British Workers Spend £1.3bn a Year on AI for Work

According to ER10, employees in the UK spend around £1.3bn of their own money every year on AI tools for work. People pay for these tools themselves while employers stay on the sidelines.

It shows that demand for AI in everyday work tasks is running ahead of what companies provide: an employee needs an assistant and does not wait for permission. But there is a downside. Work data such as figures, correspondence and documents ends up in personal accounts that the company does not control and cannot shut off when the person leaves.

Ask your team directly which AI services they pay for themselves and what data they upload there. A shared tool replaces personal subscriptions: in 1Cifer each role gets its own agent inside a protected environment, with data access set by the company structure. Then compare the costs: reimbursing individual subscriptions or giving everyone one common tool.