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This January, Lord Vallance provided the keynote address at our Pissarides Review Final conference. Welcoming the launch of the review, he praised the rigorous work it contained and the human-centred approach taken throughout the research.
We were pleased to have him join us, and look forward to continuing our work with DSIT and the AISI moving forward. The full text of the keynote is available to read or watch below;
https://www.youtube.com/live/up3mCLVK10o?si=Y5u1e0XJdpbjGsyo&t=1159
Good morning, it is great to be here today at the launch of this important Review.
And the timing is good. Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister launched the Government’s response to the AI opportunities action plan. We are taking forward all 50 recommendations as part of our commitment to seize the opportunities of AI to fix the foundations of the UK economy and deliver public services which are fit for the future.
We welcome the rigorous work that has been done to assess both the opportunities and impacts of AI on the future of work and wellbeing. And we welcome this being done at the level of systems, firms and individuals, and that it takes a human-centred approach
What is clear from the Review is the need for a comprehensive approach. We want to maximise the opportunities of AI and address the inevitable challenges caused by technological disruption, ensuring the benefits are felt by the entire UK workforce.
Today, I want to talk about how the Government is addressing a few of the core themes identified in the review. I particularly want to focus on some of the areas where AI can impact jobs and I will deal with standards and governance, skills, wellbeing and regional disparities.
Recent years have seen extraordinary progress in Artificial Intelligence. We know that harnessed effectively, AI has the potential to transform the lives of British people, bringing about economic renewal and boosting living standards for people across the country.
The government is optimistic about those opportunities. But if we are to adopt and use AI, businesses, consumers and workers need to know that it is safe, reliable and trustworthy.
This means that we must have the right rules in place to ensure the responsible development and use of AI.
We must think about how we embrace innovation in the AI sector, while creating a proportionate regulatory approach that can keep pace with this rapidly evolving technology.
The Government believes that the vast majority of AI systems should be regulated at the point of use. The UK already has expert regulators, who are best placed to apply rules to the use of AI in the contexts they know better than anyone else.
That’s why in our recently published response to the AI Opportunities Action Plan, the government reaffirmed its commitment to supporting regulators in evaluating their AI capabilities and understanding how these can be strengthened. And of course regulators aren’t the only ones who need to know more.
A flourishing AI assurance ecosystem is critical to giving consumers, industry and regulators confidence that AI systems work and are used as intended.
The UK is a world leader in AI governance and responsible AI adoption. Our AI assurance market already generates an estimated £1.01 billion and, looking ahead will itself be a key driver of economic growth.
Indeed the UK's assurance market is expected to reach £6.53 billion by 2035.
To accelerate growth, build industry confidence, and unlock widespread adoption of responsible AI, the Government is committed to developing of an AI assurance platform for businesses. This will provide organisations with the building blocks for responsible AI development and deployment, unlocking widespread adoption whilst ensuring the benefits of AI are shared widely and appropriately.
But even with measures to ensure responsible AI development and adoption, we of course acknowledge that AI will transform jobs and the wider labour market in the years to come. Jobs in AI, jobs using AI, jobs disrupted and changed by AI.
Between 2021 and 2023, job postings requiring AI skills already accounted for over 2% of all job adverts across the UK economy and that is accelerating very fast.
With 1.7 million people employed in AI-relevant occupations as of July 2023, and a projected employment increase of 13% by 2035, the sector’s growth is clear.
However, we also know there is a reported gap between the demand for AI skills and the current level of supply. Essential skills required for AI are relevant to many occupations, and employers are fishing from a small pool for suitable candidates.
In 2022 the Employment Skills Survey noted that there are three occupations most relevant to supporting AI, where over 50% of vacancies were due to skills-shortages. Those are: design and development engineers (58%); engineering professionals (52%) and IT specialist managers (51%).
Small businesses, which constitute 99% of the UK’s business population, struggle to compete for AI professionals due to a 14% wage premium associated with AI skills. This economic barrier necessitates improvements to essential digital skills across the board.
Moreover, gender disparity remains a significant issue, with only 22% of those employed in AI-relevant occupations being female, compared to 48% across all occupations. The lack of diversity in the AI ecosystem can result in harmful feedback loops of social bias being built into machine learning systems.
The Government will begin to address these inequalities by increasing the number and diversity of students studying AI from school through to higher education to address the AI skills gap and meet growing skills demands.
As outlined in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we want to equip workers with the right skills to do the jobs of the future, which means working with industry to identify how AI can be adopted across all sectors responsibly. The report launched today will be crucial to inform how we do this.
Work being undertaken by the GCSA and NTA on technology adoption will recommend actions to increase adoption of automation and AI across businesses
This will include a focus on equipping workers with the skills they need for the jobs in and with AI, will build a better picture of gaps in our talent pool.
Over 2025 Skills England will be working closely with DSIT and the Industrial Skills Council to bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government, to develop a clear assessment of the country’s skills needs for AI and map the pathways by which they can be filled.
Changes to the labour market are to be expected and we must remain mindful of them and their impact on people in work and those and seeking work.
Where people do face disruption in their role, the Government will support people into work and provide comprehensive support for people to find employment and access skills training. We should always remember that an aim of AI should be to increase the time available for the things that only humans can do – especially human-human interaction. It should not aim simply to displace humans but rather to enhance the role that they can play.
A labour market priority for the government is to ensure that people continue to have access to good, meaningful work. This involves adapting to structural changes in the labour market, now and in the long-term.
The Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay makes clear that workers’ interests will need to inform the digital transformation that is taking place in the workplace.
Our approach to new technologies is to protect good jobs, enable good future jobs and ensure rights and protections keep pace with technological change; safeguarding against discrimination; and putting the worker voice at the heart of Britain’s digital transition.
The plan to Make Work Pay includes two specific proposals on technology and surveillance: to examine what AI and new technologies mean for work, jobs and skills – again informed by this crucial and authoritative report; and to safeguard against invasions of privacy by making the introduction of surveillance technologies in the workplace subject to consultation and negotiation with trade union or employee representatives.
We will consult on how to implement these measures in an upcoming consultation.
We are committed to strengthening collaborative domestic and international relationships, with a spirit of partnership, and building strong, ties with partners and across the AI sector. The Government will continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders in relation to the potential impacts of new technologies on the workplace, including civil society, trade unions and business.
Under data protection law, organisations are already required to carry out Data Protection Impact Assessments for any monitoring activities which are likely to result in high risks to the rights and freedoms of employees.
We are seeking to strengthen data protection law by introducing the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which will unlock the power of data to improve people’s lives, help create a modern digital government and grow the economy.
The measures in the bill, such as new smart data schemes, digital verification services and the National Underground Asset Register, will support innovation and growth and empower customers across a range of markets.
These measures will be underpinned by a revamped Information Commissioner’s Office with a new structure and powers of enforcement - ensuring people’s personal data will be protected to high standards.
Existing data protection legislation and our proposed reforms will ensure there will be stringent safeguards in place for individuals when significant decisions are made about them using automation, including in the workplace.
Looking out at London from the tallest building in the UK, it would be remiss not to talk about how we ensure the benefits of technological advancements reach people in all corners of our country.
We’re launching AI Growth Zones across the UK — dedicated hotbeds of AI development where government support and private investment will rapidly accelerate the construction of data centres, and the infrastructure needed to power and train cutting-edge AI.
AI Growth Zones are designated areas that will rapidly accelerate AI data centre development and the needed infrastructure, ensuring no community is left behind as we harness the benefits of this revolutionary technology.
By focusing government support on planning and energy and committing to scaling each zone to 500MW in collaboration with network operators, these zones will create local jobs, attract significant private investment, and strengthen the UK’s global AI leadership – delivering opportunities for working people across the country.
These growth zones will help us deliver secure, dedicated public sector computing power that will help drive forward AI innovations.
Regional growth is of course one of the objectives of the Industrial Strategy. The Strategy will unleash the full potential of our cities and regions by attracting investment and creating the best environments for businesses to thrive.
The Industrial Strategy will concentrate efforts on places with the greatest potential for the growth-driving sectors: city regions, high-potential clusters, and strategic industrial sites.
It will take advantage of the UK’s unique strengths and untapped potential, enable the UK’s world-leading sectors to adapt and grow, and seize opportunities to lead in new sectors, with high quality, well-paid jobs.
After 14 years of stagnating living standards, only bold bets will pay off. That’s why we welcome the AI Opportunities Action Plan and are taking immediate action to take forward its 50 recommendations as part of our Plan for Change. And its why we welcome this report.
AI has the potential to change all our lives, but for too long we’ve been curious and often cautious bystanders. That changes now. We will become agents of that change, capturing AI’s full benefits and turning them into real opportunities for working people.
Thank you.
