Starmer’s economic adviser says AI job fears are overblown

TL;DR:

  • Baroness Minouche Shafik, Keir Starmer’s chief economic adviser, has called fears of an AI jobs apocalypse “disproportionate”.
  • She said tech bosses are “talking their book”, and that AI’s productivity gains are not yet showing in the data.
  • Shafik also dismissed universal basic income, arguing work gives people purpose.

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief economic adviser has accused AI executives of exaggerating the risk of mass unemployment from the technology. Speaking at a Chatham House event, Baroness Minouche Shafik said there was a “certain degree of alarmism, which is probably disproportionate”, amplified by executives and investors “talking their book”.

A counter to the doom narrative

“People are talking their book and making it sound like you can run a company without any employees in the future,” she said, urging that such claims be discounted. The former Bank of England deputy governor added that productivity gains remain elusive: “At the moment, we’re not seeing big productivity gains as a result of AI … we don’t even see it in the labour market statistics,” noting only a small share of jobs could be fully automated.

Her remarks set up a pointed contrast with industry leaders. OpenAI’s Sam Altman has warned “whole classes of jobs” will disappear, while Anthropic’s Dario Amodei has said half of entry-level white-collar jobs could go within five years. They also temper warnings from within government: Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones recently cautioned that an AI wipeout could strain the welfare state. Shafik was sceptical of universal basic income, arguing work “has value in terms of giving people a sense of purpose”.

Looking forward

The intervention matters because it comes from inside Starmer’s own advisory team, injecting caution into a debate often dominated by vendor hype. For UK policymakers weighing how hard to push adoption, Shafik’s evidence-first framing — judge AI by the productivity statistics, not the rhetoric — is a notable counterweight.

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