Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in the UK’s healthcare sector is set to outpace education by 2026, according to new global research released by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organisation.
The study, The Impact of Technology in 2026 and Beyond: an IEEE Global Study, reveals that UK technologists expect healthcare to be among the top three industries most transformed by AI, with 52 percent of respondents ranking it behind only banking and finance (62 percent) and software (54 percent).
Globally, healthcare also ranked in the top three, though slightly lower at 37 percent, underscoring a consistent trend of AI-driven transformation in medical innovation and delivery.
In contrast, the UK’s education sector appears less optimistic about near-term disruption. Just eight percent of UK respondents included education in their top three sectors most impacted by AI – well below the global average of 14 percent. However, 40 percent of UK technologists believe that by 2026, AI will most commonly be used in education to power customised learning, intelligent tutoring systems and university chatbots, a figure notably ahead of the global average of 29 percent.
In healthcare, 28 percent of UK respondents said accelerating disease mapping and drug discovery would be among the most impactful AI use cases by 2026, compared with 23 percent globally.
Agentic AI Enters the Consumer Mainstream
The IEEE report highlights a surge in the adoption of “agentic AI”—a new generation of smart assistants capable of performing complex tasks independently.
Described as “a smart assistant that, when given a task, can work independently, but still needs its work double-checked,” agentic AI is forecast to reach mass or near-mass consumer adoption by 2026, used for tasks ranging from scheduling to privacy management.
Globally, technologists expect consumers to use agentic AI for:
- Personal assistant and family calendar management (52 percent)
- Data privacy management (45 percent)
- Health monitoring (41 percent)
- Errand and chore automation (41 percent)
- News and information curation (36 percent)
Ninety-six percent of global respondents agree that “agentic AI innovation, exploration and adoption will continue at lightning speed in 2026,” as both start-ups and established enterprises deepen their investment.
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Data Analyst Hiring Boom on the Horizon
The rise of agentic AI is expected to drive a significant increase in demand for data analysts and AI specialists.
According to IEEE, 91 percent of global technologists agree that the use of AI to analyse larger volumes of data will grow in 2026, “spurring a data analyst hiring boom to analyse the accuracy of results, transparency and vulnerabilities.”
The top skills expected to be in demand for AI-related roles include AI ethical practices (44 percent), data analysis (38 percent), and machine learning (34 percent).
AI to Transform Key Technology Sectors
Beyond healthcare and education, AI’s influence is set to accelerate across multiple technology domains.
More than half (52 percent) of technologists believe robotics will be the area most influenced by AI in 2026, followed by extended reality (36 percent) and autonomous vehicles (35 percent).
IEEE also found that 51 percent of global respondents expect 26–50 percent of jobs across the global economy to be augmented by AI software in 2026.
As organisations race to scale up AI infrastructure, 49 percent of technologists predict it will take five to seven years to build out the global data centre capacity required to meet demand.
Governance and Integration: “Full Speed Ahead”
When asked about AI governance, most technology leaders said their organisations plan to integrate AI rapidly while aligning policies with government regulations. Nearly half (49 percent) of respondents whose companies build their own AI systems said it’s “full speed ahead,” compared with 40 percent who use third-party AI tools.
Generative AI, meanwhile, is moving from experimentation to business integration:
- 39 percent of technologists said they will use generative AI “regularly but selectively” by 2026 – up 20 percent from the prior year.
- 35 percent said they are “rapidly integrating” AI and already seeing measurable bottom-line results.
