United Kingdom Artificial Intelligence Market

The UK’s AI market is currently valued at over $21 billion, and it is estimated to grow significantly during the next few years and to add $1 trillion to the UK economy by 2035. UK artificial intelligence investment has reached record highs with UK AI scaleups raising almost double that of France, Germany, and the rest of Europe combined. The UK is the third largest AI market in the world after the United States and China.

The UK is committed to creating an economy that harnesses artificial intelligence and big data providing great opportunities to U.S. tech companies. In 2021 and 2022, the UK Government published its National AI Strategy and Action Plan, outlining a package of over $1.3 billion of support for the sector. This support complements and leverages the $2.8 billion that then UK Government has invested into AI across a range of initiatives since 2014.  

In addition to public funding, the industry is also providing funding for AI solutions. Global AI powerhouses that have invested significantly in developing the UK AI market include Google, AWS, HPE, Beyond Limits and many more. The UK’s number of companies engaged in AI has grown by 145% in the past ten years.

The digitalization of banking, insurance, healthcare, and business services in the country is the key driver for the growth of AI in the country. The country also has a well-developed ICT infrastructure, and the increasing number of start-ups will significantly contribute to the growth of AI in the UK. 

The current uptake of AI in the UK varies significantly by sector and within sectors. Businesses and sectors that have digitized operations and services took up AI more easily and effectively than those that have not. In particular, organizations with good data capability have a head-start in becoming AI-ready. Many of the major UK accountancy and law firms are experimenting with AI for services and operations; the IT, telecommunications, and legal sectors currently have the highest adoption rate.

As businesses grow, they are also more likely to adopt AI; 68% of UK large companies, 34% of UK medium-sized companies, and 15% of UK small companies have adopted AI technology. AI solutions for data management and analysis are most prevalent, followed by natural language processing and generation, machine learning, AI hardware, computer vision, and image processing and generation.
 

For more information, contact Claudia.Colombo@trade.gov