UK sees boost in AI adoption

Use of AI technology in the UK has stepped up since 2016, with 41 percent of companies adopting AI between 2016 and 2019, compared to just a fifth over six years ago.

A new study from Peak shows this puts the UK above the global average of 39 percent for this period, though it's since dropped back closer to the average, and represents an almost fourfold rise in the last ten years, compared to just 2.5 times in the US and three times in India.

This marks the launch of Peak's first Decision Intelligence (DI) Maturity Index, which looks at the commercial AI readiness of businesses in the US, UK and India. This aims to gauge a business' readiness for commercial AI and decision intelligence from different perspectives. It provides a clear indication of current maturity level, as well as the areas where a focus on improvement would result in a significant increase in commercial AI success.

Although leading the way in AI adoption, the UK still languishes behind the US and India for decision intelligence maturity. India is the most mature market when it comes to leveraging AI, scoring 64 (out of 100) on Peak's DI maturity scale, while the US scores 52 and the UK just 44.

"There's many things driving AI adoption and these vary by industry and by the maturity of the businesses adopting them," says Peak CEO Richard Potter. "AI offers the opportunity to assess huge data sets in near real time as well as providing predictive analysis, which moves companies away from viewing data in arrears to more complex 'what if' scenarios. This can provide a host of benefits, from adaptive pricing models based on raw material costs to re-routing delivery vehicles or managing warehouse logistics. With 89 per cent of businesses saying they are either currently using AI or working towards doing so, there's a clear adoption trend that signals AI as the major tech development of our times."

You can find out more on the Peak site.

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