UK an artificial intelligence jobs leader

The UK is currently in position to leverage the boom of AI— but for how long?
29 January 2019

‘Sophia the Robot’ is seen on stage before a discussion by Hanson Robotics. Source: AFP

Boasting 37.3 jobs per million people, the UK is a world leader for careers in artificial intelligence (AI).

That’s behind just Japan and Israel, at 44.7 and 38.7 respectively, while the US takes fourth place with 36.3 jobs.

Those stats come courtesy of research by RPA (Robotic Process Automation) company UiPath which, based on job listings from startup hubs around the world, explores the countries and cities hiring the most staff in the burgeoning fields of AI and machine learning (ML).

When it comes to total jobs in those fields, the UK currently holds 1,547. Rather expectedly, that puts it behind China (12,113), the US (7,465), and Japan (3,369). But it also makes it the European leader for the technology— Germany (1,120) and France (763) follow.

According to UiPath, while London is a world-leader for AI jobs creation— ahead of New York, and the biggest ‘non-Asian’ city for the tech— the majority of AI and ML vacancies are now outside the capital.

In fact, 52 percent of jobs are based outside of London, with Cambridge (102), Bristol (62) and Manchester (47) topping the ranks.

The findings are bittersweet for the UK; on the one hand, it sees the country in a strong position to leverage the explosive growth of AI, a sector poised to contribute up to $15.7tn to the global economy by 2030 (PwC).

On the other, the good news comes on the precipice of Brexit, which threatens to put a damper on UK tech growth. AI startups, in particular, are thought to be some of the most at risk.

Remaining optimistic, however, the same PwC report says demand for jobs is still rising, and as many as 7 million new jobs in AI and ML could be created in the UK by 2037.

With that in mind, UiPath also looked at the jobs currently in most demand in the sector…

Which AI jobs are in the highest demand in the UK?

These are the 10 most proportionally in-demand AI jobs in the UK. Findings were based on a total of 30,000 job listings on Indeed.com from 15 industry-leading countries, retrieving any role that requires either skill or training in ‘AI’ or ‘Machine Learning (ML)’, or any role within a company that specializes in AI or ML.

1. Data Scientist, 9.06% 

2. Software Engineer, 8.75%

3. Consultant, 6.01%

4. AI Researcher, 4.95%

5. Sales Engineer, 4.74%

6. AI/Machine Learning/Data Analyst, 4.43%

7. Machine Learning Engineer, 4.32%

8. Business Development, 2.85%

9. Intern, 2.74%

10. Product Manager, 2.74%