A new study from EXL finds that while 75% of UK business leaders believe they are ahead of competitors on enterprise AI integration, only 12% qualify as AI Leaders who have embedded AI into high-impact workflows and are seeing notable return on investment. The third annual EXL UK Enterprise AI Study, based on a survey of 212 C-suite and senior decision makers across banking, finance, insurance, retail, and utilities, reveals a significant disconnect between self-assessment and actual progress. Data remains the biggest challenge, cited by 77% of respondents, even as improving data quality and accessibility is seen as the most important step for scaling AI. Utility companies generated the biggest financial improvements from AI, with average gains of 27% from AI and 28% from agentic AI across cost reduction, revenue growth, and margin expansion, while insurers saw the smallest returns at 18% and 17% respectively. The study also shows that 35% of AI Leaders have completely redesigned their enterprise-wide operating model to deploy AI, compared to 38% of Laggards who now report doing so, up from just 3% in last year's study.
ExlService Holdings IncEXL's study positions the company as an authority on AI adoption, highlighting demand for its consulting and AI integration services among UK firms.