Three in four London jobs are ‘under threat’ from AI

Three out of every four jobs in London are at risk “now or in the near future” from AI – making it the most exposed city in the developed world to advances in the technology.
The UK capital is more vulnerable to AI systems replacing the bulk of its 4.9 million staff than even major US economic hubs such as New York and San Francisco, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned.
This due to London’s high proportion of jobs in finance, professional services and creative industries, with AI bots increasingly being used by firms to perform complex tasks, develop software and act as customer service agents, the OECD said.
Its report is backed up by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which has forecast that 3.4 million people – around 10 per cent of the UK’s labour force – could lose their jobs in the next ten years due to AI. A further 30 per cent, or 10.2 million people, are likely to see their work complemented by AI, the OBR added. White-collar administrative roles in the City’s financial services sector are at particular risk of automation.
The big four accountancy firms – KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and EY – have all said they are cutting junior employee numbers because AI can complete the kind of work that would typically be done by graduates.
The findings will add to concerns of a job crisis for university leavers who have been struggling to find work as companies cut back on entry-level recruitment and invest more heavily in AI.
The OECD said: “Regions with high concentration of employment in industries such as ICT (Information and Communication Technology), finance and education and occupations using cognitive and non-routine tasks tend to have higher AI exposure.” The Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, warned earlier this year that AI could become a “weapon of mass destructions of jobs” if not properly controlled or used for “positive transformation” as he established the London AI and Jobs Taskforce.
“AI presents real opportunities – from driving economic growth to improving public services – but also brings with it new challenges, including the potential impact on London’s labour market,” he added.
The OECD warned that regional differences in AI job exposure could “exacerbate existing urban-rural divides in incomes and labour market outcomes.” The UK’s unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points in the 12 months to the end of the first quarter.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of companies are looking at involvement of AI. Among the latest of them is HSBC. Britain’s biggest bank has unveiled a tie-up with Google that it hopes will give it a boost worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The bank said it would work with Google Cloud to use AI in areas including wealth management and tackling financial crime.
It expects to identify more than 200 new use cases for the technology in the next two years and plans to focus on those that could deliver gains of more than $100 million each to HSBC, either through revenues or efficiencies.
The partnership which also includes collaborating with Google’s DeepMind division, is yet another sign of the financial industry’s scramble to adopt AI that is raising concerns about job losses.
Chief Executive at HSBC, George Elhedery, said recently: “We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs”.
HSBC, which last year employed about 209,000 globally is examining the savings it could generate from using the technology, with Bloomberg reporting in March that executives believe AI could ultimately affect 20,000 roles at the group.
Elhedery said that the bank’s approach to using AI involved “keeping human judgement, decision-making and accountability to the core”. He added: “A partnership like this one with Google Cloud helps us empower our colleagues with the tools they need to be future-ready.”