Royal Holloway, University of London has taken a leading role in one of the UK’s most comprehensive national reports on AI skills to date, revealing how UK businesses could miss out on up to £400 billion in economic growth by 2030 – unless urgent action is taken to close the AI skills gap.
The report, developed by Royal Holloway in partnership with Skills England (an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions) through funding provided by The British Academy’s Innovation Fellowship programme, was led by Dr Nisreen Ameen, Director of the Digital Organisation and Society (DOS) Research Centre at Royal Holloway’s Business School.
The report shines a spotlight on the challenges facing employers across sectors – from construction and manufacturing to creative industries – and introduces three new AI upskilling tools to help organisations adopt AI more confidently and responsibly. These include:
The AI Skills Framework, which maps technical, ethical and non-technical AI skills by job level
The AI Skills Adoption Pathway Model, outlining nine stages of organisational AI adoption
The Employer AI Adoption Checklist, a self-assessment tool to help businesses identify workforce gaps and plan training
Together, these tools help employers understand what AI skills are needed, assess their workforce readiness, and plan effective upskilling – especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often lack dedicated HR or training teams. They are also aimed to tackle the UK’s widening AI skills gap and unlock an estimated £400 billion boost to the economy by 2030.
The report also offers sector-by-sector insights into how AI is being used – or underused – across ten priority industries, including health and social care, financial services, clean energy, and life sciences. It identifies six persistent barriers to progress, such as low digital literacy, fragmented training options, and confusion over what ‘AI skills’ actually mean. Crucially, it calls for more inclusive and regionally responsive training, especially for SMEs, marginalised groups, and areas with limited access to AI education.
Read more here.
