UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statistics and Trends in 2024 – Forbes Advisor UK

The fast-growing field of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize our lives.

With AI powering everything from self-driving cars to medical diagnostic tools, we look at how the introduction of the technology is changing the UK.

Growth and adoption of AI in Britain

• The UK AI market is worth more than £16.6 billion and is expected to grow to £788.41 billion by 2035, according to the US International Trade Administration.¹
• The number of UK AI companies has increased by over 600% in the past decade²
• Around one in six UK organisations, 432,000 in total, have embraced at least one AI technology – government survey shows³
• 68% of large companies, 33% of midsize companies and 15% of small companies have implemented at least one AI technology⁴
• After a ten-week trial of computer vision technology, Marks & Spencer reported an 80% reduction in warehouse accidents⁵
• Government data⁴ shows that the most widely used AI solutions in the UK focus on:

– data management and analysis (9%)

– natural language processing and generation (8%)

– machine learning (7%)

– Hardware AI (5%)

– computer vision and image processing and generation (5%).

• The IT and telecommunications sector has the highest AI adoption rate at 29.5%, closely followed by the legal sector at 29.2%. The hospitality, healthcare and retail sectors have the lowest adoption rate, around 11.5%.

Impact on the economy and employment

• Britain has over 360,000 AI staff⁶
• AI contributed £3.7 billion to the economy by 2022⁷
• Britain has twice as many AI-based companies as any European country⁷
• The largest estimated net job growth from AI over the next twenty years is expected to be in the UK health and social care sector⁸
• Of Britain’s major regions, Greater London leads the way in AI-focused companies, with 1,387 AI companies as of June 2023.⁹
• London serves as the main hub for AI startups in Britain, hosting companies such as DeepMind, Adbrain and BenevolentAI, in addition to prominent machine learning research groups at UCL, Kings and Imperial College.

• Jobs in all industries that mention AI advertise salaries that are 20% higher than those that don’t.

• The government estimates that around 7% of existing jobs in Britain could disappear over the next five years, rising to around 18% after ten years and almost 30% after twenty years – equivalent to around 2.2 million jobs.⁸

AI language models

• A Forbes Advisor survey found that 85% of Brits are aware of AI language models such as Chat GPT, Google Bard and Bing Chat
• Since its launch in November 2022, eight of the 24 Russell Group universities have formally banned the use of ChatGPT and other AI language models.

Self-driving vehicles

• Self-driving vehicles are expected to be on UK roads by 2025, with the government pledging £100 million to achieve this target
• Research from Forbes Advisor found that 85% of respondents had reservations about AI technology in cars.

AI research and development

• The UK government ranked third in the 2023 global AI Readiness Index, and first in Western Europe ¹⁰
• Since 2014, the government has allocated over £2.3 billion to various artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives¹¹
• In the Spring 2023 Budget, the previous UK government committed almost £1 billion in public funding for AI research¹²
• Britain plans to invest £900 million in an advanced supercomputer as part of an artificial intelligence strategy to help the country build its own ‘BritGPT’¹³
• In the November 2024 Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out plans for an Artificial Intelligence Capabilities Action Plan, which would provide a “roadmap to seizing the opportunities of AI to improve growth and productivity”.^’14

Trends, prospects and concerns

• Research from Forbes Advisor shows that 59% of British people are concerned about the use of artificial intelligence.
• The main concerns were as follows:

Sources:

Forbes Advisor’s primary data comes from a sample of 2,000 adults, representative of the UK population. It was commissioned by Forbes Advisor and conducted by market research firm Opinium. The data was collected in May 2023.

1. https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/united-kingdom-artificial-intelligence-market-2023
2. https://www.great.gov.uk/campaign-site/uk-na-innovation/sectors/artificial-intelligence/
3. https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/itandinternetindustry/articles/understandingaiuptakeandsentimentamongpeopleandbusinessesintheuk/june2023
4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/61d87355e90e07037668e1bd/AI_Activity_in_UK_Businesses_Report__Capital_Economics_and_DCMS__January_2022__Web_accessible_.pdf
5. https://www.protex.ai/post/marks-and-spencer-reduced-incidents-by-80-in-their-first-10-weeks-of-deployment#:~:text=This%20momentum%20led %20to%20a,incidents%20about%20the%20warehouse%20floor
6. https://thedatacity.com/rtics/artificial-intelligence-rtic0004/
7. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-unveils-world-leading-approach-to-innovation-in-first-artificial-intelligence-white-paper-to-turbocharge-growth
8. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1023590/impact-of-ai-on-jobs.pdf
9. https://thedatacity.com/blog/the-uks-top-artificial-intelligence-ai-hotspots/
10. https://oxfordinsights.com/ai-readiness/ai-readiness-index/
11. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-ai-strategy/national-ai-strategy-html-version
12. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-commits-up-to-35-billion-to-future-of-tech-and-science
13. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/15/uk-to-invest-900m-in-supercomputer-in-bid-to-build-own-britgpt
14. Fall Budget 2024 – HC 295