It's likely that you already have people in your team using AI; there aren't many businesses I know that haven't adopted AI in some way or another. The Office for National Statistics reports that 35% of UK businesses with ten or more employees were using at least one AI technology by June 2026, up from around 12% in late 2023. Meanwhile, 55% of employees say they use AI for work or education.
So, we've largely adopted it, but the harder question is whether it shows up in results. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology found that 75% of businesses using AI reported better workforce productivity, yet 77% saw no change in revenue and only 12% saw an increase (all self-reported). A June 2026 Bank of Korea study points the same way: AI users cut their working time by 3.8%, roughly 90 minutes a week, but those saved hours showed almost no link to extra output.
The reason seems to be simple enough. A proposal drafted in one hour instead of four gains very little if it still waits three days for a human being to sign off. Faster tasks sit inside unchanged workflows, so the saved time disappears into the next bottleneck. The Bank of England found that gains were strongest where skilled employees could check, validate and improve what the AI produced.
That is where recruitment comes in. Saved hours only become output when you have people who know where to put them and can judge whether an AI answer is good enough to use. Before you replace a leaver like for like, ask whether the role still looks the way it did two years ago. Hire for judgement, experience and sound decision-making, and keep a route open for junior staff to learn the ropes, because the routine tasks AI now handles are often how they built that experience.
The bigger change comes from what you choose to do once the work gets faster. If you are reviewing roles or planning hires for 2027, give us a call, and we can talk it through. Contact me at [email protected].
The full article can be found on CV-Library.