Google has claimed that nearly two-thirds of British jobs could be “enhanced” by AI, with only a small proportion at risk of being “eliminated” altogether.
Rather than worrying about job losses caused by AI, the focus should be on ensuring the millions of Britons who could work smarter and faster with AI technology get the support to use it, the firm said.
“Less than 50% of people are actually using these tools in their everyday work lives,” said Debbie Weinstein, managing director of Google UK. “The adoption of these tools is very low and I think the only way to unlock the potential of what AI can do is to get people using them and feeling confident and able to do so.”
According to research by think tank Public First, commissioned by Google, 61% of British jobs will be “radically” transformed by AI, with only 31% “isolated” from the technology – meaning they will have less than a quarter of their workplace tasks potentially automated.
Such isolated jobs would be mostly in social care, transport, accommodation and food services, where complex and varied physical tasks could only be performed by human workers, Public First said.
According to the think tank’s calculations, the introduction of AI is likely to completely “phase out” only a handful of jobs. Even the hardest hit sector, finance and insurance, is projected to lose only 4% of jobs, while 83% will be “upgraded” instead.
Public First’s findings are similar to recent research from the Tony Blair Institute. The think tank drew up its estimates by using an AI model “to rank more than 17,000 types of work tasks based on the potential for generative AI to significantly reduce the time it takes to perform them or automate them entirely.”
In light of the research findings, Google is teaming up with trade union Community, small business network Enterprise Nation and a pair of multi-academy trusts to try to figure out how best to introduce AI technology into typical workplaces in a way that boosts workers’ skills rather than replacing them.
Weinstein said: “Part of what’s tricky about talking about this right now is that we don’t really know exactly what’s going to happen. What we do know is that the first step is going to be to sit down[with partners]and really understand the use cases. If it’s school administrators versus people in the classroom, what are the specific tasks that we really want to accomplish for those people?”
“If you’re a teacher, part of it might be a simple email with ideas on how to use Gemini to plan lessons, part of it might be formal classroom training, and part of it might be individual coaching. There will be many different pilots for 1,200 people, with each group having about 100 people.”
The government is backing the trial, with AI Minister Feryal Clark saying: “Accelerating the spread of AI across our economy will be critical to driving growth, transforming our public services and delivering new opportunities for workers across the country. Equally important is ensuring we onboard people and build a future-ready workforce by delivering AI skills training that helps careers thrive and businesses grow – this will help us do just that.”
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Public First estimates there would be potential gains of more than £400bn for the UK economy if AI was fully adopted over the next six years, equivalent to an annual growth rate of 2.6% for the technology alone.
According to Google, the average British worker could save 100 hours a year by using generative AI, a gain that represents the biggest improvement in worker productivity “since the arrival of Google Search.”
Google parent company Alphabet on Tuesday announced a rise in profit and revenue, as well as a $70 billion share buyback. Its AI exploits this year came under scrutiny when it botched the launch of its Gemini AI imaging tool, which sparked fears among investors on its investments in artificial intelligence products.
But at its annual developer conference in May, the company doubled down on its efforts to showcase its AI investments. Among the AI-related features and tools it unveiled was an attempt to revamp Google Search by widely releasing AI Overviews, short text snippets that summarize articles and search results. AI Overviews have come under heavy criticism, including from publishers who argue that it will reduce traffic to their own sites.