A recent report revealed that the majority of businesses in the U.K. are willing to offer higher wages to candidates with skills in AI. Hiring managers are willing to pay an average of 45% more for individuals with expertise in areas such as natural language processing, AI content creation, and chatbot development.
However, despite the demand for AI skills, more than 40% of business leaders are struggling to find the right skills in full-time employees. The results, published in Fiverr’s 2024 U.K. Workforce Index, are based on a survey of 2,200 U.K. business decision-makers, knowledge workers, and freelancers.
The report highlights the importance of AI skills in driving innovation and maintaining a competitive edge. The most in-demand AI skills include AI content creation, ChatGPT, AI chatbot building, proficiency with the AI image generator Midjourney, and AI image processing.
The lack of AI skills is holding back the U.K. economy, as evidenced by the country’s trailing behind the rest of Europe in technical skills proficiency. A Microsoft report also found that a delay in rolling out AI could have a significant economic impact on the country.
Efforts to address the AI skills shortage in the U.K. may need to be reassessed, with higher wages for workers with AI expertise potentially encouraging more individuals to upskill. The U.K. government has already made significant investments in digital skills, with the AI sector employing over 50,000 people and contributing billions to the economy annually. By 2035, the U.K. AI market is forecast to exceed $1 trillion.
The high level of skills-shortage vacancies in the information and communications sector, which includes AI, is a significant challenge in the U.K. Factors such as high workloads, lack of budget for training, and teams working in silos are contributing to the skills gap in this sector.
