in AI data governance has increased by 5% over the last year, with those managing to break down data and operational silos only rising slightly from 40% to 41%.

Even so, only 47% of UK organisations surveyed stated they had made strong progress in AI governance. This slow pace of advancement reveals an ongoing need for better management of AI-related risks, especially as data security was identified as the leading barrier to realising value from AI, and also the top concern for UK businesses.

The data indicate that, for organisations to safely and effectively scale AI, governance efforts should be prioritised from the outset. This involves embedding policy frameworks, oversight, and accountability within technology platforms, and ensuring a strategic approach to newer technologies such as agentic AI.

The maturity index

The Enterprise AI Maturity Index, now in its second year, evaluates organisations across five key dimensions: leadership and strategy, workflow integration, talent and workforce, governance, and investment. Companies are assigned an overall maturity score between 0 and 100, indicating their readiness to scale AI in a manner that aligns with achieving business objectives and mitigating emerging risks.

This year's fall in the AI maturity score in the UK suggests that while organisations remain committed to investing in and experimenting with AI, the challenge of executing effective, scalable deployments persists. The report notes that realising the potential of AI in business depends not only on ambitious project rollouts but also on the ability to integrate strong governance policies and manage the risks associated with the evolving technology landscape.

The study's methodology involved a survey of nearly 4,500 executives from 16 countries and 11 industries, scoring organisational performance across the five pillars of AI maturity. The responses were then used to assign each organisation a comprehensive AI maturity score.