According to an Accenture study, high-tech vacancies in the UK have risen by 21%, reaching the highest level even before the pandemic.
…Regions outside London must compete for talent and infrastructure
Global consultants saw a surge in demand for AI skills, with nearly 200% increase in one year. London accounted for 80% of AI-related job postings across the UK, but nearly two-thirds of technology vacancy were in London.
Accenture collected data from LinkedIn in the first and second week of February 2025, supplementing the results in a survey of over 4,000 respondents conducted by research firm Yougov between July and August 2024.
The survey shows that a 53% increase in people who describe themselves as having high-tech skills equals 1.69 million people reporting skills in areas such as cyber, data, and robotics.
Emma Kendrew, lead of Accenture Tech, commented: “The UK has a great opportunity to establish itself as a global AI leader, and London is at its epicenter. The UK is emerging hotspots of technological talent that are expected to grow as AI is adopted more widely.
“However, to fully utilize the economic potential of AI, regions outside of London need to compete for talent and infrastructure to achieve sustainable growth and unlock opportunities.
Research shows that London-based companies have said the same this year, allocating one-fifth of their technology budget to AI, compared to 13% based in northeastern England, Scotland and Wales.
Earlier this week, a study by rival consulting firm PWC found that sectors that can easily use AI for some tasks, including the software industry, achieve higher productivity and wage growth than others.
The increase in revenue per employee increased during the period when LLMS increased from 7% per year from 2018 to 2022 to 27% from 2018 to 2024. Meanwhile, growth on the same scale has declined slightly in industries that are not affected by AI, such as mining and hospitality. ®
