UK supply chain professionals are turning to AI to manage regulatory complexity at a much faster rate than the global average, with Brexit likely a key driver. This is one of several findings from independent research by IDC, commissioned by supply chain orchestration leader Kinaxis.
The survey uncovered that more than a quarter of UK supply chain professionals say the complexity of regulations across global markets is the single biggest reason their organisation is speeding up its adoption of AI in supply chain decisions.
It’s the second most-cited driver in the UK overall, behind only inflation. The figures are significantly higher than the global average, which sits at 16%. In Germany, just 10% of supply chain professionals point to regulatory complexity as their top driver, and the stability of intra-EU trading rules may help explain why the figure is so much lower than in the UK.
Since the UK formally left the EU in 2020, British supply chain professionals are contending with a more complicated regulatory landscape than many of their European neighbours. More of them are now using AI to keep up.
The findings sit within a wider global IDC InfoBrief called ‘Making Supply Chain AI Accountable’, which surveyed more than 2,000 supply chain leaders across nine markets. The global study found that while AI adoption is now close to universal, with only 2% of organisations having no AI capabilities in place, many companies still have reservations about its use. Just 12% of those surveyed consider themselves AI leaders, and only 12% say governance for AI-driven decisions is fully embedded. Trust remains the biggest barrier to faster adoption, with 52% of respondents worldwide citing it as the key reason for slow take-up rates.
“AI adoption isn’t the question anymore,” said Justin King, Field CTO at Kinaxis.
Whether AI delivers trusted decisions, measurable value and governed autonomy is the real question, especially with 52% of leaders telling IDC that trust is what’s holding them back. We built Maestro to answer that question. Every AI-driven recommendation is explainable and auditable before it acts, so accountability happens at the decision, not just the policy
Even as adoption moves forward, UK supply chain professionals remain cautious about where they stand globally. Nearly a quarter of UK companies (23%) say their AI maturity is either early-stage or still uncertain, compared with 16% in the US and India. That confidence gap hasn’t closed, even as adoption speeds up.
