Generative AI is likely to threaten the jobs of management consultants and business analysts the most in the UK, according to the impact of AI on UK jobs and training report published by the country’s Department for Education’s Unit for Future Skills.
Workers in London and South East of the UK are likely to be the most impacted by generative AI. North East, on the other hand, is likely to be least impacted by AI in the UK, the report said.
The report is one of the first attempts to quantify the impact of AI on the UK job market. It uses a methodology developed by US academicians to find out the industries, occupations, and geographical areas likely to be most impacted by AI as more and more companies adopt the technology.
Finance and insurance sector is the most impacted
The finance and insurance sector stands to be more impacted by AI than any other industry, according to the report. Information and communication, professional, scientific, and technical, property, public administration and defense, and education are the other industry verticals most exposed to AI.
On the other hand, accommodation and food services, motor trades, agriculture, forestry and fishing, transport and storage, and construction industries will be least impacted by AI.
The report maps the skills required in different jobs and how they could be aided by common AI applications, like image and speech recognition, translation, and language modeling. It revealed that management consultants and business analysts will be most impacted by AI, followed by accountants, psychologists, economists, and lawyers.
In addition, the impact of generative AI will be more severe in professional occupations when compared with jobs that are manual in nature and which require the least education.
“Employees with higher levels of achievement are typically in jobs more exposed to AI. For example, employees with a level 6 qualification (equivalent to a degree) are more likely to work in a job with higher exposure to AI than employees with a level 3 qualification (equivalent to A-Levels),” the report said.
Findings consistent with other reports
The findings of the report are in sync with the results of the other reports which have highlighted the anticipated impact of generative AI on the job market. “A consensus has begun to emerge from such studies that 10–30% of jobs in the UK are highly automatable,” a recent report by the British Academy said, adding that “Many new jobs will also be created.”
A recent International Labour Organization report agreed that generative AI will automate some tasks and overall is likely to play a complementary role rather than taking over the jobs entirely.
However, the report asked for the results to be interpreted with caution. “The extent to which occupations are exposed to AI will change due to the pace at which AI technologies are developing and as new data becomes available,” the report said.