Jobs Juggernaut - 3 in 4 expect job losses from AI - 10 million believe their job could be replaced in five years
Polling from FocalData x Jimmy's Jobs
Alongside Focaldata, Jimmy’s Jobs have polled 2,000 of the British public on what they think the impact of AI will be on jobs, and the results are startling.
Three quarters of Britons expect job losses from AI, with almost 1 in 3 thinking AI could be doing their job in five years time.
With there being 33 million people employed in the UK, that would equate to TEN MILLION people thinking their job could be done by AI in just five years time.
The exclusive poll of over 2,000 people was conducted by FocalData between 20th-24th October 2023. Here are its key findings:
Despite all the publicity, 55% of the British public have not used ChatGPT
Sectors most likely to impacted include the creative industries and financial services
62% think jobs will be lost in media and communications (!)
On the role of government:
64% believe that government should intervene to prevent the destruction of jobs by AI
Nearly 1 in 3 think a robot replacing a job should be taxed - but are unsure about where the tax burden should fall.
However, the public believe that it should be employers that provide the training and not the Government, although that is failing to happen now.
As more than 3/4 say employers have not provided training in 2023.
And the majority of those that have provided training, it is less than half a day.
Over 40% think it is important that employers provide training
When it comes to regulation of AI overall, there are some very punchy statistics ahead of the summit at Bletchley Park this week.
60% believe AI should be more regulated
Half think that humans could not control a super AI
Overall this word cloud captures people’s emotions on AI
Thoughts and comments
I commissioned this survey because I think how we prepare people for the world of work, will be one of the defining issues of the 21st century.
If it was raw materials and geography that powered our economies in the 19th and 20th centuries, it will be knowledge that powers us in the 21st. Countries have to find a way to harness all the talent available to them.
I also think there needs to be greater recognition of the private sector and business, of those ten million jobs that could be replaced in the next five years, it will be predominantly business leaders and entrepreneurs that create replacements.
What I find particularly striking is how alive the British public are to job losses, 3 in 4 think there will be job losses. However, 9 in 20 have not tried and played with ChatGPT, that shows an enormous cavern that employers and government need to solve.
How many people in the year 2000 would have not tried Google?
It’s clear that government has a role in shaping the future and place of AI in the workplace, with a majority thinking that they should intervene to prevent the destruction of jobs by AI.
60% believe that AI should be more regulated, and in the context of the government’s AI Summit taking place this week, I hope that further clarification on what this could look like will be shared.
One of the benefits of Brexit, could be regulatory innovation, we have the potential to position ourselves between the relaxed approach of the USA, the autocratic approach of China and the flat footed nature of the European Union.
As a sizeable economy that is trusted across the world (particular its legal framework) with flexible and nimble regulation, the opportunities for the UK to be at the forefront are there.
The fact that the PM has appointed senior advisers from the world of business and entrepreneurship is an encouraging step. There has never been a more critical or better time for the UK to step up and shape the debate. Seeing what comes out of the summit this week will be fascinating. We will be writing, so please make sure you subscribe to this email here.
Many thanks to FocalData for provide deep insight at lightning speed.
Interview requests / Editor’s Notes
For interview requests with Jimmy please contact Laura Dunn on lauraemilydunn@gmail.com or hello@jobsofthefuture.co
Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future was established in 2020 by Jimmy McLoughlin OBE, a former special advisor to the Prime Minister on business, technology and entrepreneurship.
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