Fierce demand for AI skills surged by 51% in just six months to nearly 100,000 vacancies across the UK, according to new Accenture analysis. While hiring for AI skills is accelerating nationwide, London accounted for 70% of all AI-related vacancies, highlighting the scale of the UK’s regional AI divide.

Accenture’s Tech Talent Tracker indicates that demand for AI skills grew faster than any other technology discipline analysed and helped drive a 21% increase in overall technology job listings across the UK. Growth was fuelled by rising demand for AI and technology skills, with cities outside of London recording the biggest increases. Over the past six months, demand for technology skills grew fastest in Manchester (35% – up to over 30,000 roles), followed by Bristol (25%) and Birmingham (17%).

While regional hubs gain momentum, London has a stronghold on vacancies requiring AI skills, posting nearly six times as many AI-related job listings as Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Liverpool combined. The broader technology jobs market also boomed with London-based businesses listing over 250,000 technology vacancies going up by 24% in six months – eclipsing all other UK cities.

The supply of technology skills is similarly concentrated, with two-thirds of the nation’s technology talent pool working in London, representing approximately 1.75 million professionals. By contrast, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, and Liverpool collectively account for just 13% of the technology talent pool.

Sam Holmes, Accenture Managing Director and Talent Reinvention Lead in the UK, said: “London’s strength as a global technology hub is undoubtedly a success story and has helped establish the UK as a serious player in AI. But as organisations race to recruit the skills needed to realise value from AI, the concentration of AI jobs and talent in one place presents a longer-term challenge for the UK’s growth ambitions.

“AI is not just the preserve of technology companies based in the capital. Businesses across every sector and region of the UK will need AI skills to remain competitive and unlock new sources of productivity and growth. Creating more opportunities for people to develop these skills across the country will be essential if the UK is to realise the full potential of AI, ensuring its benefits are felt in every corner of the country.”

AI is not diminishing demand for developers

While AI is the fastest-growing area of technology hiring, the research suggests demand is also rising for many of the skills businesses need to deploy and support AI effectively, and protect against its threats, with vacancies in engineering and DevOps up 11% to almost 100,000, data analytics up 19% to nearly 90,000, and cybersecurity up almost 20%.

Rising demand for technologists, including cybersecurity professionals, developers and data analysts, across the entire of the UK created over 1.3 million job listings over the past year.

The findings indicate that AI is reshaping technology roles rather than reducing demand for them. As businesses move from AI experimentation to embedding it meaningfully into their operations, a combination of engineers and data expertise are becoming increasingly important in building and integrating the systems that underpin it.

Recommended reading

• How Is AI Impacting Traditional Hiring?
• UK Firms Battle For AI Talent In Rapid Hiring Surge
• PwC: Firms Now Pay a 56% Premium for AI Talent

AI hiring surge increases pressure to reskill the workforce

Professionals with AI skills have the highest share of entry-level talent of any technology discipline analysed. More than four in ten professionals with AI skills have fewer than six years’ professional experience, including almost a quarter with two years’ experience or less, suggesting a stronger early-career presence in the UK’s AI talent pool compared to any other technology discipline.

At the same time, the broader technology workforce remains weighted towards experienced professionals, with cloud, digital ethics, engineering and developer talent pools containing the highest proportion of experienced professionals. The findings suggest organisations may increasingly look to build AI capabilities through training and reskilling from a broader base of technical expertise, alongside specialist hiring.

The research also suggests organisations across UK cities may face increased competition for AI skills. AI accounts for a greater share of hiring demand than of the local technology talent pool in every city analysed. The gap, which measures the difference between the share of AI-related hiring demand and the share of professionals with AI skills at the time of analysis, exists across all UK cities, but is most pronounced in Newcastle (+6.0)*, Manchester (+5.1) and Liverpool (+5.1). By contrast, it was lowest in cities with established data and research institutions, such as Oxford (+1.0) and Edinburgh (+1.9).

Sam Holmes added: “Much of the focus is helping young people build successful careers in technology, but the challenge is broader than the pipeline alone. As organisations become more mature in how they use AI, demand is growing for the engineers, developers and data specialists needed to deploy and scale it effectively.

“Far from reducing the need for talent, AI is increasing demand for a wider mix of technology skills. Competition for AI expertise is already intensifying, meaning organisations will need to invest in developing talent alongside recruiting it if they are to keep pace with demand.”