Towards the end of 2024, there was one word that dominated conversations more than any other. Growth. It’s an ambition that has featured as frequently in boardroom discussions across the country as in the UK Cabinet Office.
This focus on growth comes as the economy has found itself trapped in a cycle of marginal gains, matched by similar losses. Collectively, there’s now a deep ambition to see the trend reversed and the UK’s economic course corrected.
The UK’s scale-ups are taking on their fair share of the burden too. Emerging from the country’s high-growth industries, such as life sciences or technology, leaders at these organisations are intent on accelerating innovation with skilled talent.
The likes of Faith in Nature, a natural beauty product supplier and manufacturer, and biotechnology company Touchlight Genetics have become proof points for their industry. As businesses seek to replicate this success, it’s no surprise that, according to SAP’s 2025 report, Supercharging growth with AI in the UK, as many as 86% of scale-ups have indicated growth is a priority for the year ahead.
But connecting aspiration to reality is no straightforward task. Leaders need to be digitally equipped to navigate a plethora of internal and external business challenges, such as supply chain disruption and productivity decline, and be ready to embrace the benefits of emerging applications in AI. This will not just aid their own growth journey but will support the wider UK economy as well.
In the way of progress
Just as with the country’s largest enterprises, the UK’s high-growth organisations acutely feel the effects of global economic disruption, with supply chain challenges, skills shortages and inflation all impacting growth. While these pressure points are not necessarily new – businesses have faced a notable rise in costs, a battle for talent and disruption to trade since the onset of the pandemic – they have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis and recent geopolitical events.
Globalisation, often the fuel for growth, has been rocked by conflict in the Red Sea, trade tariffs, slow exports and high transport costs. According to SAP’s research, 15% of the UK’s scale-ups ranked supply chain weaknesses and disruption as their most significant barrier to growth. This was followed by a lack of talent and skills (13%), siloed operations (13%) and low-quality data (10%).
With UK productivity flatlining, and behind the economies of its peers, such as France and Germany, the growth agenda is at real risk of never getting off the ground. The UK’s scale-ups need to be productive and operate efficiently, unencumbered by legacy processes and backed by the right digital infrastructure, grounded in AI.
Getting everything in order
To begin with, the UK’s high-growth leaders need to realise that AI transformation can be tailored to their needs. Understandably, the conversation can feel alienating when a quick search will find the world’s largest enterprises are steering investment or driving deployments. It’s a consequence of the mass hype that has emerged as applications like generative AI have directed VC investment, product launches and the future of work debate.
The speed at which AI applications have emerged is a sign of the window of opportunity – but it can also be overwhelming for leaders. Wesley Doyle, head of new business, corporate at SAP UKI says: “It can be difficult to know how or when to invest, and what to implement for maximum business impact. When there’s hype, it can be all too easy to jump into AI without creating the conditions for success first.”
But the hype is cooling, and AI with real utility has emerged as critical for future-proofing organisations of all sizes and ambitions, helping them overcome major challenges to resilience and scale. For instance, in SAP’s survey, the UK’s high-growth businesses outlined the development of skills and talent (40%), automation (39%) and improved supplier and partner networks (38%), as critical to growth plans, and AI can directly lend itself to these ambitions.
However, those ambitions can only be realised with a clear strategy. AI requires the right data context and management to produce effective results. “With market share, growth and innovation on the line, high-growth organisations need to approach AI with a strong data core,” says Doyle.
He says organisations will need to bring together disparate data sources to create a single source of truth for all decision-making and outputs. “To avoid hallucinations or instances of bias, and keep their organisation running efficiently, they must understand how data is generated, where it typically resides, when it was created and who it relates to. This enables AI models to produce reliable and valuable outputs.”
Unlocking the freedom to scale
An obvious benefit of AI is its ability to handle routine tasks, freeing employees to focus on more strategic or pressing work. This ensures talent isn’t under-utilised in roles that don’t drive growth, and AI can be deployed where it’s needed most to offset skills shortages and boost productivity.
AI needs to be embedded into existing processes and applications to generate the most relevant and impactful business insights
But where AI is arguably most valuable is in unblocking siloed data to drive high-quality business insights across areas such as supplier and partner relations. Over the last 12 months, AI co-pilots such as Joule have emerged as strategic business partners, providing comprehensive and real-time insights from across different units to allow decisions to be taken with the right context in mind.
“AI needs to be embedded into existing processes and applications to generate the most relevant and impactful business insights,” says Doyle. “This will help leaders make smarter, more informed decisions and leave behind routine or administrative tasks. SAP’s copilot, Joule, was built for this specific purpose and crosses the boundaries of various business functions, like supply chain and HR, solving multifaceted challenges in a way that other autonomous agents simply cannot match.”
With the right information, the UK’s high-growth organisations can confidently navigate the most pressing challenges to scale. For instance, in the context of further geopolitical disruption, businesses can use AI to strengthen their grip on their supply chains; delivering smart contingency plans, increasing their supplier options to better suit their needs, and improving visibility into the availability of their goods and services.
Doyle says, “AI’s ability to analyse vast amounts of data, predict disruptions and optimise operations in real-time makes it indispensable for delivering long-term growth.” For businesses managing imports and exports, AI offers a continuous view of shipments, inventory and production, allowing leaders to anticipate issues, control costs and keep stock at optimal levels – preventing costly mistakes like over- or under-stocking.
AI also improves supplier and transport networks while mitigating risk. High-growth businesses can make proactive adjustments to maintain smooth operations despite external volatility. Doyle explains: “With embedded AI, leaders can enjoy detailed, end-to-end monitoring from production through to final delivery, exposing weak points in the journey and providing an opportunity to minimise the impact of issues before they escalate.”
In a similar context, AI can also automate and adjust financial insights based on new trade tariffs and international compliance or regulatory requirements. On the path to growth, this helps scale-ups ensure they are not caught out by unexpected disruption and costs. In turn, this ensures a constant level of service availability, boosting customer experience and providing a competitive advantage.
Powering the growth agenda
As the UK has its sights set on the growth agenda, it can appear an almost insurmountable task given current levels of productivity, fluctuating business output and a challenging global operating environment. But putting too much energy into these concerns alone can stifle progress, so the UK’s high-growth sector needs to focus on the variables it can control.
Scale-ups must find ways to operate efficiently and maximise resources despite skills shortages and supply chain disruptions. Overcoming key growth barriers requires the right digital infrastructure. This begins with adopting AI in the right way, not to just buy into the hype, but to drive real value throughout the business with improved visibility, decision making and resource allocation. That’s how they’ll scale faster and more sustainably, and boost the UK economy in turn.
Takeaways for business leaders
The most important takeaways for UK scale-ups about the potential value of AI
- The time to invest is now. SAP’s research shows that 92% of high-growth businesses are prioritising AI because it helps them scale faster, make smarter decisions and stay competitive in a challenging economic landscape.
- AI can help to level the playing field across the UK. Businesses outside London, from manufacturing firms in the North to fintech startups in Manchester, can now access the same AI-driven insights as larger corporations. “With the right strategy, AI adoption can help scale-ups compete on a national and global level,” says Doyle.
- Data is everything. If an organisation’s data is siloed, AI won’t deliver the insights it needs. Before rolling out AI tools, leaders should make sure data is clean, structured and accessible.
- AI adoption is shifting from hype to practical impact. “High-growth businesses that invest in AI for supply chain resilience, talent development and operational efficiency today will drive UK economic growth tomorrow,” Doyle explains.
Read SAP’s Supercharging growth with AI in the UK: A pathway for high-growth businesses report now
Towards the end of 2024, there was one word that dominated conversations more than any other. Growth. It’s an ambition that has featured as frequently in boardroom discussions across the country as in the UK Cabinet Office.
This focus on growth comes as the economy has found itself trapped in a cycle of marginal gains, matched by similar losses. Collectively, there’s now a deep ambition to see the trend reversed and the UK’s economic course corrected.
The UK’s scale-ups are taking on their fair share of the burden too. Emerging from the country’s high-growth industries, such as life sciences or technology, leaders at these organisations are intent on accelerating innovation with skilled talent.
The likes of Faith in Nature, a natural beauty product supplier and manufacturer, and biotechnology company Touchlight Genetics have become proof points for their industry. As businesses seek to replicate this success, it’s no surprise that, according to SAP’s 2025 report, Supercharging growth with AI in the UK, as many as 86% of scale-ups have indicated growth is a priority for the year ahead.
