Nearly nine in ten companies have yet to translate artificial intelligence adoption into measurable financial gains, despite a sharp rise in workplace usage over the past two years, according to the head of Accenture’s UK and Ireland operations.
Matt Prebble, chief executive of Accenture UK and Ireland, said businesses are rapidly integrating AI tools into daily workflows, but the expected productivity uplift has largely failed to materialise at the corporate level. He said usage of AI in workplaces has tripled in the last two years, yet “that individual productivity … is not actually yet translating to real company performance”.
Accenture’s internal research shows only around one in ten organisations has managed to scale AI effectively into core operations in a way that improves financial results. Prebble said the gap stems from companies treating AI as an add-on tool rather than redesigning how they operate across people, processes and technology.
“We found that one in ten companies are really starting to get the productivity flow through to the bottom line, but on the other hand, 90 per cent of companies aren’t,” he said. He added that firms willing to restructure around AI would be the ones to unlock meaningful gains.
The comments come as corporate leaders grow more cautious about the rising cost of AI deployment. Businesses are increasingly scrutinising spending on so-called AI tokens, the computational units used by large language models, amid uncertainty over returns.
Some major firms have already flagged weak or unclear productivity gains. Uber’s chief operating officer Andrew Macdonald recently said the company had not yet seen direct productivity improvements tied to rising AI usage. Other reports suggest firms are reining in spending on external AI models after costs escalated sharply.
Concerns about returns are also reflected in wider industry analysis. A widely cited MIT study suggested that the vast majority of generative AI pilots in companies are failing to deliver measurable value, reinforcing fears of an investment bubble forming around the technology.
At the same time, cultural and political scrutiny is intensifying. Critics, including public figures and academic communities, have raised concerns about job displacement and ethical risks, while some leaders in the sector argue that fears are outpacing evidence.
Prebble said the anxiety around AI and employment is misplaced. He argued that technological shifts tend to reshape work rather than eliminate it, creating new roles and skills over time. “There’s always been waves of technological change that have come and it is true that it’s always created new job opportunities,” he said.
Despite the uneven results so far, he said the UK still has an opportunity to benefit from the technology, particularly in sectors such as life sciences and professional services. He pointed to research suggesting AI could add tens of billions of pounds in revenue for mid-sized British firms by the end of the decade.
Accenture itself is repositioning around what it calls “reinvention services”, with its workforce increasingly described internally as “reinventors” as the firm advises clients on AI-led restructuring.
For now, however, Prebble’s assessment is clear: while AI adoption is accelerating across UK businesses, the financial payoff remains limited for most organisations.
