Benchmark your AI ROI against your peer group, and find out how to improve it
Most UK businesses have started with AI. Far fewer can show the finance team a return, and what separates them is rarely the tools.
This free AI maturity assessment shows, in about three minutes, how your governance and results compare with 755 UK business leaders we surveyed, and where the data says your biggest gains sit.
This is not a maturity model graded against someone’s opinion. Every benchmark comes from what 755 UK business leaders told us in our State of UK AI Adoption Survey, so you are measured against real peers.
What you get
Answer twelve questions and you get a personalised report: where your AI sits against businesses like yours, the specific moves most closely linked to a higher rate of measurable return, and a 90-day plan for the two that matter most. It lands in your inbox by the next working day.
How it works
- Six questions place you on a stage and a readiness score out of 100.
- A few more tailor the report to your function, your biggest challenge and your plans.
- We build your report and send it, benchmarked against the survey throughout.
What is an AI maturity assessment?
An AI maturity assessment measures how far your organisation has moved from starting with AI to running it in production and earning a return. It scores you across the areas that decide whether an AI project sticks: governance, data, skills, executive alignment and results. This benchmark grades your answers against 755 UK business leaders we surveyed, so your score reflects real peers, not a generic model.
What the benchmark measures
The benchmark scores five areas, because our survey found these separate the businesses getting a measurable return from the ones stuck in pilots.
- Governance: a policy that is actually applied, and the measurement to stand behind an ROI claim.
- Data: whether the data a use case needs is accessible, joined up and trusted.
- Skills: whether the capability to build and run AI sits in-house or has to be bought in.
- Executive alignment: whether the leadership team agrees what AI is for and who owns the outcome.
- Results: whether you can show the finance team a return, not just activity.
What separates the businesses getting a return
Governance is the clearest divide. The share of surveyed leaders who can show a measurable AI return rises from 22% where there is no governance to 85% where governance is mature and embedded, a 63-point gap on much the same tools. Half of the 755 UK business leaders surveyed can point to a measurable return today; only 14% have scaled AI across three or more functions with a number to show for it.
Capability and governance compound. Where people are well equipped and the business is governed, the measurable return reaches 81%.
| Where a business sits | Report a measurable AI return |
|---|---|
| Well governed and well equipped | 81% |
| One of the two in place | About 40% |
| Neither in place | 15% |
Only 21% of the market has reached the top maturity stage, so most businesses have room to move. The benchmark shows which gap is holding your score down.
Who should benchmark their AI maturity
The assessment is built for the person handed AI without a team underneath them: a director of AI or an equivalent with budget and a board mandate, but no function to deliver with. It shows where you sit and which two moves would lift your return fastest. If you have not started yet, our AI readiness assessment covers where to begin. The figures here come from the State of UK AI Adoption 2026 findings, part of our UK AI adoption research with Executive Summary. If your score points to a capability gap, the AI Enablement Directory lists partners who can close it.
About the author
Richard Breeden is founder and CEO of aibl Media and former managing director of Econsultancy. He writes on practical AI adoption for UK business leaders, drawing on the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 of 755 leaders, run with Executive Summary.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI maturity assessment?
A quick way to see where your organisation’s AI stands against 755 UK business leaders from our survey, and the moves most linked to a measurable return.
How long does it take?
About three minutes. Twelve questions.
Is it free?
Yes, and the report is free too.
What do I get?
A personalised report with your stage and score, where you sit against businesses like yours, and a 90-day plan.
What is it based on?
The State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, 755 UK business leaders, with Executive Summary.
What is a good AI maturity score?
There is no single pass mark. The benchmark places you on a stage with a score out of 100 and shows where you sit against 755 UK business leaders we surveyed. Only 21% of the market has reached the top stage, so most businesses have room to improve on at least one measure.
How is AI maturity measured?
By scoring what predicts a return rather than the tools you own: governance, data, skills, executive alignment and results. In our survey, the share of leaders who could show a measurable return rose from 22% with no governance to 85% with mature, embedded governance.
Is an AI maturity assessment the same as an AI readiness assessment?
They answer different questions. A readiness assessment asks whether you are set up to start; a maturity assessment benchmarks how far along you already are against comparable businesses. If you have not started yet, begin with our AI readiness assessment.