SAP & Oxford Economics: AI ROI to Increase by 39% by 2028

UK corporate investment in AI has reached £20.6m (US$27.14m) per business in 2026, marking a 27% increase from last year.

New research from SAP and Oxford Economics shows that finance leaders and business executives expect average returns on AI allocations to climb from 22% this year to 39% by 2028. 

Total enterprise spending on the technology is set to grow by a further 45% over the same timeframe.

By 2028, AI is projected to underpin half of all workplace tasks across the average UK organisation, up from 31% today. 

To prepare for this shift, 83% of firms are actively upskilling or reskilling their workforces.

Speaking to Finance Chief exclusively, Leila Romane, Managing Director, SAP UK & Ireland says: “In the space of a year, rising investment, employee use and the acceleration of agentic systems have changed the terms of the AI debate for UK business – turning a question about future potential into a question of delivered value. 

“While UK businesses are committing more capital to AI and expecting more in return, the leadership challenge is to turn that ambition into measurable and scalable business outcomes.” 

Moving beyond piecemeal budgets

Despite expanding budgets, many organisations struggle to scale their deployments effectively.

Only 11% of UK companies operate a holistic strategy for AI investment, though this has improved from 7% in 2025.

The vast majority of spend remains fragmented. Around 41% of organisations describe their deployment efforts as piecemeal, while another 40% allocate funds strictly at a departmental level.

Leila continues: “The decisions made now will shape the productivity of individual businesses and the competitiveness of the UK economy. 

“For executive teams, AI is becoming a question of business performance, with investment decisions carrying the same expectation of evidence, ownership and return as any other major transformation.”

Data and governance barriers

Poor underlying data infrastructure poses the biggest obstacle to unlocking capital return. 

Seven in ten businesses report that data availability and quality are actively curtailing ROI, while 67% view integrated data architecture as the single most critical factor for operational readiness.

Governance controls are also falling behind technical deployment, particularly across autonomous systems. 

Currently, 70% of UK enterprises are testing agentic applications, anticipating financial returns to surge from £2.7m (US$3.5m) in 2025 to £12.6m (US$16.7m) within two years.

However, 49% admit agent rollout is outstripping formal oversight frameworks. Just 9% consider their internal governance capabilities fully mature, and 61% remain in the process of establishing basic compliance protocols.

Human capital transformation

Capturing long-term value requires broader structural changes to talent management. Nearly four in five (79%) firms acknowledge that technical upskilling alone will not suffice, with 67% identifying soft skills as core operational requirements.

“What makes AI exciting is the speed at which a focused investment can improve an everyday experience for thousands of people,” notes Claire Meadows, People Transformation Director, Mitie. 

“In three months, our AI assistant handled more than 29,000 HR interactions and helped reduce calls to People Support by 36%. Colleagues can get guidance when they need it, giving our specialists more capacity for work that depends on human judgement.

“Seeing people adopt the technology so readily has given us real confidence in what AI can deliver and increased our appetite to keep investing where it can make a real difference at scale.”

SAP partners:

Accenture: A global strategic consulting partner delivering enterprise transformation, system integration and SAP cloud implementation services.

Microsoft: A strategic technology and infrastructure partner offering scalable cloud platform integration via Microsoft Azure.

Deloitte: A major consulting partner supporting large-scale enterprise deployments, business transformation and advisory services.

Amazon Web Services: A core cloud infrastructure partner providing global hosting, data management and cloud environments for SAP systems.

IBM: Leveraging extensive consulting experience alongside SAP, IBM collaborates to unlock enterprise value across every stage of AI adoption. Together, the tech leaders design strategic roadmaps, co-develop innovative tools and drive RISE-supported business transformations, while deploying collaborative AI agents to power intelligent enterprise workflows.