Most firms find themselves stuck in the early stages of adoption of AI in the workforce. There is a lot of talk about AI but the reality of using it everyday, taking into account skill gaps and regulatory uncertainty, is different. Dan Reid, CTO at Xceptor, provides guidance on how firms can better leverage AI in tandem with data automation to more effectively move AI projects beyond the pilot phase, enhance their ability to make the most of existing skills and attract( and keep) the talent that will enable them to compete in the long-term.

According to Google, Britain alone could gain £ 400 billion from AI-driven economic growth if it trained its workforce. The tech giant made this assertion after pilot programmes showed British workers could save over 120 hours each year by deploying AI for administrative tasks.

Despite this potential, most firms are still stuck in the early stages of adoption, weighed down by skills gaps, regulatory uncertainty and the hard realities of workforce transformation. With McKinsey projecting that 60 to 70 % of employees’ time across industries could be automated using today’ s technologies, the scale of the opportunity is too dramatic to ignore. Few organisations, however, are close to realising it.

At the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos, Stanford Professor, Erik Brynjolfsson, suggested that a reason for this failure is that‘ billions of dollars are being wasted on AI projects that never get beyond the pilot phase’. The observation reflects a truth many leaders quietly acknowledge: investment in AI is happening, but organisations are struggling to unlock its value at scale.

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