The BaseOfficialOffice for National Statistics
Artificial intelligence in UK businesses: 2023 to 2026
The Office for National Statistics analyses its Business Insights and Conditions Survey. Self-reported AI use among UK firms with 10 or more employees rose from around 12% (September 2023) to around 35% (June 2026); of firms using AI to improve operations, 63% report no change in headcount, 1% more and 6% fewer.
Why it matters
The same thing, for different readers.
What it means for you
About a third of UK firms with 10 or more employees say they use AI; among those using it to improve operations, 6% report fewer staff and 63% no change.
For lawmakers
The national statistics office calls AI measurement a work in progress and aims to identify its priority measurement topics by March 2027.
For researchers
The headline figure counts any reported AI technology equally and the survey excludes finance, public services and other sectors, so it shows neither depth of use nor the whole economy.
In their own words
Every quotation was found, word for word, in the text we saved from the source. That shows the words are there; it does not make them true, or prove the speaker meant them as quoted.
From the source’s own text.
“The self-reported use of artificial intelligence (AI) in UK businesses with 10 or more employees has increased from around 12% to around 35% since late 2023, with larger firms more likely to have adopted AI.”
Found word for word in the source
“Of businesses using AI to improve business operations, 63% reported no change in worker headcount, while 1% reported increased headcount and 6% reported decreased headcount. These early indications show that the impact on employment remains limited at this stage.”
Found word for word in the source
“Around 10% of businesses report automating or replacing roles with AI technologies, with relatively little variation across size bands.”
Found word for word in the source
“While this offers a consistent baseline, it treats all reported uses as equivalent and does not distinguish between light use, user-level use, and more embedded, production-level adoption.”
Found word for word in the source
“However, some industries are excluded from BICS, such as agriculture, oil and gas extraction, energy generation and supply, public administration and defence, public provision of education and health, and finance and insurance.”
Found word for word in the source
How the finding was reached
In our words, from the source. Weigh the finding by how it was made.
- What was done
- Analysis of the ONS Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS), a voluntary fortnightly survey of UK businesses; the June 2026 wave (Wave 159) had a 26.7% response rate, with 38,637 businesses responding. Headline AI use is whether a business reports using any of a list of AI technologies; most figures cover businesses with 10 or more employees. Business answers are set beside an ONS survey of employees (Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, May to June 2026).
- What it found
- Self-reported AI use among businesses with 10 or more employees rose from around 12% (September 2023) to around 35% (June 2026); by size, 28% of businesses with 0 to 9 employees and 49% of those with 250 or more report AI use. Adopters use about 1.6 AI technologies on average, up from 1.4. Among businesses using AI to improve operations, 63% report no change in headcount, 1% an increase and 6% a decrease; around 10% of businesses report automating or replacing roles with AI. Only 10% of AI-using businesses report extensive use. 55% of employees report using AI for work or education, against 35% of businesses.
- What it does not show
- Headcount answers are what firms report in a survey, and the article notes a notable share say the effect is uncertain or not applicable. It does not say whether the 10% automating or replacing roles is of all businesses or only AI users. The survey leaves out agriculture, energy, public administration and defence, public education and health, and finance and insurance. The AI measure treats all uses as equivalent and does not separate light from production-level use. The questions on extent of use are new and the authors call results early indications. The series is labelled official statistics in development.
- Status
- Official statistics
The record
- Questions
- What happens to work, income and the economy?
- What we read
- We read the whole source.
- Found by
- A research pass: work, income and the economy, gathered October 13, 2026, via
research-work(tier 1: the source’s own channel or an official record) - Cite this
- Office for National Statistics, “Artificial intelligence in UK businesses: 2023 to 2026”, July 20, 2026. Entry in the Ctrl AI Base, https://ctrlai.com/base/ons-2026-07-20-ai-in-uk-businesses
Our notesFull article read from the page; the charts are images, so figures come from the text only. The headcount shares for firms using AI to improve operations (63%, 1%, 6%) add to 70%; the text does not say what the rest answered, so check the chart data. The base of the "around 10%" figure for automating or replacing roles is not stated in the text. The page gives the survey wave as 5 to 28 June 2026 in the chart source lines but 15 to 28 June in the chart titles, so only June 2026 is stated here. No individual author is named (Macroeconomic Insights team), so the organization is the speaker. Found no earlier Base entry that this clearly bears on.