New research from Deloitte reveals how major businesses in Europe and the Middle East are using AI, how much they’re investing, and how they measure its success. Between 15 August and 5 September 2025, Deloitte surveyed nearly 2000 senior executives across 14 countries in Europe and the Middle East. The business leaders were specifically chosen from large private sector companies (over $500 million revenue and 1,000 employees) who are actively involved in AI-related decisions and are already using or piloting AI, including Generative AI.
The majority of UK business leaders (88%) plan to increase their financial investment in AI over the next 12 months, with a 37% expecting a significant increase.
When it comes to implementing AI solutions – 38% of UK businesses surveyed favour a hybrid approach, combining in-house development with external tools, while 31% plan to invest in internal build capabilities. 29% lean more heavily on vendor-built solutions for speed and scalability.
Customer satisfaction (90%), time saving and productivity (88%) and cost savings (88%) were the most common ways UK leaders measured ROI with AI. However just over half (61%) of UK business leaders say achieving satisfactory ROI on a typical AI use case takes 1-3 years. This is significantly longer than the typical payback period of seven to 12 months expected for technology investments.
Among those businesses classed as ‘AI ROI Leaders’ in the UK (the top 20% of those who have the most and quickest ROI) 61% mandate AI training for their workforce, compared to 34% of ‘AI Laggards’ (in the bottom 30% of AI ROI). The research found that the biggest overall barrier preventing UK organisations from achieving ROI from AI initiatives is AI / Data sovereignty (23%), followed by lack of technical talent and skills (22%).
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