In Understanding talent, technology and transformation – Digital Disruption Index business leaders expect AI and data analytics to have the biggest impact on their organisations in the future.

Seventy-seven per cent of respondents expect AI to disrupt their industries despite current investment being low.

When asked how AI will impact the day-to-day activities of their organisations respondents are split – just over a third believe it will be used to augment expertise with a focus on improving human decision-making, while just under a third of respondents expect AI to replace both simple and complex human roles.

Just under half surveyed expect their workforce to get smaller as they adopt AI, while 23% expect it to stay the same size.

The report’s author, Paul Thompson, partner, digital lead, said Deloitte’s view is that human and machine intelligence complement each other and that AI should not simply be seen as a substitute. Humans working with AI will achieve better outcomes than AI alone.

Very few respondents ( 9%) believe that UK headquartered companies lead the way in digital technology use and 42% of respondents do not believe they have a coherent digital strategy in place.

Senior executives expect that digital technologies will change how they engage with their customers or clients, and how they develop their products and services. But fewer see an impact on their supply chain or back office.

Thompson said: "No one doubts the importance of digital but few senior executives believe they have sufficient plans in place to exploit digital technologies and ways of working.

"Strategies are not coherent, investment levels are modest and the relevant skills are in short supply. Digital can only be successfully exploited if it forms a key component of the board’s agenda."