UK chief executives make AI priority but delay plans

Dataiku has published research showing that UK chief executives are making artificial intelligence a top priority while delaying some initiatives. The survey found UK leaders were the most AI-focused of the regions studied.

The findings are based on a Harris Poll survey of 900 chief executive officers in the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, the UAE, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Respondents worked at large companies with annual revenue above USD $500 million, or the regional equivalent.

Among UK respondents, 81% said AI strategy was a top or high priority, compared with 73% globally. At the same time, 77% said they were more concerned about over-investing in AI than under-investing, versus 65% globally.

That tension points to a widening gap between boardroom ambition and execution. Leaders continue to rank AI near the top of the corporate agenda, but are weighing spending more carefully as questions about returns and oversight grow.

Regulation emerged as a key factor in that caution. More than half of UK chief executive officers, 51%, said they had delayed AI initiatives because of regulatory uncertainty, up from 26% a year earlier.

The increase suggests a sharper shift in sentiment in Britain than in many other markets covered by the study. It also shows that concern about AI rules is moving from a background issue to a direct influence on investment decisions.

Even so, confidence remains high. Some 89% of UK chief executive officers described themselves as “extremely confident” in their AI strategy, above the overall figure of 81%.

The data presents a mixed picture of executive thinking. British business leaders appear convinced of AI’s importance, but less certain about the pace and conditions under which they should expand its use.

Boardroom role

Chief executive involvement in AI decisions also remains strong. More than two-thirds of UK respondents, 71%, said they were actively involved in AI-related decisions at their companies.

That level of participation suggests AI governance remains close to the top of the organisation rather than being left solely to technology teams. It also places more direct accountability on senior leaders as projects move from experimentation to broader deployment.

Dataiku presented the results as evidence that access to AI tools is no longer the main issue for large companies. The harder task is turning AI investment into dependable business use while maintaining control over systems and decision-making.

Florian Douetteau addressed that challenge in a statement accompanying the findings. “Every enterprise now has access to powerful AI. The differentiator is whether they can turn that power into reliable business decisions,” said Florian Douetteau, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Dataiku.

“That is the cognitive dissonance happening in the C-suite right now: CEOs are staking their jobs on AI, but still questioning its outputs and struggling to control the systems they say they own. The companies that close that gap will be the ones building AI worth being accountable for. That is what separates a bet from a business,” he said.

Measured expansion

The UK figures stand out because they combine some of the strongest enthusiasm for AI with some of the clearest signs of restraint. British chief executive officers led the surveyed regions in the share ranking AI as a top priority, yet they also showed growing unease about committing too much capital before regulatory and commercial questions are settled.

For companies already under pressure to show returns on technology spending, that may lead to a more selective approach. Projects with clear business outcomes are likely to win backing more easily than broader or less defined AI programmes.

The survey focused on leaders of large companies, so the results reflect sentiment at the upper end of the corporate market rather than among smaller businesses. That matters because large organisations often have bigger budgets and more direct exposure to formal compliance requirements, making regulatory uncertainty a more immediate operational issue.

Across that group, the findings suggest AI is no longer treated simply as an experimental technology issue. It has become a board-level priority shaped by investment discipline, risk management and accountability.

For UK businesses, the combination of high confidence and rising hesitation may define the next phase of adoption. The clearest signal is that many leaders still believe in their strategy, even as 51% say they have already delayed AI initiatives because of regulatory uncertainty.