UK Businesses Bet Big on AI, as SAP Predicts ROI Surge

UK businesses are spending an average of £15.94 million on AI this year with investments expected to rise by 40% within the next two years. 

This data comes from a new SAP study, The Value of AI in the UK: Growth, People & Data, produced with Oxford Economics. 

According to this research, UK businesses are showing a 17% ROI on their AI investments, which is set to double (32%) by 2027.

Most UK executives are positive about AI integration in their businesses with data showing that over three-quarters (78%) believe AI will achieve a positive return within one to three years.

More than half (52%) of the executives say it delivers returns faster than any other technology.

“UK businesses have the ambition, talent, and data to lead in AI, although too many are still treating it as a ‘technology project’ rather than a holistic business transformation,” says Leila Romane, Managing Director, SAP UK & Ireland.

“The real opportunity is to use AI to reimagine how companies operate, how people work and how value is created for customers.

“When UK organisations take that broader, strategic approach to adopting the technology and embedding it throughout their business, the results will become tangible.

“We’ll see faster innovation and stronger growth, which can only mean a more competitive economy.”

Fragmented adoption and the rise of shadow AI

Although UK organisations are investing heavily in AI, most show a lack of a long-term grand strategy. 

Only 7% of AI programmes currently at play are enterprise-wide strategic plans, showing significant fragmentation in AI implementation across sectors.

People are running in front of organisational implementation of AI as evidenced by 68% of employees using shadow AI tools in their work.

This means that employees have AI enthusiasm, but the absence of enterprise wide adoption of these tools are causing security vulnerabilities as a result of unauthorised use of AI at work.

“Right now, employees are running ahead of their organisations, using AI tools because they see the opportunity, although they are not always aware of the risks involved,” Leila says.

“If we give them the training, sanctioned tools and create safe opportunities for experimentation, that energy can become a real driver of transformation and growth.” 

How will data determine organisations’ AI future?

Having the right data foundations is essential to win the AI race. 

The SAP study showed that incomplete or insufficient data is an issue for 73% of the businesses. 

Clean data systems are necessary to build strong agentic AI on scale across different departments of the organisation with reliable context. 

Umang Paw, CTO at PwC UK emphasised how data readiness is a huge barrier in large-scale adoption of AI. 

“Many organisations have spent years collecting data but haven’t invested in making it AI-ready - it’s often siloed, inconsistent or lacks proper governance frameworks.

“However, the organisations that are succeeding aren’t waiting for perfect data. 

“They’re taking a pragmatic approach: starting with the cleanest, most accessible datasets they have, proving value and then using those early wins to build momentum for broader data infrastructure investments.”

How can Agentic AI deliver value?

Real value in AI can be unlocked by moving beyond fragmented tools to achieve certain localised functions to building enterprise wide agentic AI systems. 

Using agentic AI, multi-step manual processes can be automated at scale, improve planning and decision making and coordination across departments. 

Brenda Brown, Chief Marketing Officer of AI at SAP said that: “Agentic AI, the systems that plan, execute and collaborate across complex processes, will be the next wave of business transformation," 

"ROI expectations of AI agents are already strong, but for enterprises, realizing that value will depend on integrated foundations of data, applications and AI.”

More than half (55%) of UK’s business leaders say that agentic AI will significantly influence their strategic planning in the next two years.