Early insights from the 2026 Charity Digital Skills Report survey

How charities are using AI tools and how they feel about them

The 2026 Charity Digital Skills Report survey is live and you can complete the survey here until 5pm on Monday 20 April 2026. With responses coming in daily, we hope we will reach 672 charities again this year. Our full report will launch in July.

In the meantime, we’re thrilled to share some early insights from our first 240 responses, focusing on AI adoption.

Who has responded to the 2026 survey so far?

Our first 240 responses include a wide-ranging set of organisations from across the sector. Our sample is composed of:

• 140 small charities with an income under £1m
• 88 large charities with an income over £1m
• 97 lived experience-led organisations
• 47 infrastructure organisations
• 41 organisations which provide grants
• 209 charities based in England
• 44 charities based in Wales, 41 in Scotland and 20 in Northern Ireland.

We’re hoping to improve our responses for local charities based in the North East, North West, Midlands and East of England. We’d also love to hear from grant making trusts and foundations, as well as organisations providing grants. We have specific questions about the use of AI in this context. Please do share our survey with peers, in your newsletter or get in touch if you can help at all.

Insight 1: More charities are actively using AI tools

Yet again in 2026, we’re seeing an increase in the use of AI across the charity sector. AI tools have become commonplace, with 88% of charities saying AI tools are used in their day-to-day work. This has grown from 76% in 2025 and 61% in 2024. Meanwhile, 46% of charities are now actively or strategically using AI, nearly double the 25% in 2025.

Notably, there is now little difference in AI adoption between small and large charities, with similar proportions actively and strategically using AI tools. There was a clear gap in 2025, with 89% of large charities versus 72% of small using AI. This gap has now closed.

In the year ahead, charities are likely to be using AI more effectively. 60% of charities now have, or are developing, an AI policy, up from 48% in 2025. While only 4% are currently using AI strategically, a quarter of charities are looking to do so. 28% have developed, or are developing, an AI strategy, up from 22% last year.

Insight 2: Charities are mainly using AI to reduce administrative burden

Organisationally, charities are mainly using AI in the following functions and areas of work:

1. Administration and project management. 71% of charities are using AI for tasks such as creating meeting notes, managing tasks and writing reports. This has increased significantly from 48% in 2025.
2. Social media is the second most common use of AI tools, with 40% of charities using AI to create content, including posts, images and video.
3. Monitoring and evaluation is a growing use case for AI tools, with 39% of charities using AI tools now, up from 17% last year.
4. Grant fundraising continues to be supported by AI tools, but this has remained stable at 37%.

Interestingly, 29% of charities are also currently using, or exploring using, AI agents. These are AI tools that can carry out multi-step tasks with some level of autonomy, such as monitoring inboxes, updating systems, triggering actions, or coordinating workflows.

The use of AI is less common in more specialist and strategic functions, but this is clearly shifting. For example, 18% are now using AI tools in strategy, planning and predictive analysis (e.g. scenario modelling, forecasting demand). This has grown from 9%. A third of charities (33%) also now use AI to support governance and compliance (e.g. policy drafting, board reporting, regulatory monitoring).

We are also starting to see a small shift in the role of AI in service delivery, with 13% of charities using AI tools in their services (e.g. chatbots, needs assessments, signposting). This has increased from 7% in 2025.

Many charities have given examples of where they have seen the benefits of AI:

“We are seeing people saving time through using AI for tasks across personal and team productivity and a lot of staff are using it for critical thinking and ideation. We are building integrations to our CRM.”

 

“I find the built in note-taking and meeting transcription help me as an autistic person to process information, which is easier to do when it is written rather than spoken.”

 

“It’s revolutionised our online offering. It’s saved us a huge amount of money on development of a new service platform for our beneficiaries. Before we didn’t have a joined-up service for all beneficiaries online … now we do.”

Insight 3: Growing concerns about skills, quality and relationships with AI tools

Charities are now at the stage where limited digital skills are key barriers to using AI tools effectively, responsibly and strategically. The biggest barriers charities face to moving forward with AI are currently:

• Limited skills and a lack of technical expertise. This is the biggest barrier for 55% of charities, both large and small, up from 43% last year.
• Quality concerns (accuracy in AI-generated answers) are holding 49% of charities back from using AI tools further. This has risen from 33% last year. For 67% of large charities, this is the biggest barrier they face.
• Data privacy, GDPR and security concerns are preventing 49% of charities, both large and small, from moving forward with AI adoption. Again, this has increased slightly from 43% in 2025.

It is also worth noting that concerns about energy use and environmental impact are also rising (39%, from 26% last year), as well as the potential for bias and discrimination (38%, up from 32% last year) and ethical and human rights concerns (35%, up from 28% last year).

In our open question about the challenges of AI adoption, responses highlighted tensions surrounding AI use. These highlight that AI tools are changing the nature of day-to-day work and relationships.

“I am concerned about the ethical and environmental impact. I also don’t want to lose our human heart and the skills that we bring to our work. In my work I see a lot of organisations overly relying on AI, producing hard to read, nonsense slop and I don’t want that for us.”

 

“There are elements of the team that are now ‘trapped’ by it, and feel as if they can’t do their job without it. Some don’t feel as if they are working with a human, and are working with an AI version of a human’s thoughts. This is disconcerting for many, and could create deeper division in the team.”

 

“Clients are being misinformed then challenging the correct information we provide saying ‘that’s not what ChatGPT told me’.”

To help address these barriers, the sector-wide support that charities say will help most are:

• Training for leaders and trustees (64%)
• Training for staff and volunteers (62%)
• AI tools developed by and for the sector (53%)
• Sector guidance on responsible AI use and examples (53%).

It is noteworthy that funding for AI tools and adoption is a slightly lower priority for most charities (43%). Linked to this concern, 10% of respondents so far say they are undertaking influencing and advocacy work for safe and responsible AI development. 9% are upskilling clients or organisations to use AI tools more and safely and 8% are carrying out research about AI use, experiences or impacts.

“There are also concerns that come up in conversations with colleagues and peers about the potential impact of AI on people’s work, creativity, and energy. Because of this, we have been cautious about relying too heavily on it and are still exploring how it can be used responsibly.”

 

“Some of our campaigning and advocacy work is against the government’s use of AI in migration and policing, so we need to ensure our internal use reflects our values around societal use.”

These findings highlight that charities are focusing on how to adopt AI tools in line with their values and culture.

What next?

In our full report, we’ll share more about the digital progress organisations have made, funding needs and digital inclusion. We’ll also look at any differences in responses across the country, as well as for organisations led by specific population groups.

There’s still time to share your experiences and views! You can complete the survey here until 5pm on Monday 20 April 2026. Please also pass this on to other charities, share this with any networks you are part of and include it in any newsletters you publish.

71% of respondents said the survey helped them think about what they need to move forward.

You could win one of ten prizes for a free place on one of Media Trust’s Communications Courses. If your organisation is a registered charity, you can also enter a prize draw, for the chance to win one of five prizes of £300 unrestricted funding.

Thank you to all the organisations who have taken part so far in the report, including the following, who agreed to share their names: