Six in ten retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers are worried about their supply chains and expect rising sourcing and transport costs over the next year. The right kind of AI could ease that pressure, according to experts. But adoption in these sectors lags behind the rest of the UK economy, and fewer businesses there say AI is actually improving how they operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AI use among UK businesses has climbed to 34.7% as of June 2026, according to Office for National Statistics data. Manufacturing sits at 26.9%, while the wholesale and retail sector sits at 28.4%. The industries that keep Britain’s shops stocked and factories running have adopted AI more slowly than the country as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inefficient supply chains are one of several drivers of rising prices, and part of the cost tends to land on the shopper. AI built for forecasting could ease some of that pressure, according to Sigr\u00fan Gunnhildard\u00f3ttir, CPO at AGR Inventory<\/a>, a company providing demand forecasting and inventory planning software to wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of it comes down to reactive procurement, paying a premium for expedited freight and emergency safety stock because the shortage wasn’t forecast. It’s a real driver of margin compression, and some of it shows up in the price consumers pay,\u201d says Sigr\u00fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nationally, close to 59% of businesses using AI say it’s improving their operations, the single most common reason given. In manufacturing, wholesale and retail, that figure drops to around 47%, roughly 12 points behind the national average, despite these being the sectors where operational tools like forecasting and inventory planning could counteract rising prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLooking at the numbers, most of what’s been adopted in these sectors won’t help anyone decide how much stock to order,\u201d says Sigr\u00fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Businesses in wholesale and retail are more likely than the national average to have adopted AI through free software, and manufacturers are noticeably less likely to buy dedicated tools. Among the AI these sectors do use, text and visual content creation are the most common applications. Data processing, the type of AI behind demand forecasting, trails well behind, according to the ONS figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Share of all businesses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Share of AI-using businesses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMostly free, mostly for content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/td> Uses AI<\/strong><\/td> Text generation<\/strong><\/td> Visual content<\/strong><\/td> Data processing<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> All UK businesses<\/td> 34.7%<\/td> 17.1%<\/td> 14.4%<\/td> 7.6%<\/td><\/tr> Manufacturing<\/td> 26.9%<\/td> 7.5%<\/td> 14.6%<\/td> 6.1%<\/td><\/tr> Wholesale and retail<\/td> 28.4%<\/td> 14.6%<\/td> 14.0%<\/td> 2.7%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n