UK finance chiefs are ready to spend big on artificial intelligence, even as they slow down the hiring of new graduates. That is the picture from Deloitte’s latest survey of the country’s largest companies. Nearly all the finance bosses polled expect business spending on technology to rise over the next five years. Yet the same bosses name cost control as the main reason they are holding back on graduate hiring.
The split points to a clear priority. Money is flowing towards the tools that promise higher output, while the traditional route into work for young people is being squeezed. Deloitte’s quarterly survey of UK CFOs, carried out between 1 and 13 July 2026, captured both sides of that trade at once.
The AI Spending Plans
Optimism about AI has climbed sharply. Some 73% of the CFOs said their view of AI had improved over the past year. That is up from 59% at the end of 2025, and just 39% in late 2024. The chart below sets out how that optimism has built.
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That rising confidence is now turning into spending plans. Deloitte said 96% of the finance chiefs expect UK businesses to increase spending on technology over the next five years, and 93% expect a rise within 12 months. More than three-quarters, 78%, expect AI to lift productivity over five years, and half expect gains within a year.
‘It is encouraging to see growing optimism about the positive impact AI can have on productivity and business performance,’ said Darren Graves, described in the release as Deloitte UK chief executive. His comment captures the mood of the survey. It is his view, though, not a hard measure.
The Squeeze on Graduate Hiring
The other side of the survey is less upbeat for jobseekers. Deloitte said cost control was the biggest single factor holding back graduate hiring, as finance chiefs keep a tight grip on spending. The firm added that CFOs continue to prioritise cost reduction and cash control in the current climate.
That caution has a wider backdrop. Deloitte’s chief economist, Debapratim De, said the world economy had coped with the shock from the conflict in Iran better than many had feared. Business mood, he said, was picking up in response. Even so, worries about world politics and how the UK competes remained high, which kept the focus on costs.
Geopolitics was again rated the top risk, as it has been for 16 of the past 18 quarters. The level of concern did ease this quarter. Worries about weak UK productivity and higher energy prices came next. It is a reminder that the appetite to spend on AI sits alongside real unease about the economy.
What It Means
For all the enthusiasm, the numbers describe intentions, not outcomes. The survey records what finance chiefs plan and expect, not what they have already delivered. AI spending still has to prove it can raise output rather than simply add cost. The figures also come from a small, self-selected panel of the UK’s largest firms. So they capture the mood of big-company boardrooms, not the whole economy.
What is clear is the direction of travel. The people who sign off company budgets are betting on software over staff. And the graduates who would once have filled junior roles are feeling the other edge of that choice.
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