From boardrooms across the UK, a quiet but unmistakable shift is taking place. Business leaders, tasked with steering companies through subdued growth and elevated costs, are placing greater faith in artificial intelligence not as a distant promise but as a practical instrument for restoring vigour to performance and competitiveness.
The latest Deloitte survey of chief financial officers, carried out between 1 and 13 July 2026, captures this evolution with striking clarity. 73 per cent now express optimism that AI will improve their businesses’ results, a sharp rise from 59 per cent at the end of 2025 and only 39 per cent two years earlier. That progression reflects a private-sector pragmatism that has accelerated even as macroeconomic conditions have tested resilience.
Market-led adoption outpaces policy rhetoric
This surge in confidence underscores a deeper truth: technological progress in Britain continues to be propelled more by entrepreneurial judgment than by ministerial fiat. CFOs are not waiting for government strategies or subsidies. They are weighing AI’s potential against real-world pressures and choosing to invest where they see returns. Such discipline stands in contrast to policies that risk loading additional costs onto enterprises through higher taxes or heavier regulation, burdens that could blunt the very innovation now gaining traction.
Concerns over poor productivity and weak competitiveness in the UK economy have barely eased, holding at a rating of 63. That stubborn figure serves as a reminder of the structural challenges that predated recent global shocks and will outlast them. Yet other anxieties have receded. The average rating for geopolitical risks dropped to 68 from 79 at the start of the year, while worries about higher energy prices or disruptions fell to 60 from 70 in the first quarter. Deloitte UK chief economist Debapratim De noted that the global economy has so far weathered the shock from the conflict in Iran better than many had feared.
The survey, which questioned 58 CFOs, arrives at a moment when Britain’s private sector is demonstrating once again its capacity to adapt faster than the policy environment around it. AI optimism has climbed steadily across successive Deloitte reports, rising from 39 per cent two years ago through 59 per cent late last year to the current 73 per cent. Each increment marks not abstract enthusiasm but a calculated bet that market-driven deployment of new tools can deliver the productivity gains successive governments have talked about yet struggled to achieve.
Optimism tempered by enduring realities
This is no Panglossian outlook. The same executives who see AI’s promise continue to rank domestic productivity shortfalls as a central threat. Their realism tempers any temptation to treat technological adoption as a panacea. Instead it frames AI as one essential lever among others, one that works best when unencumbered by excessive state direction or cost inflation.
