Britain goes AI: UK ranks at the top of European countries embedding AI

As a British IT professional, you probably know that IT in the UK is increasingly under pressure. With employees demanding the speed and convenience they’re used to at home and business leaders looking for increased productivity and efficiency, times are tumultuous for the average IT department. The good news? AI is knocking on the door to help you work with more focus. To better understand how AI is reshaping IT, we recently conducted an international research study among 6,000 IT professionals — including 1,000 from the UK. The findings offer a clear picture of where British organizations stand today and what challenges lie ahead. In this first part of our three-part blog series, we look at how the UK is embracing AI, and why success depends on strong collaboration between IT and leadership.

IT as the driving force behind the UK’s AI adoption

Our international survey, conducted in August 2025, explored how AI and automation are reshaping IT across Europe. Among the 1,000 British IT professionals who took part, one finding stood out: the UK leads the way in AI adoption. In fact, 36% of British organizations are already fully embedding AI — the highest rate among all surveyed countries.

And at the heart of this progress? IT teams. Much like in other countries, they’re the ones driving AI adoption forward — selecting tools, testing new possibilities, and guiding their organizations through change. But that leadership role also exposes a familiar challenge: the growing gap between IT and the C-suite.

C-level challenges: the gap between IT and the C-suite

As our research shows, most C-levels reportedly have less understanding of IT complexity than the IT department. In fact, many C-level leaders don’t see generative AI initiatives as a top priority at all.

But with AI and automation definitively on the rise, the gap between IT and top management could become even greater, potentially causing issues down the line.

The perception of AI and need for internal collaboration

According to our study, most British IT professionals see AI as an opportunity (especially at a department level), but the step to fully strategic AI thinking has yet to be taken. In fact, 21% of respondents even highlight risks around AI that they think would require dedicated resources to reduce. It seems we have a bit of work to do before we can all put our strategic AI thinking hats on.

This may be a result of AI often emerging as a bottom-up movement; employees explore and experiment out of curiosity or interest, but, at the same time, many other topics compete for attention at the top.

So, what should organizations be doing? Where IT selects and implements safe AI tools, the management team has to set priorities and strategic boundaries. With the arrival of the AI Act, this partnership is especially vital for internationally operating organizations.

The AI Act requires organizations in the EU to test AI applications for safety, risks and compliance, a responsibility in which the IT department plays a key role. While the UK doesn’t need to comply with the European AI Act directly, the AI Act does have a so-called ‘extraterritorial scope’, meaning it applies to any AI systems placed on the EU market or affecting individuals within the EU, regardless of where the provider or user is located.

This means that for UK-based businesses operating in the European Union, compliance with the AI Act is very much still relevant. And to make sure these organizations are, their IT teams need full support and clear direction from their management.

Coming up: AI maturity in the British workplace

In the second part of this blog miniseries, we’ll take a closer look at AI maturity in the UK, the main use cases for AI in local organizations, and how well we’re currently automating IT. We’ll also find out what that means for the day-to-day in many IT departments: the good, the bad, and the concerns some have.

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About the research

The findings in this blog are the responses from an international online survey conducted by Censuswide in August 2025 on behalf of TOPdesk. A total of 6,000 IT professionals participated, from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. All of them work in organizations with more than 25 employees.

This miniseries focuses on the responses of 1,000 UK IT professionals and their thoughts on AI and automation related topics specifically.