UK Workers Spend Nearly £1bn a Year on AI Tools for Work, Deloitte Finds
A 25,000-person survey revealed that almost a third of workers using generative AI do so without their employer knowing, and half have received no training.
Key Findings:
- British workers spend approximately £958 million annually on generative AI tools for work, with 17% paying for at least one tool out of pocket.
- 63% of UK working adults aged 18 to 70 knowingly use generative AI at work, with nearly a quarter utilizing it daily.
- Most workers (46%) use free tools, while 34% rely on employer-provided tools and 17% use in-house solutions.
Shadow AI and Stigma:
- Nearly a third (31%) of users admit to employing shadow AI, using it discreetly without their employers' knowledge.
- Around a quarter (23%) perceive a stigma around its usage at work, with 64% of weekly users expressing concern that their managers might think AI could replace them.
Lack of Support from Employers:
- Half of generative AI users have received no formal training on safe and responsible use.
- 65% of these workers report minimal guidance from leadership.
Proposed Solution:
Paul Lee, head of industry insight at Deloitte UK, suggests that companies should focus on educating their employees about effective AI usage rather than merely providing access:
"The story here isn’t that workers are using GenAI; it’s that they are using it despite limited training, patchy guidance and, in some cases, without their employer’s knowledge."
Common Uses:
- Information Search: 43% of users leverage AI for searching and retrieving information.
- Email Drafting: Similarly, 43% utilize AI for drafting emails.
- Document Summarization: 31% use AI to summarize documents.
Users estimate these tools save them approximately 70 minutes per week on average, although the survey did not measure this directly.