British businesses are looking to AI for growth, along with team training, according to Lloyds Banking Group's latest Business Barometer.
As new growth opportunities emerge, a survey of 1,200 companies found that 35% plan to invest in team training this year and a third will focus on AI tools.
Other top priorities for 2026 are increasing productivity, cited by 42%, followed by upskilling teams at 39% and increasing technical capabilities at 37%.
When it comes to operational and investment priorities, 35% of respondents cited technology and productivity as areas where they need more support to meet their goals for next year. This was followed by skill development at 31% and global expansion at 25%.
Paul Kempster, managing director of commercial bank coverage at Lloyds Business and Commercial Banking, said: “These are investment priorities that will support the long-term growth of businesses and help them take advantage of new opportunities that arise in the year ahead, while also building a strong foundation well beyond 2026.”
Previous research Lloyd’s Business Barometer found that 82% of UK businesses using AI reported improved productivity and just over three-quarters reported improved profitability. Retailers saw the biggest productivity gains, and manufacturers saw the biggest gains in profits.
However, barriers include the cost of the technology, lack of AI-specific skills, and concerns about data privacy and energy consumption.
According to the latest Business Barometer, the main objectives of organizations focused on training were to increase productivity and strengthen digital skills.
There is no sign that the skills shortage will subside, and recently the study According to research from business communications provider Esendex, there were approximately 11,365 automation and AI jobs across a range of sectors in the UK last summer, with AI accounting for 69% and automation accounting for the remaining 31%. Two of the most in-demand roles were AI data engineer and Python engineer.
Good news for employees. raise salary. According to recent statistics from Stack Overflow, the median salary for AI and machine learning engineers in the UK is £112,000, while engineering managers earn around £102,000.
The median salary for backend developers is £81,000, up 6.5% from last year's £76,000. Product managers saw the biggest increase at 29.3%, followed by game developers and front-end developers.
The government is well aware of the skills shortage and has announced: schedule Last summer, we invested £187m to help young people and workers across the UK access AI training schemes.
The report says 7.5 million UK workers will be able to gain essential AI skills by 2030 through industry partnerships with the likes of NVIDIA, Google and Microsoft.
The TechFirst scheme will also support more than 4,000 graduates, researchers and innovators through undergraduate scholarships in areas such as AI, cyber security and computer science, funding for 500 domestic PhD students to research technology, and seed funding to help local innovators and small and medium-sized enterprises develop new technology products and deploy AI.
