If we want employers to invest seriously in artificial intelligence and robotics, the economics must be attractive to them. If it's cheaper simply to hire …

In his Economic Outlook last week, "Robots aren't destroying jobs -- or boosting productivity", David Smith examined the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on UK productivity. He noted the record-high employment rate (76.1%) but also the "stubbornly high proportion of people in low-skilled jobs". Elsewhere in the article he said that in Northern Ireland, he "came across a firm that had no alternative but to automate because of the loss of EU migrant workers". It seems to me that, without spelling it out, he has put his finger on one of the main reasons for the UK's stubbornly low level of productivity. This is our attractiveness to well-educated workers from eastern Europe.