British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work
Deloitte UK found workers are not waiting for permission to use GenAI. Here is why that makes protecting company and personal data harder.
Summary
Deloitte UK surveyed 25,000 workers and found 63% use GenAI knowingly for work, 31% do so without their employer's knowledge, and about half have received no formal training on safe use. Workers are spending an estimated £958 million of their own money on the tools.
- 31%
- use GenAI without their employer's knowledge
- ~50%
- received no formal training on safe AI use
- 65%
- report a lack of convincing leadership on GenAI usage
- £958m
- estimated annual personal spend by UK workers on GenAI tools
Deloitte UK survey of 25,000 workers
Each dot is 1%
31%
use GenAI at work without their employer's knowledge.
01
~50%
never had formal training on using it safely.
02
65%
say leadership has not given convincing direction.
03
£958m
a year is what workers spend of their own money.
Figures are as reported by the sources linked below.
The research
Deloitte UK commissioned Ipsos UK to survey 25,000 workers aged 18 to 70, employees and self-employed, between 7 May and 10 June 2026. Results were weighted for gender, age, working status, industry sector, region, social grade, education and ethnicity.
GenAI is already part of everyday work
63% of UK working adults use GenAI knowingly for work and 24% use it daily. 46% use free tools, 34% use external tools paid for by their employer, and 17% use in-house tools. The most common tasks are searching for information (43%) and drafting emails (43%), followed by creating summaries (31%).
"UK workers are showing they don't want to wait for permission to use GenAI."
Shadow AI: use without the employer knowing
31% of workers use GenAI without their employer's knowledge, and about half have received no formal training on safe use. 65% report a lack of convincing leadership on GenAI. Workers who feel a stigma around using GenAI are more likely to conceal it, according to McKelvey.
Tools you do not know about are tools you cannot protect. Sensitive data can reach a free consumer chatbot with no record anywhere in the business.
"The story here isn't that workers are using GenAI, it's that they are using it despite limited training, patchy guidance and, in some cases, without their employer's knowledge."
Workers are even paying for it themselves
17% of GenAI users pay for tools themselves, which Deloitte estimates adds up to £958 million a year. Spend your finance team never sees is also usage your security team never sees.
What this means for your team
- Banning AI does not stop it. People will use their own tools.
- Protect the data at the device, whichever AI tool the person picks.
- Tell people what was blocked or removed, so they learn the rules by doing.
- Report usage per person and per provider so there is something to manage.
Inveil is data loss prevention (DLP) for AI. It checks prompts, files and screenshots on each employee's machine before they reach an AI tool, blocks or redacts sensitive data by your rules, and logs every event.
Common questions
- How many workers use AI without their employer knowing?
- In Deloitte UK's survey of 25,000 workers, 31% said they use GenAI without their employer's knowledge.
- Do employees get training on using AI safely?
- Deloitte found that about half of workers had received no formal training on safe AI use.
- How much do British workers spend on GenAI themselves?
- Deloitte estimates UK workers spend £958 million a year of their own money on GenAI tools for work.