Deloitte: 1 in 6 UK workers pay for generative AI tools, costing nearly £1bn a year

Deloitte has published its first generative AI workplace survey, finding that around one in six employees in the UK pays out of pocket for AI tools to help with work, with total personal spending reaching nearly £1 billion a year (about 9.06 billion yuan).

The survey, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Deloitte, polled 25,000 UK workers. Two-thirds of respondents said they had tried generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, and nearly a quarter use them daily. Employee adoption is outpacing the speed at which employers are providing such tools.

Around 31% of employees use generative AI without their employer's knowledge, a practice known as "shadow AI," while 17% pay for at least one generative AI subscription for work. Hayley McKelvey, Deloitte UK's chief AI officer, said UK workers are not willing to wait for permission before using generative AI, with many turning to free versions or paying to upgrade to premium tiers.

In the workplace, AI is mainly used for retrieving information, writing emails and summarising content, saving users an average of 70 minutes a week. Paul Lee, a partner at Deloitte, said generative AI has quickly become part of daily work, but for most employees it is still used for basic tasks such as information search and drafting. He added that organisations that benefit most will not simply grant access to tools, but will guide employees to use AI with clear objectives and within appropriate guardrails.