AWS to give AI skills to 100,000 people in the UK by 2030

Amazon Web Services (AWS) said it wants to provide 100,000 people in the UK with AI skills by 2030.

The lofty goal, which was announced at the AWS Summit in London on Wednesday 30 April, will be reached via a UK deployment of its Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance program.

The program, which launched in June 2023, is a global initiative that aims to foster stronger ties between government, business, and education to help more people in specific areas of technology. In this case, the focus is AI and the idea is to provide more hands-on experience and bridge the gap between learning and working.

Announcing the launch during her keynote speech, Allison Kay, the VP and managing director of AWS in the UK, said that AI adoption was bigger than the adoption of the landline, the mobile phone, and the internet.

However, the talent needed to adopt AI in business was somewhat hampered in the UK. According to recent AWS research, one in three businesses say that they lack the digital skills to adopt AI, which, Kay said, is one of the Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance was launching in the UK.

“By 2030 our aim is to provide 100,000 UK students with the skills raised pathways in AI, cyber security, and in Big Data,” Kay said. “And we're thrilled to be joined on this quest by organizations like Accenture, Deloitte, government bodies, and higher education institutions. So that, together, we are offering these students every opportunity to thrive in today's digital economy.

“And who knows, we might just give the next Charles Babbage, the next Ada Lovelace, and the next Alun Turing – the biggest opportunity to thrive in today's digital world.”

The announcement will be welcomed by the UK government which has also set high targets as part of its AI Action Plan. This included pledges to create 13,000 jobs, which was initially met with skepticism over the lack of skilled labor to meet the growing demands of the UK’s AI industry.

Unlocking the UK’s AI potential

Despite the concerns over talent in the country, the UK is adopting AI faster than other transformative technologies, such as mobile phones in the mid-2000s. AI adoption in the UK has grown 33% in the past year, according to the report, an equivalent of at least one business adopting AI every minute.

Currently over half of UK businesses (52%) are now using AI – an increase from 39% recorded in the same report last year – with 92% of those businesses telling AWS that they had seen increased revenues thanks to AI technologies.

What’s more, although larger enterprises were quick to adopt AI, AWS notes that it is startups that have moved faster when it comes to integrating it into their systems and products. The report states that 36% of startups are developing new AI-driven products, whereas just 25% of large enterprises are doing the same.