UK workers and bosses split on AI: KCL study finds one in five fear civil unrest

TL;DR:

  • A new King’s College London Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Policy Institute study finds seven in 10 Britons worried about AI’s economic impact, six in 10 think it will eliminate more jobs than it creates, and one in five expect it to cause civil unrest.
  • The “AI and the Future of Work” study, fielded by Opinium in April across four samples (2,000 UK adults, 1,000 young people, 1,000 university students, 500 employers), shows a sharp disconnect: 69% of employers are optimistic about AI job creation versus 35% of employees and just 28% of the general public.
  • Despite the gloom, 43% of Britons say they will still use AI in future and 22% of employers have already cut roles or reduced hiring specifically because of AI — rising to 29% among large employers.

The findings, picked up across the FT’s Working It coverage and cited the same week by HSBC, Standard Chartered and the Bar Standards Board in their AI announcements, give UK policymakers and businesses the first detailed picture of how the British public actually feels about AI in 2026. The TUC’s Adam Cantwell-Corn told the FT the AI industry has “a real messaging problem”; the CBI’s Naomi Weir told the same outlet that businesses are working on “task-level change” rather than overhauls. Both are reacting to the same dataset.

A divided picture, not a uniform pessimism

The gender gap is pronounced: 44% of women disagree that AI is positive for humanity (versus 18% who agree), while men are more evenly divided. University students are more positive than the public — 47% say AI is positive for the UK against 28% of the general public — but a third of students expect AI to cause civil unrest, the highest of any group. Across all groups, around six in 10 predict the economic benefits will flow mainly to wealthy investors and large companies; just 7% of the public think the gains will be shared fairly.

The Standard Chartered AI-linked redundancy plan announced this week, HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery telling staff “don’t fight AI”, the Bar Standards Board’s new barrister guidance and the Ada Lovelace Institute’s call to scrutinise public-sector AI productivity claims all sit inside the picture the KCL study describes. 22% of employers have already cut roles or reduced hiring specifically because of AI; 29% of large employers have done so. KCL Policy Institute director Bobby Duffy told the FT: “People are seeing the scary AI headlines but not help, and a vacuum is developing between business and the early adopters and the general population.” Public appetite for intervention is strong: two-thirds back close regulation even if it slows development, and 53% support a tax on companies replacing workers with AI to fund retraining.

Looking forward

The KCL Institute is positioning this as the first wave of a tracker, so the trajectory will become visible over the next year. For UK businesses, the data sharpens the case for explicit AI-and-workforce communication — internal as much as external — and for redress mechanisms when AI changes job content. For policymakers, the 53% support for an AI-displacement tax is the kind of finding that will outlive a single cycle of headlines; expect Labour’s emerging AI workforce framing to lean on it. The CBI is running a 150-company working group on “inclusive transition”; the TUC is pressing for sector-level collective agreements. The 2026 conversation will be shaped by which of those frames prevails.

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