Data skills gaps are stopping employees and businesses from making the most of the AI revolution, according to research by Multiverse.
Addressing this could unlock more than £60bn for the UK economy, the skills platform said, with workers able to boost their efficiency by 38%.
The company analysed skills data from more than 14,500 employees across 16 industries, revealing that knowledge economy workers lose 27 days a year due to ineffective data handling, up from 25 days last year.
Fewer than a quarter of those surveyed (23%) use generative AI tools, although nine in 10 want to improve their skills in this area. It found that 95% of workers rated themselves as having “no or basic” Microsoft Copilot skills, for example.
Multiverse believes the lost productivity due to poor data handling skills equates to 4.7 hours lost each week, meaning the UK is failing to capitalise on the potential of AI.
Almost half (49%) lack skills in data visualisation, 48% do not feel they can use data to tell a story, and 54% struggle to make data analysis more efficient. With more effective data usage, they could generate more effective insights to power AI, Multiverse argues.
The sectors most affected by the data skills gap were healthcare, defence and food and beverage, spending 41.2%, 38.8% and 38% of their time working with data inefficiently.
Financial services also lags behind, losing 32.5% or 25 days per year of productivity.
Based on the average UK salary in knowledge-based sectors (£65,428.48pa), this means the cost to British businesses could be £61.94bn.
Euan Blair, Founder and CEO of Multiverse, said: “The conversation needs to shift from ‘what can AI do?’ to ‘what can our people do with AI?’”
“This should be a wake up call: the real barrier to AI adoption isn’t the technology itself, it’s the capability of the workforce to use it. It’s like everyone’s got access to iPhones but they’re only using them to make calls.
“The strategic imperative is clear: invest in deep, role-specific training that empowers employees not just to use AI, but to innovate with it safely and effectively.”
Earlier this week, a fall in entry-level jobs in the UK labour market was blamed on how ChatGPT and other generative AI tools has transformed how companies operate and hire.
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