Almost two-thirds of British jobs could be “enhanced” with AI, Google has claimed, with only a tiny proportion at risk of being “phased out” entirely.
Instead of worrying about job losses caused by AI, the focus needed to be on making sure the millions of Britons who could work in smarter and faster ways with AI tech got the support to use it, the company said.
“Fewer than 50% of people are actually taking advantage of these tools in their working life on a day to day basis,” said Debbie Weinstein, managing director of Google UK. “The uptake of these tools is very low, and I think the only way we’re going to unlock the potential of what AI can do is actually by getting people to use them, and to feel confident and capable about them.”
According to research from the thinktank Public First, commissioned by Google, 61% of British jobs will be “radically” transformed by AI, with just 31% “insulated” from the technology – defined as having fewer than a quarter of their workplace tasks with the potential to be automated.
Those insulated jobs would overwhelmingly be in social care, transport, accommodation and food services, where complex and varied physical tasks were achievable only by human workers, Public First said.
Just a handful of jobs were likely to be fully “phased out” by the introduction of AI, the thinktank estimated. Even the most affected sector, financial and insurance, is forecast to lose just 4% of jobs, with 83% “enhanced” instead.
Public First’s findings are similar to recent research from the Tony Blair Institute. The thinktank drew up its estimates by using an AI model “to classify over 17,000 types of work tasks by the potential for generative AI to either significantly reduce the time taken to do them, or automate them entirely”.
Given the research, Google is partnering with the Community union, the small-business network Enterprise Nation, and a pair of multi-academy trusts to try to crack how best to introduce AI technology into typical workplaces in a way that boosts workers’ abilities rather than replaces them.
Weinstein said: “Part of what’s tricky about us talking about it now is that we actually don’t know exactly what’s going to transpire. What we do know is the first step is going to be sitting down [with the partners] and really understanding the use cases. If it’s school administrators versus people in the classroom, what are the particular tasks we actually want to get after for these folks?
“If you are a school teacher some of it might be a simple email with ideas about how to use Gemini in lesson planning, some of it might be formal classroom training, some of it one on one coaching. Across 1,200 people there will be a lot of different pilots, each group with around 100 people.”
The government backs the trial, with Minister for AI, Feryal Clark MP, saying: “Speeding up the diffusion of AI throughout our economy will be key to kickstarting growth, transforming our public services, and delivering new opportunities for working people across the country. Just as important, is making sure we bring people along with us and build a workforce which is fit for the future by delivering the AI skills training which will help careers to flourish and businesses to grow – this will help us do just that.”
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Public First estimates potential gains of more than £400bn for the UK economy if AI were adopted to its fullest over the next six years, equivalent to an annual growth rate of 2.6% from the technology alone.
It says that 100 hours a year could be saved by the average British worker using generative AI, a gain which, Google claims, is the biggest improvement to worker productivity “since the arrival of Google Search”.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, on Tuesday reported surging profits and revenues, as well as a $70bn stock buyback. Its AI exploits this year came under scrutiny when it botched the rollout of its Gemini AI image-generator tool, which led to investor fears about its investments in artificial intelligence products.
However, it doubled down on showcasing its investments in AI during its annual developers’ conference in May. Among the AI-related features and tools it debuted was an attempt to overhaul Google Search through the widespread release of AI Overviews, short pieces of text that summarise articles and search results. AI Overviews have faced heavy criticism, including from publishers who argue that it will reduce traffic to their own sites.