UK workers collectively spend close to £1 billion a year of their own money on generative AI tools they use for work, according to Deloitte UK’s inaugural GenAI Workforce Survey. The study, fielded by Ipsos UK between 7 May and 10 June 2026 among 25,000 workers aged 18 to 70, estimates annual personal spend at £958 million.

Deloitte reports that 63% of working adults surveyed say they knowingly use GenAI for work. Among those users, 17% — about one in six — pay for at least one tool themselves. Reuters summarised the findings as nearly £1 billion in out-of-pocket spending; the precise figure in Deloitte’s release is that £958 million estimate, not an administrative count of every UK AI subscription.

Nearly a third of users (31%) say they use GenAI without their employer’s knowledge, described as shadow AI. Almost a quarter of UK workers (24%) now use such tools daily. Among users, 46% mention free tools, 34% employer-paid external tools and 17% in-house systems.

The most common uses remain relatively basic: searching for information (43%), drafting emails (43%) and creating summaries (31%). Users say they save an average of 70 minutes a week, and most of that time is put back into work for the same employer.

Hayley McKelvey, Deloitte UK’s chief AI officer, said many employees do not want to wait for permission to use GenAI and that the challenge for businesses is no longer adoption but how to meet demand securely. About half of employees who use GenAI at work say they have received no formal training on using AI safely, and 65% of users report a lack of convincing leadership on the issue.

Nearly a quarter (23%) think there is a stigma attached to using GenAI at work, and 64% of weekly users worry managers will conclude the technology can do their jobs. When tools are bought individually, companies typically have less control over data entered into external services.

Deloitte plans to repeat the survey about every six months. The figures remain survey-based estimates rather than a direct accounting of the UK AI-subscription market.

Image: KK IN HK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Convertible laptop, not a photograph from the Deloitte survey. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work (Deloitte UK, 16 September 2026); UK workers spend nearly £1 billion of their own money on AI for work, Deloitte finds (Reuters).