The head of Google’s UK and European operations has warned there is a worrying gap in the UK’s adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) that could leave the country missing out on huge economic benefits.

New research from the tech giant indicated that two-thirds of workers (66%) in the UK had never used generative AI in their jobs, with usage notably low among women over 55 and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The slow take-up was partly down to the lack of training courses and company guidance, but also cultural factors, some of which will be tackled under the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.

AI could add £400bn to the UK economy by 2030 through increased productivity, Google’s report claimed, but only a small proportion of this boost would occur unless the country embraced the new technology more comprehensively.

Debbie Weinstein, president of Google in EMEA, told PA News that the report was a “call to arms … to make sure we’re providing the tools that workers need for the UK.”

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She said: “Addressing this adoption gap is essential to realising the economic benefits and the benefits in terms of time savings.”

Google said the UK had historically been relatively slow to adopt new technology. The AI Works report stated: “History shows this pattern recurring worldwide through successive waves of technology. But the challenge has been particularly pronounced in the UK, where a gap between innovation and implementation has repeatedly undermined economic potential.”

“Given AI’s extraordinary economic potential, this long-tail pattern of adoption risks delaying productivity and compromising long-term growth,” it added.

The adoption of AI in the UK was being held back by a lack of accredited bite-sized training courses as well as a failure by businesses to provide guidance in the workplace.

The survey of more than 3,100 respondents found that 70% of workers chose to use AI tools on their own rather than being asked to by their managers or employers, with just over a fifth (22%) being encouraged to do so by their employers, down from 28% six months ago.

“AI adoption is largely happening without official workplace guidance,” the firm said.

Google’s AI Works pilots showed workers could save on average 122 hours a year by using AI in administrative tasks, the report stated. But one barrier to usage was a feeling that using AI in their job was not legitimate or was cheating.

“Our research shows that workers are looking for explicit permission and guardrails on what they can, and are encouraged to, use AI for,” stated the report.

Short training courses

Google is calling on ministers to use its industrial strategy to set out how AI adoption can be best supported in key industries.

It also urged the new arms-length government body, Skills England, to support an accreditation system for short and effective training courses.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle said in response to the report: “We will support workers to develop the skills they need for jobs in and with AI, so that all parts of society can benefit from this technology.”

“As part of that, our AI Opportunities Action Plan will see us work closely with Skills England on a range of initiatives, including building a detailed picture of the gaps in our talent pool and working with training providers and industry to fill them.”

Google has been running a pilot with small firms in the UK to help increase the take-up of AI, using behavioural science to help drive the programme, while also working with school academies and the Community Union.

Previously, commentators have expressed concern that the UK lacks the skills to make a success of the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, announced in January. The action plan envisages more than 11,500 jobs being created at a data centre campus in Wales, which would become one of the largest such centres in Europe. A further 1,000 jobs could open up in Liverpool over the next three years in a new tech hub.

Permission

Weinstein told PA that employees were reluctant to use AI. “People wanted permission to prompt,” she said. They thought “Is it OK for me to be doing this?”

But once they started, a few hours of AI training to build their confidence resulted in them using the technology twice as much, she said, and they were still using it several months later.

These simple interventions helped to narrow the AI adoption gap among the participants in the pilot studies, Google said in its AI Works report.

For example, before training, only 17% of women aged above 55 in its cohorts used AI weekly and only 9% daily. Three months later, 56% were using it weekly and 29% had made it a daily habit.

Google’s study was carried out by research group Public First and engaged 3,100 respondents.

 

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