As Artificial Intelligence develops at pace—accompanied by speculation and increasing alarm—policymakers are scrambling to keep up.

In the UK, the Government’s ‘pro-innovation’ AI strategy, aimed at driving growth and prosperity, has been swiftly followed by the announcement of an AI safety taskforce.

Amidst  ambitions to be world-leading and growing concerns about potential impact of AI, there is a dearth of evidence about how British businesses are actually making use of AI-enabled digital technologies.

Our new, nationally representative survey of Employers’ Digital Practices at Work aims to address this gap and bring much need light to a debate too often characterised by limited, unrepresentative evidence.

Here are six key charts that highlight the key findings

1 Only 36% of employers had invested in AI and machine-learning enabled technologies in the past five years.

2  Only 10% of the non-adopters planned to invest in AI and other new digital technologies the next two years.  This stands in sharp contrast to adopters, sixty two per cent of whom plan to increase their use of new digital technologies.  If this plays out, the digital divide between digital adopters and non-adopters looks set to widen.

3  Most employers reported finding it fairly or very difficult to find employees with the required skills and almost a third reported difficulties in retaining staff.

4  Despite this, few employers are investing in formal training, although there is more evidence of informal, on-the-job training.

5  Contrary to many fears, digital adopters were more likely to have increased jobs in the past five years and were also more positive about future jobs.

Further reading

Read the report: ‘Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey: First Findings 

Find out more about the survey and future waves