Artificial intelligence (AI) statistics and trends UK

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic at the moment, and those with a mind for investing might even be looking at AI stocks on their trading apps. We take a look at the latest AI industry statistics, including the current market size, projected growth and how many people are currently using AI.

AI statistics: UK highlights

• The UK AI market is estimated to be worth £16.6 billion in 2023.
• The AI market is projected to grow to £790.4 billion by 2035.
• The UK AI market is currently the third largest in the world.
• The UK is ranked third in the world for AI readiness, behind the US and China.
• The UK government has invested £2.2 billion in the AI sector and plans to invest a further £1 billion for a total of £3.2 billion.
• The UK AI market is expected to add over £800 billion ($1 trillion) to the UK economy by 2035.
• The UK AI market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 35.9% between 2019 and 2025.

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AI usage and attitudes: Key statistics

• Only 27% of people in the UK feel negatively about AI – two-fifths (41%) feel positively and around a third (32%) feel neutral.
• 46% of adults under 35 years old have used ChatGPT.
• 1 in 10 (8.1%) people have used ChatGPT for financial advice.
• 1 in 5 (18.5%) people would consider using ChatGPT for financial advice.
• 38% of UK adults didn’t know what ChatGPT was in April 2023.

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AI adoption in businesses: Key statistics

• 13% of businesses in the UK currently use some form of AI, whilst around 1 in 6 (16%) are planning to use AI.
• The IT and telecommunications (29.5%) and legal (29.2%) sectors currently have the highest rate of adoption for AI in the UK.
• 68% of large companies, 33% of medium-sized companies, and 15% of small companies in the UK have incorporated at least one AI technology.
• The UK has the largest AI workforce in Europe, with over 50,000 people working in AI-related roles.
• The number of UK companies engaged in AI has grown by 145% over the past decade.
• In 2020, UK firms that were adopting or creating AI-based technologies received £1.78bn in funding.
• The most commonly cited reasons for using AI are improvements in cybersecurity and efficiency.
• When it comes to how companies are implementing AI, spam filters took the top spot with 11%, followed by chatbots at 4% and facial recognition at 3%.

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Spending on AI: Key statistics

• In 2020, companies that had already adopted AI spent a total of £16.7 billion on AI technologies.
• The average spend on AI was £9,500 per small business, £380,000 per medium business and £1.6 million per large business.
• Expenditure on AI technologies could increase to between £27.2 billion and £35.6 billion by 2025, an expected increase of between 10% and 16%.
• Between 2020 and 2040, expenditure on AI technologies is predicted to increase from £16.7 billion to £83.5 billion in 2040 at a compound annual growth rate of 8.4%.

AI startups in the UK: Key statistics

• The number of UK AI companies has increased by 688% over the last 10 years.
• Of the 1684 active high-growth AI companies in the UK, more than half are at the ‘seed’ stage, the first official stage of raising capital.
• London is the main centre for AI startups in the UK and has around 80% of the AI companies among the top 50 lists in the country, including DeepMind, Adbrain, and BenevolentAI.
• 57% of AI startups in the UK are headquartered in London.

AI and the job market: Key statistics

• 6 in 10 (64%) Brits think Artificial Intelligence (AI) will affect their job in the next 5 years and half (50%) think their job will be affected in the next 12 months.
• 2 in 3 (64%) Brits think the government should create new regulations to prevent the potential loss of jobs due to AI.
• Around 7% of existing UK jobs could be displaced between 2021 and 2026 which is around 2.2 million.
• Almost 1 in 5 existing jobs (18%) could be displaced between 2021 and 2031, which is around 6 million.
• Almost 30% of existing jobs could be displaced by 2021 and 2041, which is around 9 million jobs.
• The catering industry is ranked most susceptible to AI job loss, with more than half (54%) of jobs at risk.
• It is estimated that as many as 300 million jobs could be replaced by AI globally.

Usage of AI among different age groups in the UK

• 51% of those aged 16-29 use AI daily.
• 59% of 30- to 49-year-olds use AI every day.
• Those aged 30 to 49 use AI the most, with 52% reporting a little daily usage and 7% a lot of daily usage.
• AI usage is lower among older people, with 49% of people aged 50 to 69 and 32% of those aged 70 and over using AI daily.
• The majority (68%) of those aged 70 and over report no daily AI usage.

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How many people use ChatGPT?

As of June 2023, ChatGPT has more than 100 million users. According to external research, 46% of adults under 35 years old have used ChatGPT.

Interestingly, our survey found that 38% of people still don't know about ChatGPT, suggesting that knowledge of popular forms of AI is still limited in the UK.

However, AI is not limited to generative text models. Its applications have been widespread in the UK. If you have spoken to a chatbot, used Alexa or Siri or had your email sort your spam folder, you have likely used AI.

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