- 65% of UK respondents say their organisation would continue to invest in AI regardless of tangible ROI
- 70% of UK business leaders also agree that AI will continue to be a top priority investment even if a recession occurs in the next 12 months
- 94% are using or planning to use AI agents but maturity varies
Despite a lot of money being spent by businesses on artificial intelligence, traditional return on investment (ROI) isn’t necessarily needed for them to see value in the technology. Almost two thirds (65%) of UK respondents say that their organisation would continue to invest in AI regardless of its ability to measure tangible ROI, according to KPMG’s new AI pulse survey.
KPMG’s quarterly global survey, which asks a panel of business leaders, including more than 100 in the UK, for their views on a variety of AI topics, has launched today with insights for the first quarter of 2026. The new research found that while many organisations say they can measure returns in specific areas, this does not appear to be the primary factor driving continued investment in AI.
The research found that the majority of UK respondents were confident in their organisation’s ability to measure ROI across:
- productivity (76%)
- performance and quality of work (71%)
- speed and accuracy of decision‑making (67%)
- profitability (64%)
However, confidence drops sharply when it comes to more strategic or indirect benefits. Only 14% said they were confident in measuring ROI from improved analytics used by the C‑suite in business decision‑making. Respondents also cited the skills gap and risk considerations such as data privacy and cybersecurity as the biggest barriers to demonstrating AI‑related ROI (46%), followed by difficulty quantifying indirect or long‑term benefits (40%).
The biggest challenges to AI strategy in the next 12 months were risk management such as data privacy and cybersecurity (41%), followed by the quality of organisational data and employee adoption at 32%. Despite these concerns, 58% of respondents said their organisations were planning to invest more than $50m in AI over the next 12 months, with half of these investing more than $100m. 70% of UK business leaders also agree that AI will continue to be a top priority investment even if a recession occurs in the next 12 months.
Dr Leanne Allen, Head of AI at KPMG UK, said: “This shift in mindset by business leaders from viewing AI as something that must deliver an immediate return to one that sees AI as a long-term investment, recognising it as a strategic enabler for enterprise‑wide transformation, is an important milestone. But that shouldn’t translate into investing in AI blindly, without a clear strategy. AI is reshaping how organisations operate, how decisions are made, and how human and AI agents work together day‑to‑day. To get real value, businesses need to be intentional about where and how they deploy it, ensuring it supports their business goals and enables new ways of working. The organisations that take this more thoughtful, enterprise‑led approach will be the ones who fully realise the benefits of the technology.”
Organisations at different stages when it comes to AI agent implementation
Amongst the people whose organisations are using or planning on using AI agents (94%), a third are either exploring the possibility or piloting AI agents (34%). In contrast, 19% are scaling AI agents across multiple functions, 13% are developing or implementing multi agent or agentic AI systems and 8% are orchestrating multiple AI agents across workflows. This demonstrates the different stages organisations are at with regards to their agentic AI journey.
To manage some of the risk when it comes to AI agents, 48% are looking at AI agents as augmented support for employees and providing training to their workforce, 39% are taking a human-in-the-loop approach where a human validates outputs but does not oversee each agentic action or decision, and 37% are not allowing AI agents to access sensitive data without human oversight.
Allen added: “Businesses embracing the potential of AI are moving from early productivity tools such as Microsoft Copilot to more advanced AI agents that automate end‑to‑end processes. But there is still a mixed picture in terms of how far along organisations are on their AI journeys. Whatever form of AI an organisation is using or planning to use, it is critical to have the right guardrails in place to minimise risks — whether that’s accuracy issues, unreliable model outputs or the behavioural risks that come from how people use the technology. It’s not only about ensuring the technology can be trusted, but also the people operating it. Building in appropriate, proportionate controls from the start — through design, development, deployment and continuous monitoring in production — will lead to better, safer outcomes.”
Workforce transformation
UK business leaders are thinking about what actions they can take to ensure they can meet the needs of an AI-enabled workforce with 61% currently or planning to upskill/reskill their current workforce, 52% recruiting new roles such as prompt engineers or AI architects and 48% redesigning job roles. Only 15% of respondents were not confident that their current talent pipeline can meet the needs of an AI-enabled workforce.
Due to the increased use of AI agents in the workplace, businesses are now most focused on finding entry level employees who have adaptability and appetite for continuous learning (57%), critical thinking and problem-solving skills (52%) and technical or programming abilities (50%).
Allen commented: “Businesses are rightly focusing on workforce transformation through upskilling and reskilling, which is positive for employees. But it’s about far more than developing technical skills. As AI changes how work gets done and as human and AI agents increasingly collaborate, job roles themselves are being reshaped. That means the fundamental skills required include adaptability, critical thinking, judgment, and the ability to work effectively with AI systems. Many of these skills already exist within the workforce and can be unlocked with the right training, role redesign and learning opportunities.”
