A YouGov poll published this month found that 47 per cent of Britons would support taxing work done by AI, while only one in five people oppose the idea.
Those are not numbers that can be ignored and they are prompting a serious question for businesses already investing in AI.
Given the speed of technological advancement and the growing focus on an AI tax, should businesses be concerned?
The conversation around a tax on AI has been building for a while internationally and in April this year OpenAI – the company behind ChatGPT – went further than most expected, publicly calling for a tax on automated labour in the United States.
This is part of a broader package that included a public wealth fund and economic triggers linked to AI-driven job losses.
South Korea introduced its own version back in 2017, not through a direct levy but by cutting tax deductions on automation investment.
The European Parliament debated a similar proposal the same year, voted it down and turned its focus to the regulatory approach that became the EU AI Act in 2024.
Britain has watched from the sidelines so far but a new domestic conversation is beginning to slowly emerge behind the scenes.
The YouGov data is striking for how broadly the support runs. Backing for an AI tax sit at between 55 and 58 per cent among Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green voters.
Equally, 38 per cent of Conservative voters support it too, compared to 27 per cent who oppose it.
Voices from the business world are adding weight to the argument, with innovators like Charles Radclyffe and others making a public case for something they describe as a minimum wage for robots.
That combination of widespread public support and entrepreneurial endorsement creates a political opportunity that political parties will not ignore.
The strongest objection is not an ideological one, but rather an economic one. A paper published by the Brookings Institution in January 2026 argued that taxing the physical and digital infrastructure underpinning AI would be the equivalent of taxing steel during the industrial revolution. In other words, it could undermine the very engine of growth the UK needs.
The concern is that a broad or poorly designed tax would push investment towards jurisdictions with lighter regulatory frameworks, leaving the UK behind countries like the US, Germany, South Korea and China that are committing heavily to AI development.
The alternative being floated by economists is a tax on the services that AI delivers rather than the technology itself.
That positions it as an output tax rather than a capital tax, closer in design to VAT. This would capture value at the point of use without deterring the underlying investment.
Nothing has been legislated for yet and there is no firm proposal on the table in the UK. However, the polling, the international precedent and the growing political interest suggest this conversation will move from background noise to front-page policy debate over the next year or two.
Watch for it in party conference speeches, Budget submissions and manifesto commitments. If legislation does come it will almost certainly begin with a fairly narrow scope and expand over time as AI becomes more essential to how businesses operate.
The reassuring point for businesses already investing in AI is that the more credible policy options being discussed would target services rather than investment.
If you would like to talk through AI investment planning in light of the current policy environment, get in touch with our team.
