From Yahoo Finance: 2025-05-19 09:15:00

The finance sector in the UK is leading in AI adoption, with 75% of financial companies using AI, up from 58% in 2022. AI-related jobs are growing 3.6 times faster than the overall job market, with professionals earning 21% more with AI skills. The UK’s AI sector is projected to reach £230bn by 2025, with startups raising £1.03bn in Q1 2025.

Specialised AI positions command wage premiums up to 58%, with machine learning engineers in high demand. The UK’s AI market is set to be Europe’s largest and the world’s third largest by 2025. The top ten in-demand AI specialisations include machine learning engineers, AI/ML specialists, and data scientists with AI expertise. Generative AI engineers are the fastest-growing specialty with a 41.53% CAGR through 2030.

Regional AI hotspots are emerging beyond London, with Manchester, Edinburgh, and Cambridge experiencing rapid growth. London remains the AI capital with 36,715 AI-related roles, but other cities are rising as significant hubs. University enrolments in AI-related fields are increasing, with 122 UK universities offering Master’s degrees in AI as of 2024.

The World Economic Forum projects a 40% need for reskilling in AI-related areas within the UK workforce in the next three years. Nearly half of all new UK jobs will require AI literacy by 2025. There is a shortage of approximately 20,000 machine learning engineers and AI specialists in the UK.

Read more: Finance sector leads UK AI adoption, says imagineanything.ai report