One in six UK employers expect artificial intelligence to reduce their workforce within the next year, new data show, adding to concerns that white-collar roles are most at risk as automation advances across industries.
The findings from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which surveyed more than 2,000 organisations, suggest a growing divide between employers using AI to drive efficiency and those still working out how to retrain and retain staff. Employer confidence remains weak, with hiring already slowed by last year’s rise in employment costs.
According to the CIPD, 62 percent of employers predicting job losses said clerical, junior managerial, professional or administrative positions were most likely to be affected. The challenge appears greatest among large private-sector companies, where more than a quarter expected headcount to fall, compared with 17 percent across the wider private sector and 20 percent in the public sector.
Workforce pressures intensify
The findings come at a time when many employers are balancing technology investment with the need to control labour costs. Among those anticipating AI-related reductions, more than a quarter said they could lose over 10 percent of their workforce in the coming year.
Recruiters said organisations were becoming more cautious about hiring for entry-level positions that may be restructured or automated. Research by workforce solutions provider ManpowerGroup found that the UK faced one of the sharpest slowdowns in global recruitment heading into winter, with a “perfect storm” of cost pressures, AI disruption and policy uncertainty.
Major employers have already started restructuring. Last month, Amazon announced 14,000 corporate job cuts, with its vice-president of people experience and technology, Beth Galetti, describing generative AI as “the most transformative technology” since the internet. PwC reduced its global workforce by nearly 6,000 in its 2025 financial year while investing nearly $1.5 billion in AI capabilities — its first overall reduction since 2010.
Call for government action
The CIPD warned that early-career and mid-tier professional roles faced the highest exposure to automation and urged ministers to support retraining for people in industries including finance, insurance, IT and administrative services. The organisation said the upcoming budget and floundering Employment Rights Bill should avoid measures that might further weaken hiring and called for faster progress on developing the government’s proposed growth and skills levy.
James Cockett, a senior labour market economist at the CIPD, said AI had “great potential for improving productivity and performance, but it also risks leaving many people behind”. He added that junior roles were most likely to be affected and that a national effort to retrain workers “of all ages and career stages” was needed to ensure an inclusive transition.
A government spokesman said the UK’s approach was to equip workers with the skills to benefit from AI rather than be displaced by it. “We’re working with leading tech firms to train a fifth of our workforce in AI over the coming years and investing £187 million to bring digital and AI learning directly into classrooms and communities,” the spokesman said.
He added that regional AI growth zones were expected to create new jobs and skills pathways “so working people across the UK can share in the benefits of AI.”
Sunak: Panic must not paralyse progress
The warning coincided with an opinion piece by former prime minister Rishi Sunak in The Sunday Times, in which he cautioned against fear-driven responses to automation. Sunak said the reality was “more nuanced” than predictions of widespread job destruction but admitted that “change is coming”.
He cited research by Stanford economists showing that young workers in AI-exposed professions such as software development were already seeing fewer opportunities, and noted that companies like OpenAI had begun hiring traditional finance professionals as automation spread across sectors.
“When I speak to chief executives, it is striking how confident they are that they can grow their businesses without hiring more people, because of what AI makes possible,” he wrote. “For them, ‘flat is the new up’ when it comes to headcount.”
Sunak argued that Britain must “embrace it now and tool up our people for future success”, warning that if 70 percent of jobs would require different skills by 2030, “we need to start readying our workforce for this now.”
He said AI could not replace “interpersonal skills that are so valuable in building relationships and creating the kind of culture that enables a business to succeed” and urged investment in education and lifelong learning. “[Y]ou are not going to lose your job to artificial intelligence, but to someone using it,” he wrote, calling for a “mindset shift” to ensure the UK remained competitive.
Turning disruption into opportunity
The CIPD’s report and Sunak’s essay both point to a decisive moment for British workplaces. The task for HR executives, experts say, is not only to manage short-term disruption but to prepare for a structural change in how work is organised and valued.
That means mapping which roles are most exposed to automation, aligning retraining with new job creation and ensuring that skills development keeps pace with emerging tools. The emphasis is shifting from fear of replacement to mastery of augmentation: employees who can use AI effectively are likely to become more, not less, employable.
While the government expects AI to generate thousands of new roles in areas such as data management, engineering and ethics oversight, the CIPD’s findings underline that this transformation will not be painless. As automation spreads, the challenge for business and government alike will be to turn technological change into human opportunity rather than job loss.
