The AI unit that will soon be embedded in a new body at the heart of government agrees a deal that will provide information on new tech’s affect on jobs
The AI Security Institute has agreed a near-£100,000 deal to meet an “urgent evidence need” and enable government to understand and, where necessary, intervene in regard to the impact of artificial intelligence on the jobs market.
The acquisition of data will be used to map how AI is currently affecting jobs and professional skills, before contributing to research and then helping government spot and address potential risks created by new technology.
The AISI – which currently sits in the soon-to-be-abolished Department for Science, Innovation and Technology but is being moved to a newly created Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet – is due to enter into a one-year contract with workforce data specialist Revelio Labs on 21 August. The engagement, which is valued at £96,000, is intended to meet the institute’s “requirement is for access to an existing commercial workforce intelligence dataset… [that] will enable DSIT to test, validate and strengthen the evidence base on AI adoption and labour market impacts”.
A newly published commercial notice sets out five objectives for the arrangement – and the use of data it will support – the first of which is to “understand how AI adoption reshapes skill demand and supply at the firm level, by acquiring granular, firm-level workforce data”. The document adds that AISI will use information provided by the supplier to “measure how skill composition evolves at firms actively adopting AI compared to those that are not”.
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The second objective is to “provide an empirical benchmark for AI exposure measurement” by providing “workforce intelligence data [that] enables DSIT to identify which skills actually co-occur with AI adoption at the firm level”.
Having built this data foundation, government hopes that the deal will help the institute “replicate and extend published research on early-career labour market outcomes” and them, ultimately, “inform UK workforce and education policy”.
The commercial notice adds: “The evidence generated will directly support policy advice on:… which skills retraining programmes should prioritise; where skill gaps are emerging; how curricula should adapt to changing employer expectations; and whether skill dynamics can serve as leading indicators of broader labour market disruption.”
The final objective set out in the document is the creation of an “early warning capability”. AISI says that by “tracking skill shifts that may precede larger employment effects, DSIT aims to build an analytical early warning system that identifies workforce risks before they become visible in aggregate official statistics”.