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The UK risks a growing divide between organisations who have invested in new, artificial intelligence-enabled digital technologies and those who haven’t, new research from the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) suggests.

Only 36% of UK employers have invested in AI-enabled technologies like industrial robots, chat bots, smart assistants and cloud computing over the past five years, according to a new, nationally representative survey. 

The survey, carried out between November 2021 and June 2022, also found that just 10% of employers who hadn’t already invested in AI-enabled technologies were planning to invest in the next two years.

The Employers Digital Practices at Work: First Findings report is a key output of the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. 

The Centre is co-led by the University of Sussex Business School and the University of Leeds Business School, with co-Directors Professor Jacqueline O'Reilly and Professor Mark Stuart.  

The new report is co-authored by Professor Mark Stuart (Leeds), Dr Danat Valizade (Leeds), Dr Felix Schulz (Leeds), Professor Brendan Burchell (Cambridge), Professor Richard Dickens (Sussex) and Professor Jacqueline O'Reilly (Sussex).

Low investment in digital skills

The new data also points to a growing skills problem. Less than 10% of employers anticipated a need to make an investment in digital skills training in the coming years, despite most finding it fairly or very difficult to recruit people with the right skills. Almost 60% of employers reported that none of their employees had received formal digital skills training in the past year. 

The main reasons for investing were improving efficiency, productivity and product and service quality, according to the survey. On the other hand, the key reasons for non-investment were AI being irrelevant to the business activity, wider business risks and the nature of skills demanded.

However, there was little evidence in this survey to suggest that investing in AI-enabled technology leads to job losses. In fact, digital adopters were more likely to have increased their employment in the five-year period before the survey.

Professor Jacqueline O'Reilly said: "AI is in the news every day but there has been little reliable data about the extent to which, and how, it is being used by UK employers.  This major new survey is an important, nationally representative source of data for policymakers grappling with the implications of rapidly evolving technologies."

Read the report: Digit Employers' Digital Practices at Work: First Findings

Further information: https://digit-research.org/

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