SAP report: UK firms' AI spend up 27% as data and governance lag
According to an SAP report, the average UK business now spends £20.6 million a year on AI, a 27% increase from £16.2 million in 2025, and SAP expects a further 45% rise between 2026 and 2028 to nearly £30 million annually. The report projects average ROI rising from 17% in 2025 to 22% in what it calls "this year" and as much as 39% by 2028, yet only 11% of businesses are said to have a strategic, holistic approach to AI investment, while around 70% are piloting agentic AI use cases. Poor data foundations are cited as the main barrier — 71% point to poor data quality, 70% to incomplete information, 65% to siloed systems and 62% to limited real-time data access — and among agentic AI users, 49% worry deployment is outpacing governance, with just 9% considering their governance skills fully ready.
AI budgets are climbing fast, but lagging data quality and governance could limit how much of that spending turns into real returns.