RingCentral research suggests most UK organisations remain in the early stages of AI deployment. The study found that only 16% of UK firms have fully deployed AI-powered digital workers, compared with 41% in the US, based on a survey of 2,000 IT, HR and CX leaders across both markets.
The findings highlight a gap between positive sentiment and actual adoption in British businesses. While 87% of UK organisations said they view AI positively, 54% remain in the research, exploration or pilot stages.
Many companies have yet to reach full implementation even as they continue investing time and resources in testing the technology. Among UK organisations that had already deployed digital workers, 60% reported productivity gains and 57% cited faster workflows.
Scaling barriers
Cost and complexity were the main barriers to wider adoption. Among UK leaders surveyed, 35% cited cost concerns and the same proportion pointed to integration complexity, while 32% highlighted trust and compliance risks.
The results suggest that moving from trial projects to broader operational use remains a major hurdle. The challenge is not only whether companies want to use AI, but whether they can fit it into existing systems and day-to-day processes.
RingCentral linked that implementation gap to how many tools are introduced into organisations. Rather than becoming part of routine workflows, AI systems can remain separate from the software and communications channels where employees make decisions.
Russel Tilsed, VP, RingCentral, said: "The next phase of AI is about embedding intelligence directly into the workflows where decisions are made. Despite strong investment and ambition, many UK organisations are failing to scale AI beyond isolated pilots, leaving benefits unrealised.
"For the UK, the core issue is not technology capability, but integration. AI tools often sit outside everyday workflows, limiting their ability to drive real operational change. As a result, insights generated by AI frequently fail to translate into action. If the UK wants to seize this moment to address persistent productivity challenges, 2026 must be the year AI stops being an experiment and becomes enterprise infrastructure."
Workforce concerns
The research also examined attitudes to job displacement, a recurring concern in AI adoption. It found that worries about replacement were lower among organisations that had already fully deployed digital workers.
Among businesses with full deployment, 23% said job replacement was their biggest concern, compared with 45% of organisations that had not yet started exploring AI.
The contrast suggests that direct experience with digital workers may change perceptions of the technology's role. In companies where AI is already embedded, the tools appear more likely to be seen as supporting human work rather than replacing it.
Conversation data
The study also pointed to the growing role of business conversations as a source of data for AI systems. Calls, meetings and messages are becoming increasingly important as organisations seek to generate insights and act on them more quickly.
Voice in particular is becoming a more prominent interface. Preference for voice-based AI interactions in the UK is expected to double within two years.
The trend reflects wider efforts across the software and communications sectors to place AI tools closer to customer service exchanges and internal collaboration. The aim is to make it easier for organisations to use information generated in routine interactions rather than relying on separate reporting cycles.
The research comes as RingCentral expands its AI products tied to its communications and contact centre business. It recently announced AIR Pro, a voice-first, omnichannel AI agent platform integrated into its communications software.
The product is in a controlled availability phase and is designed to automate customer interactions and reduce manual work in business operations.
The survey covered multiple industries and organisation sizes, offering a broad view of how AI adoption differs by market and scale. Its topline findings suggest that while enthusiasm for AI is widespread in the UK, many organisations have yet to move beyond limited trials and pilot schemes.
For British businesses, the data points to a familiar challenge in technology adoption: interest is high and early results can be positive, but wider deployment depends on cost, trust and the ability to integrate new tools into established ways of working.