British Academy & Skills England Roundtable: Building a roadmap for AI skills policies in the UK

In November 2024, the British Academy and Skills England co-hosted a roundtable on AI skills. The roundtable focused on the skills policies the UK could pursue in response to the adoption and diffusion of AI technologies across the economy. It also looked at how the UK can develop a roadmap for the implementation of these policies.

The roundtable convened officials from across government departments; British Academy Fellows and other expert perspectives from the SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy) disciplines; British Academy-funded Innovation Fellows working with Skills England on AI Skills; and other key stakeholders working on skills and AI.

The discussion covered three broad topics:

1. Lessons and evidence from historical parallels involving changes in technology and the emergence of related skills; reflecting on insights that might be drawn from looking to historical instances of technological change and related impacts on skills in society.
2. Future societal and policy challenges, both existing or emerging: reflecting on the challenges for AI skills policy given societal trends such as demographic changes, the pace of innovation, the need to meet sustainability goals, the need to ensure diversity and equity of access to work, and the coordination of skills strategy across sectors.
3. How to map the implementation of AI, including AI skills and the impacts of AI across the UK skills landscape, and ensure a route towards beneficial AI skills policies.