2 areas where UK companies are investing more money in 2026
UK companies plan to scale up spending in both cybersecurity and AI over the coming year, with a heavy focus on agentic AI integration.
The data is based on a KPMG survey of 2,500 executives from 27 countries, including 151 in the UK. Respondents represent eight industries: automotive, consumer and retail, energy, financial services, government, healthcare and life sciences, industrial manufacturing, and technology and telecommunications.
In addition to the survey, the report is enriched by interviews with eight senior corporate leaders and professionals, delivering actionable insights to help organisations excel today while shaping the future.
Cyber-attacks front of mind
With ongoing geopolitical tensions and recent high-profile cyber-attacks front of mind, cybersecurity emerged as the number one priority for large increases in investment over the next 12 months.
More than half of UK organisations (57%) reported they are planning on increasing their budget for cybersecurity by more than 10% over the next 12 months. Globally, only 41% are planning to increase their cybersecurity budget by the same amount, signalling greater emphasis on cybersecurity in the UK.
Meanwhile, 46% of respondents said they were planning on investing more than 10%increase in budget on AI over the period. Data & analytics also saw a commitment to a big increase in investment over the next 12 months with 48% of respondents reporting a budget increase of more than 10%.
AI adoption and agentic AI
While cybersecurity is most likely to see the bigger investments, AI narrowly remains the area that most companies expect to increase their investment in. Five in six (84%) respondents report some level of increase in AI investment over the next 12 months, with cybersecurity (83%) and data and analytics (82%) closely following.
The majority (91%) of respondents agree that by the end of 2026, they expect AI to shift from an efficiency enabler to a revenue-driving innovation, signalling a shift away from initial applications and trials of the technology into seeing it deliver value and a return on investment.
89% of UK respondents said they are already investing in building agentic AI into their systems as they plan to move to a hybrid of human and digital workforce.
As agentic AI becomes more prominent, tech executives are also thinking about what that means for skills within their workforce. 92% agreed that managing AI agents will become an important skill within the next five years. Nine in 10 (90%) also agreed that their hiring plans include specialist AI roles such as prompt engineers, AI ethicists, and machine learning operations specialists.
With the increase in AI adoption, organisations are not only thinking about the efficiencies and benefits this can bring ,but 93% also agreed that their IT, security, and risk teams are collaborating to ensure that the AI systems and use cases are deployed securely and that they are continuously monitored for cyber risks.
“Agentic AI marks a shift from tools that answer questions to systems that take action. It’s no surprise that so many organisations are already investing at pace, but the real differentiator will be governance and talent,” said Paul Henninger, Head of Technology and Data at KPMG UK.
“When AI agents can trigger workflows, access data, and interact with customers, you need clear guardrails – identity and access controls, audit trails, human oversight, and continuous monitoring for cyber and other risks. Pair that with targeted hiring and broad upskilling, and you can unlock the productivity and return on investment without compromising reliability or trust at scale.”
