Only about 21% of retail businesses say they use AI, according to new data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), despite over a third of all companies across the economy saying that they use the technology

The data is based on a June, 2026 study by the ONS where businesses were offered a list of AI technologies and asked whether they used any of them. Among the wholesale and retail businesses surveyed, 15.7% said that they had used at least one technology, while 4.8% had used multiple. 

That put the group towards the bottom of the AI adoption rankings, with only logistics and construction businesses less likely to say they used any of the tech. Hospitality was, however, only marginally ahead of wholesale and retail. 

Heavy adopters of AI include ICT firms, where nearly six out of 10 used at least one version of the technology. Education was the only other sector where more than half of businesses reported some kind of AI deployment. 

 

The share of companies using AI has nearly tripled since the ONS started collecting data on the subject in late 2023. However, researchers found that, despite this trend, adoption looks to have been relatively shallow and limited to a few tools.

“This would imply relatively limited transformative impacts to date for most AI-adopting firms,” said the ONS in its release about the figures. 

The ONS numbers represent the 396,000 businesses in the “Wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles” category, 54% of which are retail businesses, so some of the effect here may be down to the broad categorisation. The research also showed that larger firms were more likely to have adopted AI than smaller ones.  

Major retailers have become clearer about their AI plans of late. Data from the Retail Week AI Investment Tracker shows that Retail Week has reported on 38 examples of retailers using AI in 2026, up from 26 in 2025 despite being just over halfway through the year. 

The figures chime with separate research earlier this year by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology that also showed retailers were reluctant to embrace the tech. In that study, retail and distribution businesses were among the most likely to say they do not use and have no plans to use AI.

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