British businesses are doubling down on spending on AI, but they also need to invest in the fundamentals to ensure real results.
This comes despite a 102% year-on-year increase in corporate spending, according to ServiceNow research, which ranks the UK 51st out of 100 in terms of overall AI maturity.
ServiceNow attributed this to failure to invest in the foundations needed for AI, such as data management and governance processes and updates to legacy systems.
According to the company’s service, 73% of UK executives said they felt a lack of data accuracy, access and control was a major barrier to the deployment and use of AI.
For example, just 20% of UK companies had implemented AI testing, auditing and risk assessment. In the UK, a fifth (17%) of businesses surveyed have replaced legacy systems with integrated platforms.
Damian Stillett, group vice president and general manager, UK and Ireland, ServiceNow, said: “UK organizations are investing heavily in AI, which shows that the challenge is not an ambition.”
“We’re connecting that effort to the operational infrastructure that powers AI across the enterprise.”
ServiceNow’s results follow a similar survey conducted by Cisco earlier this year that found nearly all companies are expanding their privacy and governance efforts in response to AI adoption.
AI isn’t ready
Two-thirds of UK companies surveyed used agent AI, but only 6% used it to create autonomous workflows, highlighting the lack of maturity in AI deployment.
This is reflected in research showing that 15% of UK organizations are using AI to streamline or integrate workflows, which ServiceNow says shows there is a gap between AI investment and operational readiness.
“Too many companies are bolting AI into fragmented systems, disconnected assistants, and workflows that have yet to be reimagined,” Stiletto said. “The next phase is to move from isolated pilots to reliable end-to-end workflows that can be delivered at scale.”
ServiceNow said improvements require having the right data, governance and workflow infrastructure in place to scale AI.
You can’t waste your time running away from trouble
Despite the challenges, UK spending is roughly on par with spending across EMEA, where AI budgets have soared by 113% in the last year. ServiceNow predicts that AI spending will account for 20% of IT budgets by 2027.
However, the company noted that organizations that are successful with AI are not necessarily increasing their spending, with 21% seeing significant gains.
Instead, it has “the most mature governance” including data management and risk management, which has helped it currently achieve a 164% return on investment. The company predicts this could rise to a 199% return on investment within two years.
The company argued that governance does not slow down innovation, but is the “operational discipline” that enables it, especially when it comes to scaling quickly and ensuring system reliability and auditability.
This echoes comments from Tenable co-CEO Stephen Vintz earlier this year, who said companies need to consider the “accountability gap” when it comes to AI governance.
Speaking at RSAC Conference 2026, Vinz pointed to the fact that 90% of organizations have deployed AI and half have already experienced a related cyber incident.
“There is a fundamental mismatch between the exponential speed of AI adoption and the linear speed of traditional corporate governance, where things are only going to move faster and become more complex,” he said at the time.
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