The key UK statistics on AI and personal data in one place — how the public feels about AI, how many adults use chatbots, how many businesses have adopted AI and whether they govern it, and what people really think about machines making decisions about them, with the data period stated next to every figure.
Official UK evidence on AI and privacy now flows from several regular survey streams: the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) runs the Public Attitudes to Data and AI tracker and the UK Business Data Survey, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) commissioned a dedicated YouGov survey on AI and automated decision-making in March 2026, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) benchmarks business AI adoption through its fortnightly business survey, the Ada Lovelace Institute and The Alan Turing Institute run the largest independent attitudes study, and Ofcom measures real-world usage in Online Nation. This page pulls the headline numbers from each of those sources together in one citable reference.
It is scoped to attitudes, adoption and governance. Breach and enforcement figures live on separate pages — see our data breach statistics and GDPR fines statistics guides for those.
Key facts and figures
- 76% of UK adults are concerned about computers making decisions about people, including 41% very concerned (March 2026).
- 93% say it is important that AI-generated content is clearly labelled — 80% say very important (March 2026).
- 25% of all UK businesses were using AI in late December 2025 — up 15 percentage points since September 2023.
- 41% of UK businesses that handle digitised data use AI, rising to 82% of large businesses (October 2025 – January 2026).
- 17% of AI-using UK businesses have any policy or guidelines on AI use — just 5% have a formal written policy.
- 60% of UK adults used an AI chatbot in the three months before July–August 2024 fieldwork; 44% at least monthly.
- 72% of the UK public say laws and regulation would increase their comfort with AI, up from 62% in 2022/23 (November 2024).
- 1.8 billion UK visits to ChatGPT in the first eight months of 2025 — up from 368 million a year earlier.
These are the latest figures available as of July 2026 — the ONS refreshes its business AI adoption measure through fortnightly BICS bulletins, Wave 5 of DSIT's Public Attitudes to Data and AI tracker is the next major attitudes release, and the UK Business Data Survey, the ICO's public research and Ofcom's Online Nation each update roughly annually.
What does the UK public think about AI and their data?
96% of UK adults were aware of AI by Wave 4 of DSIT's Public Attitudes to Data and AI tracker (fieldwork July–August 2024, n=5,147), up from 89% two waves earlier — and 71% could at least partially explain what AI is. Awareness is no longer the story; opinion is.
Sentiment leans cautiously positive: 43% of UK adults expect AI to have a positive impact on society, against 33% who expect a negative one (July–August 2024). The gap is real but narrow, and it sits alongside sharp differences in who people trust with their data in the first place.
The same tracker ranks institutional trust. The NHS is the most trusted organisation to use data, at 85%; social media companies are the least trusted, at 33% (July–August 2024). Trust in the government to use data rose from 31% in Wave 3 to 38% in Wave 4 — improving, but still trailing far behind health services.
The pattern that matters for anyone deploying AI on personal data: the British public is not anti-AI, but its comfort is conditional — on who is using the technology, for what, and with what rules around it. The sections on automated decisions and safeguards below show exactly where that conditional comfort runs out.
How many UK adults use AI chatbots?
60% of UK adults had used an AI chatbot in the previous three months at Wave 4 of DSIT's tracker (July–August 2024), and 44% were using one at least monthly — 40% for personal purposes and 28% for work, both up on the previous wave.
By spring 2026 the reach was wider still: 74% of UK adults had interacted with an AI chatbot, according to the ICO's YouGov omnibus (fieldwork 26–27 March 2026, n=2,157) — and 53% want chatbots to be required to disclose that they are AI rather than a human.
The Ada Lovelace Institute and Alan Turing Institute study adds a knowledge check: 61% of the UK public had heard of large language models and 40% had used one (fieldwork November 2024, n=3,513) — so a substantial share of chatbot users may not connect the tool they use with the technology behind it.
Ofcom's Online Nation 2025 (published December 2025) captures the scale shift in hard traffic numbers: ChatGPT recorded 1.8 billion UK visits in the first eight months of 2025, up from 368 million over the same period of 2024 — roughly a five-fold increase in a year. Around 30% of Google searches now return AI-generated overviews, and 48% of UK adults have used a generative AI tool.
How many UK businesses use AI?
25% of all UK businesses were using AI in late December 2025, according to the ONS Business Insights and Conditions Survey (Wave 147, published 8 January 2026) — up 15 percentage points since the question was first asked in September 2023, roughly two and a half times the starting level in just over two years. A further 15% of businesses planned to adopt AI within three months, and among businesses with 250 or more employees adoption had already reached 44%.
DSIT's UK Business Data Survey 2026 (fieldwork October 2025 – January 2026, n=4,450, published 18 June 2026) measures a narrower base — businesses that handle digitised data — and finds 41% of them using AI for at least one purpose. The size gradient is steep:
| Business size | Using AI | Data period |
|---|---|---|
| Sole traders | 40% | Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 |
| Micro (1–9 employees) | 41% | Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 |
| Small (10–49 employees) | 51% | Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 |
| Medium (50–249 employees) | 58% | Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 |
| Large (250+ employees) | 82% | Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 |
| All businesses handling digitised data | 41% | Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 |
The two headline measures differ because the bases differ: the ONS counts every UK business, while the UK Business Data Survey counts only those already handling digitised data — the population most likely to be feeding personal data into AI tools. Both series point the same way, and quickly upward.
What are businesses actually doing with AI? The UK Business Data Survey 2026 lists researching information (28%) as the most common use, ahead of summarising or drafting reports and correspondence (21%), analysing data or building models (14%), customer-service chatbots (9%) and drafting computer code (8%). Only 5% of AI-using businesses reported using automated decision-making tools, and 6% had used their data to develop or train AI or automated decision-making systems (October 2025 – January 2026).
Do UK businesses have AI policies and governance?
Mostly not. Only 17% of AI-using UK businesses have any policy or guidelines on staff AI use — just 5% have a formal written policy and 12% informal guidance, leaving 83% with no policy at all (UK Business Data Survey 2026, fieldwork October 2025 – January 2026).
Governance scales with size in a way adoption does not: 56% of large businesses have a formal written AI policy, against 3% of sole traders (October 2025 – January 2026). Since 40% of sole traders are already using AI, the gap between use and governance is widest exactly where there is no compliance team to close it.
Regulatory guidance is not cutting through either. 53% of AI-using businesses had at least heard of AI regulatory guidance, but only 19% agreed it was clear and easy to understand (October 2025 – January 2026) — a finding regulators and trade bodies both cite when arguing for simpler AI guidance.
Even the industry best placed to manage the risk shows the same pattern. In the cyber security sector, 53% of businesses report staff using AI tools in their daily work and 65% expect their need for AI skills to grow — yet only 42% have given staff any formal AI training (DSIT Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market 2025). For the wider workforce picture behind that number, see our cyber security skills gap statistics page.
Are UK adults comfortable with automated decisions?
No — and the newest official data puts a precise number on it. 76% of UK adults are concerned about computers making decisions about people, including 41% who are very concerned (ICO/YouGov AI and Automated Decision Making omnibus, fieldwork 26–27 March 2026, n=2,157).
Acceptability depends heavily on what the decision is. Fraud detection is the most accepted use of automated decision-making, at 52%. At the other end, only 14% find AI acceptable for benefits and welfare decisions (66% unacceptable) and 15% for hiring decisions (65% unacceptable) (March 2026). The public draws the line roughly where a decision changes the course of someone's life.
Confidence in pushing back is finely balanced: 44% of UK adults would not feel confident challenging a computer-made decision they believed was wrong, while 46% would (March 2026). And awareness of where automated decisions already happen is thin — only 18% of the public knew AI is used in welfare benefits assessments (Ada Lovelace Institute / Alan Turing Institute, November 2024).
The legal backdrop makes these numbers unusually consequential. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 replaced Article 22 of the UK GDPR with new Articles 22A–22D from 5 February 2026, permitting automated decision-making under any lawful basis where special category data is not involved, subject to safeguards — and the ICO's survey landed as the regulator works up its guidance for the new framework. Individuals' rights around automated decisions are covered in our individual rights under GDPR guide, and in practice the route to finding out what data sits behind a decision is a subject access request — volumes and response performance are tracked on our subject access request statistics page.
What safeguards do people want for AI and their data?
51% of UK adults say human review of an automated decision is the safeguard that would most increase their trust, and 47% rank information on how to challenge, correct or appeal a decision as the top thing organisations must provide (March 2026). A hard core of 24% say nothing would increase their trust in automated decisions at all.
Transparency demands are near-universal: 93% say it is important that AI-generated content is clearly labelled, including 80% who say very important (March 2026). Combined with the 53% who want mandatory chatbot disclosure, the public's message to organisations is consistent — tell people when they are dealing with AI, and give them a human route out.
Regulation itself is a trust lever. 72% of the UK public say laws and regulation would increase their comfort with AI, up from 62% in 2022/23 (Ada Lovelace Institute / Alan Turing Institute, fieldwork November 2024, n=3,513). Demand for rules is growing faster than the rules themselves.
For organisations, the practical reading is straightforward: human review, clear labelling, a visible appeal route and staff who understand the data protection rules that govern all three. Where AI use goes wrong and people complain to the regulator, those complaints show up in the ICO's caseload — tracked on our ICO complaints statistics page.
Frequently asked questions
How many UK businesses use AI?
25% of all UK businesses were using AI in late December 2025, per the ONS Business Insights and Conditions Survey — up 15 percentage points since September 2023, with a further 15% planning adoption within three months. Among businesses that handle digitised data, the UK Business Data Survey 2026 puts usage at 41%, rising to 82% of large businesses (October 2025 – January 2026).
What proportion of UK adults have used an AI chatbot?
74% of UK adults had interacted with an AI chatbot by March 2026 (ICO/YouGov omnibus). DSIT's tracker found 60% had used one in the previous three months and 44% at least monthly (July–August 2024), and Ofcom reports 48% of UK adults have used a generative AI tool (December 2025).
Are UK adults comfortable with AI making decisions about them?
Largely not. 76% are concerned about computers making decisions about people, including 41% very concerned (March 2026). Acceptability is use-specific: 52% accept automated decision-making for fraud detection, but only 15% for hiring and 14% for benefits and welfare decisions.
Do UK businesses have AI usage policies?
Mostly not. Only 17% of AI-using businesses have any policy or guidelines — 5% formal written, 12% informal (October 2025 – January 2026). Large businesses are the exception: 56% have a formal written AI policy, against 3% of sole traders.
Does regulation make people more comfortable with AI?
Yes — 72% of the UK public say laws and regulation would increase their comfort with AI, up from 62% in 2022/23 (November 2024 fieldwork). The single most trust-building safeguard for automated decisions is human review, chosen by 51% (March 2026).
Related guides
- Cyber security skills gap statistics UK
- Data Breach Statistics UK: ICO Reports, Trends & Costs
- ICO complaints statistics UK
- Subject access request statistics UK
- Individual rights under GDPR
- UK GDPR vs EU GDPR
- What is GDPR? A UK guide to the General Data Protection Regulation
Sources & references
- Department for Science, Innovation & Technology — Public Attitudes to Data and AI Tracker Survey, Wave 4
- Information Commissioner's Office / YouGov — AI and Automated Decision Making Omnibus 2026: summary of findings
- Information Commissioner's Office — Views of the public: research and reports
- Department for Science, Innovation & Technology — UK Business Data Survey 2026
- Office for National Statistics — Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS), 8 January 2026
- Ada Lovelace Institute & The Alan Turing Institute — How do people feel about AI? (Wave 2)
- Department for Science, Innovation & Technology — Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market 2025
- Ofcom — Online Nation 2025
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Mark writes about data protection, workplace compliance and accredited online training for GDPR & Data Protection Course, part of Online CPD Academy.