51% of surveyed employers consider hiring talent with AI skills and experience a priority. However, nearly three-quarters (71%) of these employers say that they can’t find the talent they need. Only 14% of UK workers consider themselves to have ‘advanced’ fluency in AI, and over half (52%) categorised themselves as having ‘basic’ or ‘nascent’ AI fluency. In short, the survey confirms that employers face an AI skills gap that can only be addressed through training and education programmes.
However, there are barriers hindering AI upskilling efforts of existing employees. For example, employers find that the top barrier in providing AI skills training to employees is the lack of knowledge of AI skills required by employees (74%), lack of knowledge on how to implement an AI training programme (71%), and the lack of time for employees to pick up AI skills outside of work responsibilities (69%). For employees, top barriers to building AI skills include the lack of knowledge of the possible career paths where AI would be useful (73%), lack of knowledge of the AI skills training programmes available (72%), and the lack of knowledge of the AI skills required (69%).
The survey also reveals that employers are not solely focused on workers with technical skills such as coding. In fact, soft skills like critical and creative thinking are even more in demand by employers. This can be seen by how 53% of surveyed employers ranked critical thinking and complex problem solving as one of the top three most important skills required to use AI tools in 2028, compared to only 42% for technical skills like coding.
