The UK's AI revolution and the future of work

The UK government's recent announcement of the AI Opportunities Action Plan is unarguably a significant milestone in the country's technological landscape. Unveiled by the Prime Minister on January 13, 2025, the aim is clearly to position the UK as a global leader in AI innovation and adoption. And we welcome this move.

Here at Engine towers* we have been reflecting on the implications of this plan and the future of jobs in the UK, so it's worth revisiting our December article on AI, the journey we’re on and how far this week’s news takes us down the path we think we need to take.  

Revisiting our predictions

Back in December, I wrote about the potential of AI to transform various industries and job roles and why that mattered in the context of a need to urgently improve productivity. We focussed on the pressing need for workers to adapt and upskill to remain relevant in an AI-driven economy. Strong start: our call for change aligns closely with the government's new action plan, which puts an emphasis on skills development and job creation in the AI sector.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan is designed to be not just about technological advancement; it's presented as a blueprint for economic growth and job creation. The government projects that this initiative will generate over 13,000 new jobs across the UK. This fits with our earlier predictions about the emergence of new roles in AI-related fields. Although it also fits with our slightly cynical expectation that it’s easier to announce money that other people are spending (the headline £14bn is all planned spending by tech firms), or re-announce money that you already announced (Department for Education’s investment developing new AI assessment tools), than it is to find new money from the Treasury just now.

But it’s worth understanding the highlights:

AI Growth Zones: These designated areas are intended to accelerate the development of AI infrastructure, potentially creating numerous jobs in construction, engineering, and technology sectors. We are excited to find out how.

Increased public computing capacity: The plan to expand public computing capacity twentyfold by 2030 will remove a lot of barriers and likely create opportunities in data centre management, network engineering, and related technical fields.

Sector-specific AI opportunities: The government plans to identify AI opportunities in key sectors like life sciences and financial services, which could lead to new specialised roles. But could also mean there will be some roundtables and a paper published. Still, it’s a start.

SME digital adoption: This is a targeted program to boost AI adoption among small and medium enterprises, which could create demand for AI consultants and implementation specialists – but might be the same programme announced by the previous government.

Emerging job opportunities

The list of government commitments is good but stops at anything that requires investment now to unlock benefits down the line, but it’s also the Right Stuff if you assume there’ll be money spent when there’s money found. And there’s still lots everyone can do to future-proof themselves and capitalise on all that AI potential.

Based on the government's announcement and our previous analysis, we can expect growth in several AI-related job categories:

• AI research and development
• Data science and analytics
• AI ethics and governance
• AI implementation specialists
• AI-assisted healthcare professionals
• AI-enhanced education roles
• AI infrastructure management
• Writing blogs about AI? No? Just me?

Addressing the skills gap

A critical component of the plan is addressing the skills gap. The government has said it intends to:

• Assess the size of the AI skills gap in the UK
• Boost AI training in schools and colleges
• Ensure workers can develop AI knowledge through the Lifetime Skills Guarantee programme

Quite right too. This approach fits with our recommendations for continuous learning and upskilling to prepare for an AI-driven job market, but this is the part where no investment could cause problems – and that’s on all of us, not just HMG. There are always things a government can do to intervene without finding lots of money: adapt curriculum content, publish standards, tweak legislation, set some fresh priorities for an old programme. Of course they all have a resource cost for everyone else to implement, but it’s essentially business as usual. And it’s the same for everyone outside central government: low cost change includes stating your intent and wanging on about it, writing a policy, reprioritising.  The challenge will be resourcing anything new, and moving at a pace and at a scale that neither the Lifetime Skills Guarantee programme nor your CPD plan was designed for: a new industrial revolution. Whatever government announces, it’s ‘go big or go home’ time.

The best thing about the announcement is arguably what it isn’t: it’s not a lot of new controls and regulation, so we can go big.

Be your best and most considerate self

While the AI Opportunities Action Plan presents exciting prospects, it's important to keep your eye on the potential challenges that haven’t gone away:

Job displacement: Some traditional roles may become obsolete. The government and businesses have to work together to manage this transition.

Ethical concerns: The rapid development of AI raises questions about data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the ethical use of AI in decision-making processes. Don’t overengineer your governance for problems that aren’t there, but find out what people are already doing and have just enough guardrails to keep everyone safe.

Inclusivity: The benefits of AI should be distributed equitably across all regions and demographics of the UK. AI has the potential to adapt to different ways of working more than any tech that has gone before – and empower home working. But if you walk past the big new Google office in Kings Cross, you have to wonder if we are really breaking the cycle of a jobs market that works best if you’re a young white guy living in London.  

Let’s keep our eye on that.

*Not a real place. This isn’t the Traitors, and I’m not Claudia.  

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