A new survey from intelligent automation company, ABBYY, finds that fear of missing out (FOMO) plays a big factor in artificial intelligence (AI) investment, with 58% of UK IT leaders reporting they are worried their company will be left behind if they don’t use it.

With fears of being left behind so prevalent, it is no surprise that UK IT decision makers reported that average investment in AI reached £730,000 in the last year despite more than a third (37%) of business leaders having concerns about implementation costs. Almost all (95%) UK respondents in the ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation: AI Trust Barometer said they plan to increase investment in AI in the next year.

Furthermore, over half (52%) of UK business leaders admitted that another key driver for use of AI was pressure from customers. ‘Hype’, however, was low on the UK’s list of reasons to invest in AI. When compared with the other regions surveyed, just 18% of UK respondents said this was a consideration, compared with nearly a quarter (24%) globally.

The survey revealed the top fears for IT leaders implementing AI were misuse by their own staff and the cost, both 37%. These came ahead of concerns about data protection (36%), AI hallucinations (35%), and even compliance risk (32%).

Overall, UK respondents reported an overwhelmingly high level of trust in AI tools (85%). The most trustworthy according to decision makers was small language models (SLMs) or purpose-built AI (92%), with 44% of UK respondents already using purpose-built AI such as intelligent document processing (IDP). Meanwhile the UK’s use of Gen AI was the highest of the regions surveyed, with 77% saying they use it compared with 65% globally.

Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI Strategy at ABBYY, commented, “It’s no surprise to me that organizations have more trust in small language models due to the tendency of LLMs to hallucinate and provide inaccurate and possibly harmful outcomes. We’re seeing more business leaders moving to SLMs to better address their specific business needs, enabling more trustworthy results.”

On the matter of trust and ethical use, an overwhelming majority (89%) of UK respondents are confident their company is following all government regulations around the use of AI. Yet only 60% say they have their own trustworthy AI policies in place that teams adhere to and only 39% are seeking guidance from a consultant or non-profit.

Just over half (52%) said they would feel more confident knowing their company had a responsible AI policy, while 55% said having knowledge of which AI regulations the company needs to comply with was also cited as a confidence booster – compared with 49% globally.