UK set to become global leader in AI, says report

Britain could become the global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the sector growing faster in the UK than in America, Canada and Australia, according to data released by job site Indeed.

In the last three years, the demand from UK employers for AI specialists (data scientists/machine learning engineers) has almost tripled, says Indeed.

Indeed’s data analysis showed there were six times more AI jobs available in Britain than the number of viable candidates. And this is despite a doubling in the number of UK jobseekers looking for AI roles.

At the beginning of this year, 1,300 out of every million UK jobs on Indeed were in AI, which is nearly double the level in Canada and around 20% more than the US.

“In the short-term, AI is providing a shot in the arm to Britain’s jobs market,” says Tara Sinclair, economist and senior fellow at Indeed. “Britain’s reputation as a tech leader has made it a natural home for the booming AI sector, and the UK’s concentration of AI jobs has risen steadily - and now outstrips that in the other major English-speaking countries. AI jobs require highly specialised skills, so it’s essential post-Brexit Britain retains the ability to attract the global talent it needs to keep its AI sector in pole position.”