Deloitte survey shows 73% of UK CFOs bullish on AI impact, signaling major shift in enterprise spending

Nearly three out of four UK chief financial officers now believe artificial intelligence will meaningfully improve their organizations’ performance. That’s from Deloitte’s latest UK CFO Survey, and the trajectory is hard to ignore.

The 73% bullish reading is up from 59% at the end of 2025 and just 39% in Q3 2024. In other words, optimism about AI among the people who actually control corporate budgets has nearly doubled in roughly two years.

What the numbers actually say

Deloitte surveyed 58 CFOs between July 1 and July 13, 2026. That’s a relatively small but senior sample, representing some of the UK’s largest enterprises.

A staggering 96% of surveyed CFOs anticipate increased digital spending over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the fear trade is cooling off. Geopolitical risk concerns among CFOs dropped to a rating of 68 out of 100, down from 79 at the start of the year. Energy price disruption worries fell to 60 from 70 over the same period. The one stubborn metric: concerns about UK productivity and competitiveness, which held steady at 63 out of 100.

The broader context

Going from 39% to 73% in two years represents a genuine sentiment regime change, not a gradual warming.

The 39% reading in Q3 2024 came during a period when many executives were still processing the initial ChatGPT-driven excitement and hadn’t yet seen tangible business results. The jump to 59% by end-2025 reflected early wins. The current 73% suggests those wins are compounding.

What investors should watch

The risk, as always, is execution. CFO optimism about AI’s potential doesn’t guarantee that specific projects, tokens, or protocols will capture that spending. Enterprise procurement departments tend to favor established vendors with enterprise sales teams, compliance frameworks, and service-level agreements.

The declining geopolitical risk scores also deserve monitoring. If that trend reverses, the current spending optimism could quickly retreat. A CFO survey is a snapshot of sentiment, not a commitment, and sentiment can shift fast when macro conditions deteriorate.

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