Do UK Businesses Actually See AI Adoption As A Priority?

Welcome to the latest edition of the DIGIT Tech News Roundup.

In this week’s newsletter, we will cover some of our top-trending tech news stories and features from the week beginning 18th of November.

This week, we're seeing the latest data on global cloud spend (spoiler: it's a lot). Beyond this, a new report claims that recruitment bias is holding back STEM pros.

Also, new research from Scots Firm CreateFuture uncovers some surprising data around business AI adoption.

All this and more below!

Cloud Spending Surged By 21% Last Quarter

Global spending on cloud infrastructure services surged by 21% year-on-year last quarter, totalling $82 billion (£65bn~), technology market analysis firm Canalys has discovered.

The rankings of the top three cloud vendors—AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud—remained stable from the previous quarter, with these providers together accounting for 64% of total customer expenditure. Total combined spending with these providers also grew by 26% year-on-year, and all three reported sequential growth.

Market leader AWS maintained a year-on-year growth rate of 19%, which is consistent with the previous quarter, but was outpaced by both Microsoft (33%) and Google Cloud (36%).

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Over Half of UK Businesses Don’t See AI Adoption as a Priority

New research commissioned by digital consultancy CreateFuture has found that 58% of UK business decision-makers do not currently view AI adoption as a ‘strategic priority right now’, with more than a third (38%) also admitting they still lack a clear AI vision or strategy.

Even among those companies that do have an AI strategy in place, 43% admit that they are only in their early stages.

The research which features in CreateFuture’s latest insights report, From Hype to Reality: Research from the Frontline of the UK’s ‘AI Revolution, saw over 1,000 UK-based business decision-makers giving their opinions on the barriers holding their AI adoption journey back.

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90% of Industrial Firms Hit By Cyber-attack This Year

Fresh research has found that almost 90% of industrial organisations in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, and oil & gas have been hit by cyber-attack in the past year, with many suffering from repeated breaches.

In the energy sector alone, the figures are even starker, with 95% of organisations reporting being targeted, often resulting in operational downtime and financial losses. 

The new report shows that these critical sectors are becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks as industries increasingly adopt connected and automated technologies, compromising sensitive data and causing costly disruptions.

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Recruitment Bias Preventing STEM Pros From Returning to Work

Bias in the recruitment system is still preventing STEM professionals on a career break from returning to employment, according to a new survey by STEM Returners.

In the 2024 Index, more people said they felt they had experienced personal bias in the recruitment system compared to the previous year, (40% in 2024 vs 33% in 2023) and said they found returning to work difficult or very difficult (65% in 2024 vs 51% in 2023).

Half (51%) of respondents said a perceived lack of recent experience was a barrier to entry, an increase from 38% in last year’s survey.

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Businesses Taking 25% Longer to Recover from Cyber Incidents

Fastly's latest annual Global Security Research Report has revealed a rise in the time it takes businesses to recover from cyber incidents.

In 2024, businesses reported taking an average of 7.3 months to recover from cybersecurity breaches – 25% longer than expected and over a month past the anticipated timeline of 5.9 months.

Recovery times were even worse for companies that planned on cutting back cybersecurity spending. They faced an average of 68 incidents each – 70% above the average – and their recovery times stretched to 10.9 months, more than five months longer than those maintaining or increasing their budgets.

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