A survey published this week gives a genuinely positive answer to "is AI costing jobs": Lloyds' Business Barometer1 found 54% of UK businesses say AI has created new roles at their organisation, and 61% are now using it. Read past the headline number and the confidence splits sharply by size. Lloyds polled 1,200 companies between 1 and 16 July for its Business Barometer. Among firms turning over £10m or more, 79% use AI and 73% see failing to adopt as a competitive disadvantage. Among firms turning over under £1m, that competitive-disadvantage figure drops to 54%. Same survey, same question, a nineteen-point gap.
What the skills numbers actually show
Just over half, 54%, say their workforce already has the AI skills it needs. 31% say it doesn't. That gap is where the investment plans sit: 43% are introducing new AI training, 32% are expanding what they already run, 24% are now weighting AI skills in recruitment, and 21% have created dedicated AI roles. 58% of the whole sample plan to spend more on AI skills over the next year.
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The spending figures aren't a small-business number
Worth being precise about this part, because it's the number most likely to get quoted out of context: of the 58% planning to increase investment, 42% expect to spend £25,000 to £100,000 on AI tools and training over the next year, and another 26% expect £100,000 to £250,000. Those figures are averaged across the firms already investing, which skews toward the large firms driving most of the reported AI spend. Lloyds' own size breakdown shows why that matters: 77% of firms over £10m plan to increase investment in AI, a very different starting point to a business turning over a fraction of that. Treat the whole-sample spending figures as describing the survey's biggest firms, not as a benchmark for what a small business should budget.
The trading pattern worth noticing
One more split in the data: 63% of businesses that trade internationally use AI, against 46% of domestic-only firms, and 23% of domestic-only firms cite cost specifically as the barrier. If you only sell within the UK, you're already in the group least likely to have adopted AI, and most likely to say cost is why.
Has AI created jobs in the UK?
According to Lloyds' Business Barometer, which polled 1,200 UK companies between 1 and 16 July 2026, 54% of businesses say AI has created new roles at their organisation, and 61% report using AI in some form.
Do small businesses have the AI skills they need?
Across the whole survey sample, 54% say their workforce has the AI skills it needs and 31% say it doesn't. Confidence is lower further down the size scale: firms turning over under £1m were notably less likely than firms over £10m to see AI adoption as important to staying competitive.
How much should a small business spend on AI?
Of the 58% of businesses planning to increase AI investment, the Lloyds survey's headline spending figures (42% expecting to spend £25,000–£100,000, 26% expecting £100,000–£250,000 over the next year) skew toward large firms. They describe the survey's biggest businesses, not a typical small business budget, and shouldn't be used as a like-for-like benchmark.
Are businesses that trade internationally more likely to use AI?
Yes. The Lloyds survey found 63% of internationally trading UK businesses use AI, compared with 46% of domestic-only businesses. Nearly a quarter (23%) of domestic-only firms cited cost specifically as their barrier to adoption.