PA Consulting report reveals how UK can scale…

UK businesses believe they are twice as innovative as they actually are, according to a new report by PA Consulting (PA). Based on a nationally representative survey of 4,595 UK businesses – commissioned by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) – PA’s report reveals how the UK can better scale innovation to unlock national growth.

While the UK is rich in breakthrough ideas and technologies – from AI and biotech to sustainable sourcing and quantum computing – it struggles to scale them to drive economic growth, benefit communities, and boost global competitiveness. Currently, 97% of UK patents fail to generate commercial returns. The report identifies the key barriers preventing the adoption of 20 critical technologies and outlines how the UK can scale innovation more effectively to boost productivity and growth.

Key findings include:

Perception vs. reality: Many UK businesses overestimate their innovation credentials. Almost half (47%) that are yet to adopt any of the 20 critical technologies still rank themselves between seven and 10 on an innovativeness scale. Similarly, 25% of businesses think they are more innovative than their competitors, despite adopting fewer technologies than their sector average. This disconnect points to a complacency among UK PLC and a serious underestimation of the new technologies needed to stay competitive and meet tomorrow’s challenges.
Barriers to adoption: Regulation is cited as the top barrier to adoption for 19 out of 20 technologies. Cost, data privacy, and integration challenges also feature prominently. While it takes numerous enablers to drive adoption, the study found it often only takes one barrier to stop it, pointing to the opportunity for a targeted approach to remove obstacles.
Room for improvement: Less than one in four businesses (24%) have successfully sold even one technology as part of their products or services. Yet the appetite for change is strong: 81% of businesses across all sectors are actively seeking to increase their uptake of innovative technologies. Medium and large enterprises are five times more likely to adopt new technologies than smaller firms, and international activity is strongly correlated with higher adoption rates.

To improve innovation adoption, the report offers three key recommendations:

Mobilise with a mission. The report calls for innovation to be rooted in real-world outcomes and national or local growth priorities. It recommends a shift from abstract ambition to focusing on tangible missions – such as achieving net zero by 2050, improving public services, or boosting national security.
Accelerate through an adoption pathway. The report highlights that the public sector must act as the connective tissue across the UK’s innovation ecosystem. Financial support, like increased government R&D spend, is important – but so too is non-financial support, from impartial advice to access to testbeds to smarter government procurement.
Back races, not horses. It’s not just about the tech itself, but how and where it’s being used. Rather than betting on individual technologies, policymakers should focus on where technology adoption is happening to support high-growth areas. This means investing with a portfolio lens and tackling specific adoption barriers like cost, acquisition, or integration head on.

The UK has no shortage of world-class ideas and technologies, but unless we scale them, we won’t see the productivity and growth gains we urgently need. Done well, innovation has huge potential to unlock productivity, boost economic growth, and raise the UK’s competitiveness. Yet success depends not just on invention, but on widespread adoption – and that doesn’t happen by accident. It needs the right infrastructure in place. As the report shows, mobilising around missions, building adoption pathways, and backing the right races could be a game-changer for UK ingenuity and economic growth.”

Conrad Thompson Innovation adoption expert, PA

Methodology

This report is based on a survey designed in collaboration with PA Consulting, DSIT, and DSIT’s project steering board, which included representatives from government, academia, and the third sector. The full analysis, aimed at private sector businesses, is available via DSIT. The survey captured responses from 4,595 individuals across a range of UK businesses, spanning different sectors, sizes, and regions. The 20 technologies and ideas explored in the survey were identified by DSIT in close collaboration with the Government Office for Science (GO-Science) and Innovate UK: