The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology could be set to shake up the job scene in the UK sooner than expected, new research has found. A BT survey of over 1,500 senior UK IT decision makers found that AI, widely expected to usher in the "fourth industrial revolution", is in fact already splitting opinions in the labour market. On the positive side, a third of businesses which say they plan to introduce AI or automation technologies within the next two years believe it will create more jobs within the workplace. However, a similar amount of respondents also feared that implementing such services would lead to job losses, as robotic or automated procedures replaced trained human workers. Overall, one in four of the organisations surveyed said they were already using automation technologies, with the likes of drones, robots or autonomous vehicles proving popular.

IT decision makers are divided about the impact of disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation - the so called'Fourth Industrial Revolution' - on the labour market, according to new research from BT. Contrary to many reports which speculate about widespread job losses, one third of organisations surveyed who plan to implement AI and automation within the next two years believe it will create more jobs within the workplace. This reflects the view that AI will generate new opportunities for programmers, algorithm designers and software engineers and create new job categories such as AI trainers, ethicists and lawyers. However, the same proportion predict that these technologies could result in job losses in their organisation, given concerns that innovations in robotics and intelligent computer systems may eventually replace jobs traditionally done by humans, particularly those of a manual, repetitive nature. Against this uncertainty surrounding the impact of these technologies on the jobs market, the survey of 1,501 IT decision makers across UK organisations of all sizes revealed that AI and automation is already being implemented by over a third of all respondents. For example, one in four organisations are using automation technologies like drones, robots or autonomous vehicles, with almost two thirds (63%) describing AI or automation technologies as being'very beneficial' to their organisations.