Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report: How AI is the Catalyst for Transforming Every Aspect of Work, published in August; and in particular the finding that "just under 90 per cent of professionals expect basic mandatory AI training for all professionals over the next five years".

Thompson Reuter’s Report shares findings for why AI will create new opportunities in the professional sector, and how government, industry and individuals will need to continue to adapt as technology advances. Government is already working to address the skills gap by educating and enabling individuals and businesses to proactively upskill.

We have invested £290M in a broad package of AI skills initiatives to address the skills gap, support citizens and businesses to take advantage of AI technologies, and drive economic growth. Our £30M AI and Data Science Conversion Course programme was established to address the lack of diversity and supply of talent in the UK AI labour market, by funding universities to develop masters level AI or data science courses suitable for non-STEM students. The programme provides up to 3000 scholarships for students from backgrounds currently underrepresented in the tech industry.

We recognise that as the uses of AI develop, so will people’s need to understand and apply AI in their jobs. We are working with experts from the AI and skills ecosystem to develop guidance that will enable businesses to recognise relevant AI skills and invest in training their employees. We expect a first draft of the guidance to be published this autumn.

Overall, this government has an ambitious skills agenda to ensure skills training is employer focused - backed by £3.8 billion of investment over this parliament. However, public and industry collaboration will be key to unlocking AI’s full potential for the UK economy. Employers can support our efforts by investing more in training and making use of government skills programmes that provide high quality training to current and future employees.