Full Breakdown
AI Impact on UK Jobs Prompts Government Call for Contingency Planning
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Government Warning and Ministerial Response
He noted that, to date, there is no evidence of an overall reduction in employment attributable to AI, but said preparing a contingency plan for worst-case scenarios is a priority.
Expert Projections and Risk Assessment
Carsten Jung, senior fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), warned that AI could affect millions of jobs. He argued that “in a worst case scenario you could have about 8 million jobs being negatively affected by this.” “In a worst case scenario you could have about 8 million jobs being negatively affected by this.” — Carsten Jung Jung said the IPPR is drafting a “pandemic preparedness” style report on AI-driven labour disruption and cautioned that current estimates may understate the speed of AI evolution from routine to high-level reasoning tasks.
Potential Scale of Disruption
- 8 million jobs could be negatively affected in a worst-case scenario (Jung).
- 11 % of UK jobs are currently “highly exposed” to replacement by AI chatbots, especially secretarial and administrative roles (Jung).
- The share of tasks at risk could rise to about 60 % of tasks across the UK economy as more sophisticated agentic AI spreads (Jung).
- Women are 40 % more exposed than men, reflecting higher employment in service occupations (Jung).
Policy Options Discussed
Narayan and Jung both emphasized the need for rapid retraining programmes for service-sector workers. Jung suggested redesigning tax structures to make retaining staff financially more attractive than automating roles. He also warned that extensive mitigation measures would be costly for a service-heavy economy like the UK’s. Both speakers highlighted the tension between encouraging AI innovation and preventing severe labour market disruption.