Most UK Businesses Report No AI Impact on Staff Numbers, ONS Figures Show

Official survey data from the Office for National Statistics show that only 4 per cent of businesses currently using AI have cut their overall workforce headcount as a direct result, with small and medium-sized firms chiefly reporting no change.

Just 4 per cent of UK businesses using artificial intelligence in late September 2025 said the technology had reduced their overall workforce headcount, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figures come from the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS), which found that around half of AI-using businesses reported no net change in staff numbers at all.

AI adoption itself is rising fast. The share of UK businesses reporting current AI use reached 23 per cent in late September 2025, compared with 9 per cent when ONS first asked the question in September 2023 and around 20 per cent in June 2025. Yet headcount reductions have not followed at the same pace — at least not yet.

The picture shifts slightly when businesses are asked about the future. Among firms planning to adopt AI within three months of the September 2025 survey, 7 per cent expected their headcount to fall as a result — nearly double the share that had already seen reductions. A separate UK government-commissioned labour-market survey from March 2026 put the figure at around 5 per cent of AI-using businesses reporting AI-enabled headcount cuts overall, rising to around 7 per cent among larger employers with 250 or more staff.

For Kent’s businesses — the majority of which are SMEs with 10 to 249 employees — the ONS data suggest AI adoption has so far been associated with productivity changes rather than redundancies. But some researchers and trade unions caution that survey responses may not capture the full picture, as businesses sometimes attribute workforce reductions to restructuring rather than to AI directly. Administrative and clerical roles have already seen some contraction nationally, even while professional and technical roles have grown.

The longer-term numbers are striking. UK government projections estimate that jobs directly involving AI activities could rise from 158,000 in 2024 to 3.9 million by 2035 — roughly 12 per cent of the current UK workforce. Whether that growth offsets displacement in routine office-based roles remains, for now, an open question.