Agentic AI adoption is high on the agenda for U.K. business leaders, but is ambition turning into action?
In this CX Today interview, Nicole Willing speaks with Russell Tilsed, UK VP at RingCentral, about new RingCentral research into how businesses are adopting AI-powered digital workers and agentic AI. The findings point to a clear gap between interest and execution, particularly in the U.K..
According to the research, only 16 percent of U.K. firms have fully deployed AI-powered digital workers. By comparison, adoption in the U.S. appears to be significantly further ahead, with Tilsed referencing a figure of around 45 percent. For customer experience and contact center leaders, that difference raises an important question: what is holding U.K. organizations back from agentic AI adoption?
Tilsed suggests there is no single answer. Instead, he points to a mix of trust, security, legacy infrastructure and fragmented decision-making. In many organizations, AI still sits awkwardly between technology strategy and business transformation. That can make it difficult to determine who should own the agenda, whether that is the C-suite, IT, security, operations, or customer experience leadership.
Yet Tilsed is clear that the businesses making progress are not starting with the technology itself. They are starting with the problem they need to solve. Rather than beginning with data estates, customer relationship management systems, or AI tooling, he argues that leaders should first identify the workflows that need improvement. From there, they can assess where AI agents can reduce friction, support employees, and create measurable productivity gains.
The productivity opportunity is significant. Tilsed describes AI as having the potential to become “another industrial revolution” if organizations deploy it in the right way. He shares examples from outside the U.K., including a large restaurant chain achieving productivity gains of up to 250 percent and conversational AI in mental health delivering productivity improvements of just under half.
The interview also explores one of the biggest barriers to adoption: employee concern. RingCentral’s research suggests fear of job loss falls sharply once AI agents are deployed, dropping from 45 percent among organizations that have not adopted the technology to 23 percent among those that have.
Tilsed’s message to U.K. leaders is direct: start with the business problem, appoint empowered decision-makers and move beyond the pilot phase. Watch the full interview above for advice on turning AI ambition into measurable business impact.
