In this report, techUK spotlights cases of how AI can and is supporting people at work, boosting the quality of products and services, and improving business processes across the economy. Despite a mixed adoption picture, there is a clear indication of how AI can transform work in every business, enabling and reducing the frictions of flexible work, and driving innovation in fields and functions as diverse as human resources, customer service, marketing and sales, finance, healthcare, and sustainability.
The future of work will be AI-enabled. In the workplace, working with or alongside technology like AI will feel as normal as using email; in some organisations it already is. Businesses and workers will need to adapt to an increasingly AI-powered economy and almost half of workers will need to retrain in the next decade.
Whilst discussions around the impact of AI on work often focus on machines replacing humans, the reality is that humans will increasingly work alongside machines and AI in the future workplace. New developments in generative AI and its integration into software tools is enabling people to interact with and use advanced AI in an intuitive, user-friendly way. The combined power of humans and AI will drive productivity and free up time for workers to exercise their human skills, creativity, and expertise to deliver more value as technology increasingly helps people do their work.
As the technology proliferates, AI will displace some jobs, augment others, and create new ones. However, the long-term impact of AI on jobs is hard to forecast, and it is not yet clear which job roles or tasks will be displaced. This report does not make explicit predictions about the impact on specific job roles.
What is clear is that as AI and rapid developments in technology transform work, they will change the types of jobs comprising the labour market with it, meaning the skills need of the future is uncertain and evolving. Many of the jobs of the future are yet to be invented.
To adapt to changing demands, supporting workers to access lifelong learning opportunities will be imperative. These opportunities will need to embrace flexible training and short modular courses that are best placed to aid worker transitions and encourage continuous learning in a changing market, drawing upon existing industry training and courses.