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Lauren Birch speaks at the Renold Building in Manchester(Image: Baseler & Holmes)
The conversation about the evolving workforce, powered by AI, often prompts two typical responses. The first is one of pessimism: fearmongering that all jobs will become entirely automated, with those at the top of organisations prioritising profit over people.
The second outlook is more hopeful: that AI will open up endless new opportunities, because technology can unlock a new realm of possibilities when driven by human curiosity and judgement.
The problem, though, is that both of these positions are passive. Almost all businesses are waiting for AI to arrive with a bang, for the perfect expert to walk through the door or for a large-scale product to simplify AI adoption.
This isn’t going to happen. AI is already here, in every workplace. Businesses that fail to act now risk not only missing opportunities to optimise the use of AI but also risk compromising the protection of their people and operations.
The race to keep paceAccording to Deloitte, business leaders are 3.1 times more likely to prefer replacing employees with new AI-ready talent versus keeping and retraining their existing workforce. Why is this? What does this mean for the future of the workforce, for people who are currently employed by companies whose leadership ignores or mismanages AI?
It’s difficult to attend a conference or scroll LinkedIn without seeing repeated discourse on AI usage, deferring responsibility away from individual businesses and onto the UK government to set the pace and expectation. But this is flawed thinking. To date, the introduction of AI into the workplace has reversed the traditional ‘top-down technology implementation’ rubric. Adoption is being led by employees, whether businesses are aware of it or not.
In the last 30 years, there have been numerous examples of technological advancements that have impacted the workforce. All of these required a mindset change and resulted in increased productivity. There was the introduction of emails, sharing our files in the cloud and other online communication tools. Remember Skype and how it changed meetings?
What makes AI any different? Pace is a key driver. The rapid acceleration of technological development underscores a crucial truth: no one can predict what the next two years will bring. AI’s capabilities are expanding faster than both job roles and existing AI qualifications. To put this into context, between 2023 and 2025, AI evolved from assisting call centre agents by summarising data and suggesting responses to independently conversing with customers and autonomously planning and executing complex follow-up actions.
We need to urgently shift our thinking to prioritise upskilling existing employees and building greater understanding of AI as a tool – not the answer to all business problems. By investing in inclusive learning, opportunity over productivity and ensuring no employee is left behind, organisations can future-proof themselves in a world where AI technologies evolve faster than any single hire can keep up with.
Putting people first in the age of AIAI adoption is often framed as a technical challenge, something for the CTO to wrestle with, but the reality is that it is fundamentally a people challenge. Data is everyone’s business, and the adoption of AI in the workforce is challenging our traditional approach to tech implementation.
It’s encouraging that many employees are already experimenting with AI tools to make their work more efficient or creative, but without a coordinated, business-wide approach to adoption, this enthusiasm risks becoming fragmented and uneven.
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OPINION
Liz Scott MBE, executive director, Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester
Research from Microsoft tells us that 78% of employees are bringing their own AI tools to work. This is like bringing your own life jacket on to an aeroplane. Pasting sensitive email content or confidential documents into public LLMs in the name of efficiency can have serious implications for upholding NDAs and increases the risk of data or security breaches.
To respond to these risks and to ensure everyone is using AI to benefit themselves and the business they work for, we have a challenge on our hands, centred around tackling mindsets and creating a culture that is willing to evolve with technology. This requires policies and frameworks that have clear objectives.
Digital skills training provides a foundation for using AI tools, but it doesn’t prepare the workforce for how to think critically as their job roles change. If we think of basic digital literacy as knowing how to drive, true AI literacy is understanding the car, the rules of the road, and the impact of every journey.
Businesses need to lead the skills shiftAs AI undoubtedly reshapes the working world, businesses can no longer afford to be passive if they want to safeguard both future growth and their team members’ careers. And they play a central role in managing the human impact of AI.
By treating AI as a people challenge and cultivating a culture that continually develops its level of literacy, companies can build an inclusive, future-ready workforce capable of navigating AI-driven change without leaving anyone behind.
Create AI ambassadors who can mentor colleagues and make resources accessible at any time. Encourage teams to safely test and learn with curiosity. Facilitate collaboration to increase inclusion and understanding. For SMEs, community-led AI programmes don’t need to be complex or expensive, and they could be the answer to embedding the right level of AI literacy within organisations.
According to the AI Skills Hub, 14 million UK workers will be in jobs where AI will be part of their role or responsibilities by 2035. Rather than relying solely on AI specialists, who are in high demand, or waiting for large-scale initiatives to be rolled out, organisations can cultivate these skills themselves – but only if they move away from tick-box digital skills training and towards developing a level of AI literacy across all functions of their business.
Remember, hastily implementing AI focussed on productivity instead of opportunity will only serve to make bad processes go faster.
Lauren Birch is talent and skills lead at the Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester