AI adoption is not leading to widespread job losses across UK businesses, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The latest ONS Artificial Intelligence in UK businesses report found that firms are three times more likely to retrain employees to work alongside AI, rather than replace them or reduce employee headcount.
AI adoption among UK businesses with 10 or more employees has almost tripled since late 2023, rising from around 12% to 35%.
Larger organisations are shown to be leading the way on AI adoption as 49% of those with 250 or more employees report use of at least one AI technology, compared to 28% of businesses with up to nine employees.
Despite this sweeping uptake in AI usage and adoption within the workplace, there remains little evidence so far that increased AI adoption is translating into widespread job losses.
ONS figures show that businesses are far more likely to use AI to improve operations, rather than reduce staffing levels.
In the report, when asked how AI was being used internally, ‘improving business processes’ was recorded as the most common use – and reported by over 60% of larger businesses.
Fewer than one in 15 businesses report reducing employee headcount as a result of AI, while around half report no change at all. Only 1% of the smallest businesses and 1.2% of the largest businesses report increasing headcount as a direct result of AI.
Alongside this, businesses most commonly report integrating AI skills into their workforce through training or retraining existing staff, with over 60% saying they do so to reduce barriers to AI expertise within their workforce.
