Despite a significant push for artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across UK enterprises, a new report by Nitro, a global leader in AI-powered document solutions, indicates that employees are still losing a full day's work each week to manual document processing. The findings highlight a growing disparity between high-level AI ambitions and the day-to-day realities faced by the workforce.
The research, based on a survey of over 1,300 enterprise leaders, including frontline managers and C-suite executives, reveals that AI is considered a high or critical priority for 84% of executives. Furthermore, 85% of these executives state that AI has already been deployed across some or all of their organisations. However, this top-down enthusiasm doesn't always translate to the operational level, with only 54% of managers rating AI as a high priority and just over half reporting its deployment within their own teams.
A key finding from the report, titled "The State of AI in Document Workflows", is that despite increased AI presence, the manual workload has not diminished. Executives estimate that a typical employee spends an average of six hours per week on manual document tasks, with a substantial 41% estimating this figure to be between 11 and 15 hours. This includes the persistent need for print-sign-scan workflows, which 96% of organisations still require for at least some documents, contributing significantly to lost productivity.
Cormac Whelan, CEO of Nitro, commented on the situation, stating that while deploying AI might seem straightforward in 2026, the real challenge lies in delivering secure, scalable time and cost savings. He attributes the productivity gap to the predominant investment in general-purpose AI tools that are not specifically designed to handle the intricate document processing and workflows inherent in modern business environments. This often leads to employees using standalone AI tools, such as copying and pasting between platforms like ChatGPT or Claude and their document stacks, rather than achieving seamless, end-to-end automation.
The report also identifies tool sprawl as a compounding issue, with 72% of organisations utilising six or more distinct document tools, and 31% using 11 or more. This complexity is driving a universal desire for consolidation, with 95% of executives actively evaluating or planning to consolidate their document tools in 2026, and 75% of managers considering or actively evaluating consolidation within the next 12 months. For C-suite executives, the primary driver for switching document vendors is better AI and automation capabilities, whereas managers are more focused on cost, followed by security and AI capabilities.
Security and trust concerns remain the most significant barrier to broader AI deployment, cited by 49% of executives and 54% of managers. Over half of executives express extreme concern about employees processing sensitive documents through AI, a concern validated by 55% of managers who confirm that sensitive documents are indeed being handled by consumer AI tools, yet only 43% report having a clear, enforced AI policy in place. This indicates a critical need for integrated, secure, and purpose-built AI solutions that can truly embed automation into existing workflows.