UK Workers Say AI Is Creating Jobs, Not Cutting Them

What happened

A new report on UK workplaces finds that artificial intelligence is being credited with creating jobs rather than eliminating them, according to TechRadar. Three in five respondents said AI has already led to new roles being created within their organisation, while a further one in five expect job creation from AI within the next two years. Only one in ten disagreed, saying they believe AI is not generating new employment.

The findings suggest a marked shift in workplace sentiment toward AI tools, with employees reporting strong appetite for using them rather than resistance or fear of displacement.

Why it matters

For years, the dominant narrative around workplace AI has centred on automation risk and headcount reduction. This report points to a more nuanced reality: as organisations adopt AI tools, new categories of work — overseeing, training, auditing and integrating these systems — appear to be emerging alongside efficiency gains. For leaders running digital transformation programmes, this is a useful counterpoint to purely cost-driven AI business cases.

It also signals something behavioural: when employees see AI as additive rather than threatening, adoption tends to accelerate. That has direct implications for change management — organisations introducing AI tools may get further, faster, by framing rollouts around capability expansion and new opportunity rather than efficiency and reduction alone.

By the numbers

• Three in five respondents said AI has already created jobs within their business.
• One in five expect AI to create new jobs within the next two years.
• One in ten said they do not believe AI is creating jobs.

The Renascence take

The headline finding is reassuring, but it risks being read too simply. Positive sentiment about AI and job creation does not mean the transition is friction-free — it more likely means employees are currently experiencing the upside of early adoption, before harder questions about role redesign, skills gaps and accountability fully surface.

What this data really reflects is a trust dividend: employees who feel involved in how AI is introduced are far more likely to describe it positively, regardless of what ultimately happens to specific roles. The operators who benefit long-term won't be the ones who adopt AI fastest, but the ones who are most deliberate about how the change is explained, sequenced and owned by the people living through it. Treat this optimism as a window to build genuine AI literacy and role clarity — not as evidence that the hard part is already behind you.