The majority of UK businesses will be upping their spend on artificial intelligence (AI) between now and 2020, new figures show.

Research carried out as part of Deloitte's Digital Disruption Index found that 85 per cent of companies plan to increase their investment in this area over the next couple of years.

In 2017 alone, 30 per cent of survey respondents said they would be spending over £10 million on new digital technologies, with more than half of those questioned reporting that they will be investing sums in this region on virtual reality, blockchain, cloud and robotics technology before 2020.

Deloitte also found that executives believe AI will be the tech to have the biggest impact on their organisation in the future, but investment in this so far remains modest, with just 22 per cent spending on AI already. This therefore suggests that investment in this area by brands is set to soar in the near future.

Paul Thompson, UK digital transformation leader at Deloitte, commented: "Humans working with AI will achieve better outcomes than AI alone and UK businesses need to get this careful balance right."