IMI welcomes Skills England report on AI
The IMI has welcomed a new report by Skills England identifying a potential £400bn boost to the UK economy by 2030 with a proper AI adoption plan.
The report, ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’, has called for a dedicated strategy to develop AI skills, with up to 7.5 million people expected to gain new AI skills in the next four years.
The report has now introduced three brand new tools to support wider and more responsible AI adoption:
- The AI Skills Framework identifies relevant technical, responsible, and non-technical skills needed for different job roles and at different levels
- The AI Skills Adoption Pathway Model shows how organisations typically progress through stages of AI adoption, from initial awareness to strategic scaling.
- The Employer AI Adoption Checklist provides structured prompts to help employers assess their AI skills readiness, identify workforce gaps, and upskill. It supports adoption of tools such as ChatGPT, image generation systems, and document summarisation platforms.
Skills gap
This has been welcomed by the IMI, which said AI skills will be critical to the automotive sector in the future.
Nick Connor, CEO, IMI, said “The IMI welcomes the announcement from Skills England that the UK’s AI skills gap needs addressing and it is particularly significant to see the automotive sector specifically referenced in the report, a clear acknowledgment of its vital role in the UK and it’s growth, security and net zero ambitions.”
“AI has long been seen as part of automotive’s future in key areas such as predictive maintenance and real-time analytics. This also leads to skilled needs in digital literacy, data interpretation and understanding the ethical implications of AI.”
Timely
He continued: “This investment in skills is both timely and necessary, with automotive’s ageing workforce, which could see a significant loss of knowledge leave the sector by 2032.
“The report also highlights particular issues faced by SMEs in obtaining and embedding AI training, which is even more acute in automotive due to the 92,000 businesses that have less than 250 employees. This will ensure our workforce is equipped with the right digital and AI capabilities is critical.”
“The IMI is working alongside industry partners, education providers and policy makers to ensure that AI enhances safety and we remain committed to developing training, awareness and professional standards in this space.
“We now look forward to understanding how the government will support UK automotive in plugging the AI skills gap, as the sector can’t be responsible for funding this on its own.”
