UK firms speed ahead on AI—but governance gaps persist, iManage report finds
iManage, the company dedicated to Making Knowledge Work™, today released UK-specific findings from its iManage Knowledge Work Benchmark Report 2026, a global study of 3,185 business and technology decision-makers across 26 countries. The data shows that UK organisations are moving faster than their global peers on AI adoption, driven in part by stronger client expectations. But that momentum is also exposing a governance gap, with UK end users more likely than the global average to adopt AI tools before they are formally approved.
The findings suggest that UK organisations are no longer treating AI as a future investment. They are actively deploying it, investing in transformation, and expecting it to reshape how work gets done. However, as adoption accelerates, many organisations are still working to align AI use with the governance, knowledge quality, and operational controls needed to support it responsibly.
Client pressure is accelerating AI adoption in the UK
Customer expectations are a stronger driver of AI strategy in the UK than in any other region studied. Sixty-seven percent of UK organisations say customer needs influence their AI adoption to a great or very great extent, compared to 57 percent globally – a 10-point gap.
That external pressure is reflected in the pace of AI implementation. Fifty-one percent of UK organisations are actively implementing AI, compared to 46 percent globally, while 18 percent have fully integrated AI into daily operations, slightly ahead of the 17 percent global average.
UK organisations are also more likely to view AI and data quality as competitive differentiators. Fifty-five percent believe they will compete on the quality of their data and AI, compared to 46 percent globally. This suggests that UK firms are not simply adopting AI to improve efficiency; they increasingly see knowledge infrastructure, data quality, and AI readiness as central to how they win and retain clients.
Faster AI adoption is creating a governance gap
While the UK is ahead on AI implementation, the data also points to a gap between deployment and control. Twenty-nine percent of UK end users are more likely to adopt AI tools before they are formally approved, compared to 26 percent globally. At the same time, only 32 percent of UK organisations have strict AI guidelines or formal approvals in place, compared to 33 percent globally.
This creates a clear operational governance challenge: UK organisations are moving faster than the global average, but they also show a higher propensity for shadow AI and slightly lower levels of formal governance. In a market where client expectations, regulatory scrutiny, and AI adoption are all rising at once, many organisations are still building the policies, approvals, auditability, and knowledge controls needed to manage AI use consistently across teams and systems.
With SRA scrutiny of AI use in legal practice, evolving ransomware reporting expectations, and UK government activity around AI and copyright, organisations face growing pressure to show not only that they are using AI, but that they can govern how AI is used across people, systems, and knowledge assets.
For organisations adopting AI at scale, the issue is no longer simply whether AI tools are approved. It is whether those tools can operate against trusted, governed knowledge – with the right access controls, context, oversight, and accountability built in from the start.
Knowledge quality is becoming the foundation for trusted AI
The research also highlights a practical challenge facing UK organisations: AI cannot deliver reliable value if people and systems cannot find, access, and reuse trusted knowledge.
UK knowledge workers lose an average of 39 minutes per day searching for information, compared to the global average of 37 minutes. At the same time, 86 percent of UK decision-makers express confidence in their ability to find and reuse knowledge. This gap between confidence and day-to-day search friction points to a deeper issue: many organisations believe they are ready to activate knowledge through AI, but their underlying knowledge systems may not be structured, governed, or accessible enough to support that ambition.
For UK organisations, the implication is clear. As clients push for more AI-enabled services and firms compete on the quality of their data and AI, governance cannot be treated as a later-stage control layer. It has to be built into the knowledge foundation that AI depends on.
“The UK market has made its position clear: AI is not a future investment; it is a current priority. But speed alone will not create a sustainable advantage,” said Neil Araujo, CEO of iManage. “The organisations that lead will be the ones that can turn their institutional knowledge into a trusted foundation for AI – connecting people, systems, and data through the governance controls needed to protect clients, reduce risk, and deliver better outcomes. That is the next shift in knowledge work: moving beyond document management to a governed AI foundation that helps organisations put their knowledge to work securely and responsibly.”
Join iManage at LegalTechTalk 2026
iManage will be at LegalTechTalk 2026, taking place June 17–18 in London. Visit booth A1 to explore the latest updates to its next-generation platform and see how iManage is helping organisations put AI to work securely and responsibly.
About the Research
The iManage Knowledge Work Benchmark Report 2026 is based on a survey of 3,185 business and technology decision-makers across 26 countries, spanning legal, accounting and tax, financial services, and asset management organisations. The research was conducted between September and October 2025. UK-specific findings are drawn from responses by 321 UK-based participants in the same study.
Learn more about the UK-specific findings: https://imanage.com/learn-more/global-research-report-2026-uk/
Download the full global report: imanage.com/benchmark-report-2026
