Adoption is still patchy with variation by sector and firm size

While there is little evidence to associate digital investment with large scale-job losses, employers do seem to be struggling to meet new digital skills demands. Where adoption is taking place, it is moving at different speeds across sectors and companies. It is often experimental, affecting the organisation and management of work, and employees’ experiences. This presents new challenges, both for managers and their trust in the efficacy of new digital innovations, and for workers in terms of new job and skills demands. 

Digit’s Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey explored how widely different digital technologies, including new AI-enabled technologies, were being used, and what they were being used for. We surveyed 2,000 UK employers in 2022 and 1,000 in 2023 and found that only a little over a third (36%) of employers had invested in new technologies in the previous five years. Levels of investment varied significantly across different industrial sectors. There was little evidence that employers were systematically or strategically investing in generative AI. 

Strikingly, only 10 per cent of those who had not invested planned to do so soon in the immediate future. There is a risk that, as early adopters increase investment in new technologies, more reluctant organisations, often smaller businesses, will fall behind. Policy makers will need to track adoption carefully and consider what policy interventions may be needed to increase opportunities for investment, ensuring the public and private sectors can harness the benefits more widely. 

Digital adoption has not yet led to widespread job loss

The Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey also challenges the assumption that investment in digital technologies will inevitably lead to catastrophic job loss. Indeed, the opposite seems to be the case. Those employers that had invested in digital technologies were more likely to report that they had expanded their workforce and were more confident about employment growth in the future.

The survey found that net job loss was evident in just four per cent of employers. Policy makers need to understand what new jobs are being created, how existing jobs are changing because of digital investment and what the implications of this are for employers’ skills demand.  

Employers report digital skills shortages but are not investing in training

Just over half of digital adopters reported that investment in new digital technologies created a demand for new skills. Yet, finding employees with the right digital skills is a significant problem for employers. Three quarters of employers reported difficulty finding employees with the required digital skills and, at the same time, almost a third reported difficulties in retaining staff.

Despite this, few employers are investing in formal training or plan to do so, although there is more evidence of informal, on-the-job training. Policy makers will face particular challenges around the new digital skills agenda, which will need to address both the supply side and the demand side.

Workers are not being consulted on investment in new technologies

Technology investment was the area of organisational decision making on which staff were least likely to be consulted. Only a quarter of employers consulted or negotiated with workers about investment in new technologies. Half of those surveyed did not involve workers in decisions about technology investment at all.

Organisations should consider whether increasing workers’ involvement could lead to better decision making about technology. Our research on the four-day week, for example, shows that involving workers in redesigning working practices was a key factor in improving or maintaining productivity while reducing time at work.

Digit employers’ survey of digital practices at work: key findings

Larger firms lead in digital adoption

Larger firms are more likely to invest in digital technologies, with 62% of these adopters planning to increase their investments. There’s a risk of smaller firms being left behind.

Investment in new digital technologies by employer size (%)

Investment varies by sector

Motivations for digital investment

Although digital adopters provide more training than 
non-adopters, levels are still low.
Source: Digital adopters, n=790; Non-adopters, n=1153