Britain’s AI timebomb: How big business could cash in while millions of workers are left behind
As bosses race to cash in on artificial intelligence, critics warn Britain risks repeating a familiar story—soaring profits at the top, shrinking opportunities for everyone else
Artificial intelligence was sold as the great leveller—a tool to make work easier, boost wages and spread opportunity across Britain. But a new warning suggests the opposite may be unfolding: a divided UK workforce where the winners surge ahead and the rest are quietly left behind.
According to fresh research from the Indeed Hiring Lab, only 41 per cent of UK employees regularly use AI at work, lagging behind competitors such as the US, Germany and Ireland. And the split is stark. White-collar professionals, managers and tech-savvy graduates are racing ahead, while older workers, manual staff and those in traditional roles are falling ever further behind.
The danger? If history is anything to go by, Big Business will once again put profits before people.
The familiar story: profits first, people last
From the decline of manufacturing to the rise of zero-hours contracts, British workers know this pattern all too well. New technology arrives. Executives promise shared benefits. Then productivity rises but wages stagnate, jobs disappear and shareholders reap the rewards.
AI risks becoming the next chapter in that story.
The report shows that half of workers aged 55 and above don’t use AI at all, and many don’t believe they need training. In manual and production jobs, nearly two-thirds are disengaged from AI entirely, meaning they neither use it nor want access to learning.
Meanwhile, those who do use AI report significant benefits. More than 80 per cent save at least an hour a day, freeing time for higher-value tasks, or simply leaving work earlier. In Britain, AI users are particularly likely to reinvest that time into more work.
But who actually benefits from that productivity boost?
A growing gap between haves and have-nots
Without safeguards, AI will likely deepen existing inequalities. Skilled workers become more valuable. Low-paid roles are automated or intensified. And companies quietly pocket the gains.
Already, one in five UK AI users say the technology hasn’t saved them any time, suggesting it’s being rolled out unevenly and without proper support. Training is patchy. Encouragement from employers is limited. And those who need help the most are the least likely to receive it.
If AI is deployed purely as a cost-cutting tool, Britain risks creating a two-tier workforce—one empowered by technology, the other controlled by it.
The case for an “AI just transition”
That’s why there is a need for an “AI just transition”—a framework ensuring the benefits of AI are shared fairly, not hoarded by executives and investors.
This means universal access to AI training, regardless of age or job type. It means worker involvement in how AI is deployed, not decisions made behind closed boardroom doors. And it means productivity gains translated into better pay, shorter hours and job security, not just higher profits.
An AI just transition would also take seriously the need to slow down the pace of change before the profit-hungry tech elites run us off the edge of the cliff before ordinary people even notice.
Because if AI is allowed to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots, public trust will collapse even further, and Britain will descend into an even deeper era of inequality.
Technology itself isn’t the enemy. But without fairness baked in from the start, AI could become yet another tool that enriches the elites while ordinary workers are told to “adapt or fall behind”.
And Britain has seen where that road leads before.