UK staff spend nearly £1bn of own money on AI tools at work, survey finds

One in six workers in Britain is paying out of their own pocket for an artificial intelligence tool to help with their job, according to research published by Deloitte on Wednesday. The combined cost of these personal subscriptions runs to nearly £1 billion ($1.4 billion) a year, the firm's inaugural GenAI Workforce Survey found.

The survey, which covered 25,000 workers and was conducted by Ipsos for Deloitte, suggests that employees are adopting generative AI faster than their organisations are making such tools available to them.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they had tried AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, while almost a quarter reported using them daily at work. About 31% said they were using generative AI without their employer's knowledge — a practice known as shadow AI — and 17% were paying for at least one such tool themselves for work purposes.

"UK workers are showing they don't want to wait for permission to use GenAI," said Hayley McKelvey, chief AI officer at Deloitte UK. "Many are already using free tools or pay for premium versions themselves to help them get work done."

The most common uses were searching for information, drafting emails and producing summaries, which the survey found saved workers an average of 70 minutes a week.

Deloitte partner Paul Lee said generative AI had quickly become part of everyday working life, but noted that its role remained relatively basic for many users, centred on finding information and drafting content rather than supporting more complex tasks.

"The organisations that gain the greatest advantage from AI will be those that move beyond simply providing access to tools and focus on helping people use them with the appropriate guardrails and purpose," he added.