Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) Office for Artificial Intelligence commissioned research to model current and future estimates of (i) the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in the UK, and (ii) the expenditure on AI technologies and AI-related labour in the UK.The associated report provides an assessment of the scale of AI activity in UK businesses and scenarios for growth over the next twenty yearsTo gather data on AI adoption and spending to inform the modelling in this study, a survey of private businesses was conducted in conjunction with YouGov.The total survey sample was 2,019 private businesses, including 1,127 small businesses (55.8%), 291 medium businesses (14.4%) and 601 large businesses (29.8%). Respondents spanned all regions of Great Britain and all private sectors. Businesses in Northern Ireland have thus not been surveyed. After removing spurious responses, the identification process of which included an analysis of expenditure responses relative to firm size (in terms of turnover), the sample reduced to 2,009 quality responses.

Main Topics:

The survey asks respondents whether they have adopted AI technologies (including the following six technologies: machine learning, natural language processing and generation, computer vision/image processing and generation, data management and analysis, hardware, and robotic process automation), how did they source these technologies, and their expenditure on these technologies and the associated labour expenditure.The survey asked how businesses expected their expenditure on AI and AI-related labour to increase in the next year and next 5 years to support modelling the trajectory of AI expenditure in the UK.The study data also includes variables related to the size of the business, the business sector, turnover, and main industry worked in.

Volunteer sample

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)