Why Enterprises Are Ringfencing AI Budgets for Accessibility

Enterprise AI spending is no longer experimental. It’s strategic.

Across industries, enterprises are carving out dedicated budgets for artificial intelligence data or cybersecurity. Content and communication and becoming major items in AI budget planning. And with accessibility regulations tightening across regions, more teams are finally tapping into their AI budget for accessibility.

This article explores why AI investment is accelerating, how accessibility teams can benefit from these funds, and why accessibility tools are now part of the enterprise tech stack.

Accessibility Gets a Share of the AI Budget

According to IBM, enterprise spending on AI is expected to grow 52% in the next year alone. EY’s research shows senior leaders are seeing real returns on investment, prompting a shift from exploratory pilots to long-term funding. Meanwhile, Omdia reports that 16% of enterprise IT budgets are now allocated specifically to AI.

That shift opens new doors for teams across the organisation — including those focused on media, content, and compliance.

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More accessibility leaders now report having a clear AI budget for accessibility — enabling them to test tools, automate workflows, and meet compliance requirements without jumping through procurement hoops.

With WCAG and EAA standards in sharper focus, having dedicated funds isn’t just a luxury. It’s becoming essential. Missing these standards can lead to EAA complaints, opening the door to legal, financial, and reputational risks.

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What’s Driving the Shift Toward Dedicated AI Budgets

With growing pressure to prove ROI and accelerate adoption, many companies are ringfencing specific funds for AI pilots. This shift streamlines procurement, shortens testing cycles, and ensures the right teams can move fast — including those working on content, communication, and accessibility.

Let’s look at what’s driving this shift.

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Competitive Advantage

To stay ahead, enterprises are prioritising tools that offer differentiation — and AI is a core part of that strategy.

According to the KPMG AI Pulse Survey (Q2 2024), 71% of executives believe that gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage relies heavily on AI.

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For accessibility teams, this means faster access to tools that reduce manual effort, like automated captioning, transcription, and compliance checks. These tasks have traditionally been time-consuming and inconsistent when done by hand, making them a natural fit for AI-driven workflows.

By streamlining low-value work, teams can focus more on quality, strategy, and inclusive design, while staying aligned with legal requirements.

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Productivity Gains

AI is all about doing more with what you have.

By automating repetitive tasks, AI frees up teams to focus on higher-impact work. That’s why EY’s research shows a clear link between AI adoption and operational efficiency.

Tasks like transcription, captioning, accessibility checks, checking colour contrast, and detecting flashes are still largely done by hand or rely on the human eye in many organisations. These reviews can be slow, prone to inconsistency, and difficult to scale, particularly as video content grows.

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Automated tools now make it possible to flag issues, suggest corrections, and apply formatting in a fraction of the time. Some workflows still include a human review step, but AI handles the heavy lifting, freeing teams to focus on strategy, messaging, and impact.

It’s not just time saved. It’s friction removed.

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Enhanced Customer Engagement

Personalised, accessible media can deepen engagement across all audiences — including those often left out.

With Genpact’s study warning that enterprises have just two years to unlock GenAI’s full potential, teams are under pressure to build trust and reach broader audiences fast.

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Well-chosen AI tools ensure every customer touchpoint is accessible — a powerful way to demonstrate brand values, reduce churn, and expand reach.

AI isn’t just powering better marketing. It’s powering more inclusive communication.

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Talent Retention

Modern teams want modern tools.

Offering AI-enhanced workflows can improve employee satisfaction and reduce burnout, especially for roles that traditionally required time-consuming manual checks.

This change streamlines accessibility reviews, helping video, comms, and compliance teams feel empowered, not buried in tasks.

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When the tools work for your people, your people work better for you.

As these drivers converge, the message is clear: the best time to invest in accessibility AI is now — before the gap between leaders and laggards becomes too wide.

How AI Accessibility Budgets Are Being Used

Not long ago, accessibility teams had to fight for every budget line. Now? They’re being handed AI funding — with one clear expectation: show results fast.

Across organisations, these funds are enabling teams to move faster, reduce overhead, and meet compliance goals more efficiently. Here's how those budgets are being put to use.

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Automating Accessibility Workflows

More teams now report having access to an AI budget for accessibility, helping them move faster and with fewer internal blockers. What used to be a months-long funding request is increasingly becoming a standard line item in AI pilot programs. The tools being used are often lightweight, easy to implement, and capable of demonstrating early value.

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Accelerated Testing & Deployment: Instant Proof of Concept

Ringfenced AI budgets also support faster procurement and pilot launches. In environments where outcomes need to be visible quickly, tools must prove their effectiveness in days — not quarters. Uploading media, checking for issues, applying fixes, and sharing updated content — all of that is now possible in a matter of minutes.

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Productivity & Compliance: Smarter, Scalable Solutions

Before AI, accessibility reviews were often slow, manual, and expensive. That’s no longer sustainable. AI replaces labor-intensive audits with automated, WCAG- and EAA-aligned workflows — giving teams back hours per asset and reducing compliance risks.

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Customer Engagement & Risk Mitigation: Accessible Media, Everywhere

As more customer journeys include video, accessibility becomes a reputational and legal must-have — especially under regulations like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and WCAG. Ensuring that media content is inclusive by default helps teams meet regulatory expectations while strengthening audience trust.

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The Risk of Waiting Too Long

Enterprises that delay AI investment — or silo it strictly within IT — are already seeing the effects: missed automation gains, slower content workflows, and growing accessibility gaps.

As regulations like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) move toward enforcement, these gaps become liabilities.

And while early adopters are scaling inclusive content strategies with the help of AI, late movers risk falling behind — on both compliance and customer experience.

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If your team has access to an AI budget, this is the time to use it.

Accessibility tools like Subly don’t just improve workflows — they ensure your content reaches more people, meets legal standards, and reflects your brand’s commitment to inclusion.

Start by checking your media with Subly’s AI Accessibility Checker — and see how fast accessible becomes scalable.

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