# UK AI Adoption Plans: Creative and Professional Services > The UK's June 2026 AI adoption plans for creative industries and professional services: what they say, what's funded, and how firms turn them into 90 days. Source: https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/uk-ai-adoption-plans-creative-professional-services Language: en Author: Toni Dos Santos Published: 2026-10-04 Updated: 2026-10-04 --- AI Tools # UK AI Adoption Plans Say the Hard Part Is People, Workflow and Leadership By [Toni Dos Santos](https://wecallshotgun.com/toni-dos-santos) • Oct 4, 2026 • 15 min read • **Summary:** On 8 June 2026 the UK government published six sector AI adoption plans, each written by an industry AI Champion, and a financial services plan followed in July. The Creative Industries plan finds 51% of creative businesses use AI, against 33% of all businesses, and names capacity, confidence and infrastructure as the barriers, especially for micro-businesses and freelancers. The Professional and Business Services plan finds 43.4% of firms used AI in December 2025 and says the main barrier is "cultural rather than technical". Neither plan attaches new funding: the creative plan recommends grants and advice vouchers, and no new BridgeAI call dates had been published after the £100m expansion was announced. Our view: firms don't need to wait. Baseline two or three workflows, set the rules at leadership level, rebuild those workflows on the team's own documents, and measure at day 30, 60 and 90. On 8 June 2026 the UK government published six sector AI adoption plans, each written by an industry AI Champion. Two cover most agencies and professional firms: Creative Industries, and Professional and Business Services. They reach the same conclusion: the hard part is people, workflow and leadership, and neither plan brings new money. I run AI adoption programmes for teams in the UK and France at We Call Shotgun. The call I get roughly twice a month goes like this: "We bought the tools. Nobody's using them. We don't know what to do." Both plans describe that call in official language. ## How do the Creative Industries and Professional Services plans compare? Both came out on 8 June 2026, both were written by an AI Champion from the sector, and both put people and process problems ahead of technology. Neither comes with funding attached. The creative plan proposes grants and vouchers, and the professional services plan proposes tools and convening. | | Creative Industries | Professional and Business Services | | --- | --- | --- | | AI Champion | Sally Davies, managing director of Abbey Road Studios | Shaheen Sayed, Accenture | | Published | 8 June 2026 | 8 June 2026 | | Who it covers | The creative industries, which DCMS defines as nine subsectors including advertising and marketing, design, film and TV, IT and software, and publishing | Legal services, accountancy and audit, and management consultancy, plus lawtech, accountancytech, HRtech, proptech and regtech | | AI use today | 51% of creative businesses, against 33% of all businesses (ONS, cited in the plan) | 43.4% of firms in December 2025, up from 31.4% a year earlier (ONS, cited in the plan) | | Main barrier named | "lack of capacity, confidence and infrastructure, particularly among microbusinesses, small firms and freelancers" | "cultural rather than technical" | | New funding attached | None yet. Grants and advice vouchers are proposed. | None. The actions are diagnostic tools, convening and a sector roadmap. | ![Bar chart of the share of businesses using AI, from ONS figures cited in the UK AI Champions' adoption plans of 8 June 2026. Creative Industries plan: 51 percent of creative businesses against 33 percent of all businesses. By size, all businesses, ONS January 2026: 24 percent of micro-businesses against 44 percent of firms with 250 or more staff; the plan says evidence suggests micro-businesses are approximately 18 months behind large firms. Professional and Business Services plan: 43.4 percent of firms in December 2025, up from 31.4 percent a year earlier.](https://wecallshotgun.com/images/blog/uk-ai-adoption-plans-figures-2026.svg) ## What are the UK AI Champions' adoption plans? They're six sector plans published on 8 June 2026, alongside the government's AI Adoption Summit. Each was written by an industry figure appointed as that sector's AI Champion. They're recommendations to government and industry. They don't create regulation or obligations for firms. The six cover advanced manufacturing, clean energy (an interim plan), creative industries, digital and technologies, life sciences, and professional and business services ([techUK's summary of the package](https://www.techuk.org/resource/techuk-analysis-chancellor-s-ai-adoption-summit-and-government-s-ai-adoption-package.html)). A seventh plan, for financial services, followed on 14 July 2026 ([GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-adoption-plan-financial-services)). One change since publication. In July 2026 the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) was broken up. Science and innovation moved to the Department for Business and Trade, renamed the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and AI strategy moved to the Cabinet Office ([written statement to Parliament, 21 July 2026](https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-07-21/hlws298); [Civil Service World](https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/burnham-merges-dbt-with-dsit-and-gives-digital-back-to-dcms)). The plans are still published on [GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans). No public statement yet says who owns each follow-up action. ## What does the Creative Industries AI adoption plan say? Creative businesses use AI more than the economy as a whole, but small firms and freelancers fall behind for lack of time, confidence and governance. The plan recommends an "augmentation-first" approach, trusted guidance, practical learning on real creative use cases, and support for leaders managing organisational change. The lines that matter for a firm deciding what to do next: - Small firms are behind. Across all UK businesses, adoption sits around 24% for micro-businesses against 44% for firms with 250 or more staff (ONS Business Insights, January 2026, cited in the plan), and the plan adds that "evidence suggests micro-businesses are approximately 18 months behind large firms." The ONS figures for June 2026 put it at 28% against 49% ([our breakdown](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/how-many-uk-businesses-use-ai-ons-2026)). - Time is the constraint: "SMEs often struggle to dedicate time and resources to market scanning, tool evaluation, workflow redesign and oversight." - Learning is informal: "At present, many organisations rely on informal learning." - Gains are hard to prove: "Prompting, iteration, error correction and quality control can absorb significant time," and organisations "may struggle to distinguish genuine efficiency from displaced effort." - Trust is the top barrier. Lack of trust in AI product safety or transparency is cited by 10.1% of creative businesses, against 5.7% of all businesses. The plan's case study on Aardman describes the approach that works. > "By appointing internal AI champions and promoting debate, the studio is building confidence organically." AI Adoption Plan: Creative Industries, GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 For agencies: advertising and marketing is one of the nine DCMS creative subsectors ([Creative PEC](https://pec.ac.uk/news_entries/national-statistics-on-the-creative-industries/)), so agencies sit inside this plan. Its adoption figures don't break the subsector out. It does name the client problem agencies know well: commissioned work can carry restrictions, and "some clients encourage AI enabled efficiency, while others restrict or prohibit AI use altogether." Source: [AI Adoption Plan: Creative Industries](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans/ai-adoption-plan-creative-industries). ## What does the Professional and Business Services AI adoption plan say? Staff are adopting AI faster than firms are changing. The plan names the barrier as "cultural rather than technical", and says individual gains stay local unless workflows, decisions and organisational design change with them. Four sentences from the plan and its official summary: - "The main barrier to AI adoption in PBS is cultural rather than technical." - "While employees are rapidly adopting AI tools, organisational change led by senior management has not kept pace." - "Without corresponding changes to workflows, decision-making and organisational design, these gains remain localised and do not translate into firm-wide productivity improvements." - "The result is uneven capability, the growth of 'shadow AI', and benefits that do not yet scale across firms." The plan sums up where the sector is. > "The challenge is now less about awareness of AI's potential and more about execution at scale." AI Adoption Plan: Professional and Business Services, GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 Its actions for 2026 to 2027 are an AI Security Health Check for SMEs in the early stages of AI adoption, a digital twin tool that lets SMEs test the impact of AI adoption before committing resources, engagement with regulators, and a sector roadmap presented at a year-end event. A note on the numbers. Several percentages in this plan (on training, process redesign and readiness) carry no source in the document, and one links to a report on Ireland. I've left them out. Source: [AI Adoption Plan: Professional and Business Services](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans/ai-adoption-plan-professional-and-business-services) and the [official summaries](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans/ai-champions-adoption-plans-summaries). ## Where do the two plans agree? On five things: the tools are already in, leaders lag behind staff, learning is informal, firms can't prove the gains, and trust holds people back. Each one points to a specific change inside a firm. | What the plans say | What changes inside the firm | | --- | --- | | Staff use AI, firm-wide work hasn't changed | Measure the workflows themselves. A licence dashboard can look healthy while no workflow changed. | | Senior management "has not kept pace" | Leaders agree the rules and practise on their own work first | | Organisations "rely on informal learning" | Learning happens on the team's real tasks, in the approved tool | | Firms can't tell real gains from "displaced effort" | Time the workflow before changing it, then measure again | | Trust and safety concerns delay adoption | A written charter: which data goes in which tool, and who signs off | Where your firm sits Find out which of these five gaps is holding your teams back. The WCS AI Maturity Audit places your company on our four-stage maturity model in eight minutes and 21 questions. You get your stage, the barrier holding your teams back and the workflow to fix first. Free, and no pitch attached. [Take the 8-minute maturity audit →](https://wecallshotgun.com/audit) ## Is there government funding for AI adoption in these plans? Not as of October 2026. The Creative Industries plan proposes pilot funding, adoption grants and advice vouchers for SMEs and freelancers. Those are recommendations, and no dedicated scheme has been announced. The Professional and Business Services plan proposes tools and convening, with no grants. The government also announced £100m on 8 June to expand Innovate UK's BridgeAI programme ([GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/liz-kendalls-speech-at-ai-adoption-summit)). Earlier BridgeAI rounds were open to UK-registered SMEs in a handful of sectors, creative industries among them, and the [programme page](https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/programme/bridgeai/) listed no new call dates when I checked. A firm planning its AI adoption around a grant is planning around something that doesn't exist yet. ## What does this look like inside a firm? The Professional and Business Services plan says gains "remain localised" without workflow change. One team I worked with shows what that means in practice. A 15-person content team at a 350-person asset management company in Paris, spring 2025. The CMO bought an enterprise licence, sent a memo, and told the team to use AI. Six weeks later they were producing less content. Two hours of shadowing found the reason. Their process had seven stages: brief, research, first draft, internal review, revision, legal and compliance, publishing. AI was used in stage three only. The draft then went through a review chain built for human writing. Reviewers marked it up because "it doesn't sound like us", the writer rewrote most of it by hand, and compliance flagged sections as generic. AI saved maybe 20 minutes on the draft and added three hours to the review cycle. We rebuilt it. Seven stages became four. AI drafts three variations from a detailed brief carrying the brand voice, audience and channel. An editor picks one and refines it. Compliance runs in parallel against a checklist that AI pre-screens. The review cycle went from four days to one, and output rose 40% on their own tracking. The full case is in chapter 2 of [Teach Them to Drive](https://wecallshotgun.com/teachthem). ![Before and after comparison of a 15-person content team at a 350-person asset manager in Paris, spring 2025. With AI added to the old process: seven stages with a review chain built for human writing; AI used in stage three only, the first draft; reviewers marked drafts up because it didn't sound like the firm and writers rewrote by hand; about 20 minutes saved on the draft and about three hours added to review; output lower than before six weeks after the licence went out. With the workflow rebuilt around AI: four stages; AI drafts three variations from a detailed brief carrying voice, audience and channel, and pre-screens compliance; an editor picks one draft and refines it while compliance runs in parallel; the review cycle went from four days to one; output up 40 percent on the team's own tracking.](https://wecallshotgun.com/images/blog/ai-adoption-workflow-rebuild-case.svg) That's the creative plan's "displaced effort", measured. The same pattern shows up at national scale: in Templafy's October 2026 survey, 96% of UK knowledge workers still edit AI-generated documents before using them, and 51% say the review leaves little time saved ([our breakdown of the survey](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/uk-workers-edit-ai-documents-templafy-2026)). It shows up in my sales calls too. In September 2026 I counted my last 16 intro calls with new leads. Thirteen already had AI tools rolled out. Ten said usage was low or stuck on the basics. Eleven came asking for training. Six said leadership wasn't there yet either. That's the plans' diagnosis, from the buyer's side of the table. ![Bar chart of Toni Dos Santos's last 16 intro calls with new leads, September 2026. 13 of 16 already had AI tools rolled out. 10 of 16 said usage was low or stuck on the basics. 11 of 16 came asking for training. 6 of 16 said leadership wasn't there yet either. Toni's own count, not a survey.](https://wecallshotgun.com/images/blog/ai-adoption-intro-calls-september-2026.svg) ## How do you turn the plans into a 90-day AI adoption plan? Start from two or three workflows, time them, set the rules at leadership level, rebuild the workflows on the team's own documents, then measure at day 30, 60 and 90. Here are the steps in the order we run them. - **Baseline two or three workflows (weeks 1 to 2).** Pick work that eats hours: a pitch deck, a proposal, a client report, a month-end pack. Time each one as it runs today: hours spent, turnaround, rounds of review. You're done when every workflow has a number before anyone changes anything. This is the step that answers the creative plan's "displaced effort" problem, because without it nothing you measure later means anything. - **Leaders agree the rules (one day).** Which tool, which data can go in it (green, amber, red), and who owns each workflow. Leaders then practise on their own work. This closes the gap the PBS plan describes between staff use and senior management, and it gives people the written answer on safety the creative plan says they're missing. - **Rebuild the workflows end to end.** Use the team's own documents, and include the review and sign-off stages. In the asset manager case, the review chain is where the three hours went. Give each rebuilt workflow a named owner. - **Teach the team on those workflows.** Use the use cases from step 1, in the approved tool. People learn the method on work already sitting in their inbox, so the learning doesn't stay informal. - **Measure at day 30, 60 and 90.** Compare against the baseline: hours, turnaround, rework, and the share of people running the workflow without help. That last number is the one that tells you whether adoption stuck. This is the [AI adoption programme](https://wecallshotgun.com/ai-workforce-transformation) we run at We Call Shotgun, for [teams in the UK](https://wecallshotgun.com/ai-training-uk) and France: a diagnosis with a baseline, leadership alignment, workflow transformation on the team's own work, then follow-up and measurement. If you want a first read on where your team sits, the free [AI adoption audit](https://wecallshotgun.com/audit) takes eight minutes. For the national picture behind the plans, our breakdown of the [ONS data on UK business AI use](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/how-many-uk-businesses-use-ai-ons-2026) covers how shallow most adoption still is, and [why AI training fails after the workshop](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/why-ai-training-fails-microsoft-lessons) covers what happens when step 4 runs without steps 1 to 3. Ninety days, two workflows Bring the two workflows that eat the most hours. Twenty minutes with Toni or Meera. You'll leave with the baseline to take, the rules to agree at leadership level, and what a 90-day sprint on those workflows would change. Tool-agnostic, so nobody on the call is selling you a licence. [Book a 20-minute call →](https://cal.com/wecallshotgun/ai-adoption) ## Frequently asked questions ### What are the UK AI Champions' adoption plans? Six sector plans published by the UK government on 8 June 2026, each written by an industry AI Champion. They cover advanced manufacturing, clean energy, creative industries, digital and technologies, life sciences, and professional and business services. They set out barriers to AI adoption in each sector and recommend actions for government and industry. They don't create legal obligations for firms. A seventh plan, for financial services, followed on 14 July 2026. ### Does the Creative Industries AI adoption plan cover advertising and marketing agencies? Yes. Advertising and marketing is one of the nine creative industries subsectors in the DCMS definition, so agencies fall within the plan. The plan's adoption statistics don't break out advertising and marketing separately. It does note that commissioned work can carry client restrictions on AI use, which applies directly to agencies. ### What is the main barrier to AI adoption in UK professional services? The Professional and Business Services plan says "the main barrier to AI adoption in PBS is cultural rather than technical." Staff are adopting AI tools quickly, but organisational change led by senior management hasn't kept pace. Without changes to workflows, decision-making and organisational design, the plan says individual gains stay localised and don't become firm-wide productivity. ### Is there government funding for SMEs in the UK AI adoption plans? Not yet. The Creative Industries plan proposes pilot funding, adoption grants and advice vouchers for SMEs and freelancers, but these are recommendations, and no dedicated scheme has been announced. The Professional and Business Services plan focuses on diagnostic tools and convening. A £100m BridgeAI expansion was announced the same day, with no new call dates published at the time of writing. ### What is shadow AI, and why does the PBS plan mention it? Shadow AI is staff using AI tools informally, outside the systems and rules their firm has approved. The plan links it to uneven capability and to benefits that "do not yet scale across firms." It usually means people found AI useful before the firm gave them rules, tools and workflows to use it properly. ### Is AI training enough to act on the plans? On its own, no. The PBS plan says that without changes to workflows, decision-making and organisational design, gains "remain localised." Training builds individual skill, and the plan's point is that firm-wide results also need rebuilt workflows, rules set at leadership level and a baseline to measure against. ### Who owns the AI adoption plans after the July 2026 government changes? In July 2026 DSIT was broken up. Science and innovation moved to the Department for Business and Trade, renamed the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and AI strategy moved to the Cabinet Office, according to a written statement to Parliament on 21 July 2026. The plans remain on GOV.UK. No public statement has yet set out which department owns each follow-up action. ### How do you measure whether AI adoption is working? Time two or three priority workflows before changing them: hours, turnaround and rounds of review. After the change, measure the same things at day 30, 60 and 90, plus the share of people running the workflow without help. Licence activation counts logins. It says nothing about whether the work changed. ## Sources and further reading - [AI Champions' AI Adoption Plans](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans), GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 - [AI Adoption Plan: Creative Industries](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans/ai-adoption-plan-creative-industries), GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 - [AI Adoption Plan: Professional and Business Services](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans/ai-adoption-plan-professional-and-business-services), GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 - [AI Champions' Adoption Plans: Summaries](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-champions-ai-adoption-plans/ai-champions-adoption-plans-summaries), GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 - [Liz Kendall's speech at the AI Adoption Summit](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/liz-kendalls-speech-at-ai-adoption-summit) (then Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology), GOV.UK, 8 June 2026 - [AI Adoption Plan: Financial Services](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-adoption-plan-financial-services), GOV.UK, 14 July 2026 - [techUK analysis of the AI Adoption Package](https://www.techuk.org/resource/techuk-analysis-chancellor-s-ai-adoption-summit-and-government-s-ai-adoption-package.html), techUK - [National statistics on the creative industries](https://pec.ac.uk/news_entries/national-statistics-on-the-creative-industries/), Creative PEC - [Written statement HLWS298 on machinery of government changes](https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-07-21/hlws298), UK Parliament, 21 July 2026 - [Burnham merges DBT with DSIT and hands 'digital' back to DCMS](https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/burnham-merges-dbt-with-dsit-and-gives-digital-back-to-dcms), Civil Service World, 21 July 2026 - [BridgeAI](https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/programme/bridgeai/), Innovate UK Business Connect - Templafy, The Business-Ready AI Gap 2026, via [our analysis](https://wecallshotgun.com/blog/uk-workers-edit-ai-documents-templafy-2026) - Toni Dos Santos, [Teach Them to Drive: The AI Adoption Playbook for Teams](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYSSFNPK/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0), chapter 2 **About the author.** [Toni Dos Santos](https://wecallshotgun.com/toni-dos-santos) is co-founder of We Call Shotgun, an AI adoption practice for teams in the UK and France, with Meera Sanghvi. He wrote [Teach Them to Drive: The AI Adoption Playbook for Teams](https://wecallshotgun.com/teachthem). Before that he worked in corporate banking at Crédit du Nord (Société Générale), ran B2B product marketing at Banque BCP, and was a B2B product manager at lemlist. ## Keep Reading [AI Tools Oct 30, 2026 Microsoft Copilot Notebooks for teams: how to replace scattered chats with one shared workspace (2026 guide) Copilot Chat starts every conversation from zero, and a team's best prompt lives in one person's notes file. A Copilot Notebook, the shared workspace Microsoft also calls a project workspace, keeps the references, the instructions and the outputs for one piece of work in one place. 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