To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the workforce skills requirements arising from the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies by UK businesses.

HM Government (HMG) has undertaken an evidence-led programme to assess the workforce skills requirements arising from the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across UK businesses. This assessment is grounded in three complementary strands of work led by Skills England.

First, Skills England’s AI Skills for the UK workforce report (October 2025) provides a detailed assessment of AI skills demand across ten priority growth sectors, identifying the need for a broad spectrum of capabilities—from advanced technical expertise (such as machine learning and data engineering) to applied skills and foundational AI literacy for workers across occupations. It also highlights key barriers to meeting these needs, including limited training provision and uneven employer capability, particularly among SMEs, and introduces practical frameworks and tools to support workforce planning.

Secondly, Skills England has evaluated what constitutes effective AI upskilling in practice. The Skills for AI: What Works for AI Upskilling in the UK programme (June 2026) draws on extensive employer engagement, surveys, and case studies to demonstrate that AI is increasingly embedded in everyday work, but that organisations require support to build workforce capability. It identifies the importance of role-specific training, organisational readiness, leadership capability and responsible use, and provides a structured framework (PRIMES) to guide employers in implementing effective and inclusive AI training programmes. These findings are reinforced by wider government-commissioned research, including the AI Skills for Life and Work report (2026), which highlights that many employers report low levels of AI capability within their workforce, and that demand for AI-related skills is expected to grow significantly, with most roles requiring some level of interaction with AI.

Thirdly, these insights are integrated within HMG’s wider labour market intelligence. Skills England annual skills report and Sectoral Skills Needs Assessments 2026 provide a system-wide view of current and future skills demand across priority sectors, combining labour market projections with employer evidence. These assessments explicitly consider the impact of technological change, including AI, on occupational demand, identify skills shortages and gaps, and highlight the need for a more flexible, employer-led and evidence-driven skills system to respond to emerging requirements.