UK AI JobsExpected · in use · happened
Deeper cuts · the wallet · does AI come for the good jobs?

Where AI hits the wallet.

The fear says AI comes for the good jobs: graduate, white-collar, high-paid. £288bn of UK wages do sit in high-exposure (AI 7+) roles. This page follows the money: which pools sit where on the exposure curve, why the worst-placed money is in the middle, and the one place the bite has a gender.

High-exposure wage pool
£288B
AI 7+ roles
The unclear middle
£188B
AI 5–6, worst outlook
Women in the shrinking zone
1.0M
high-exposure, declining
Median UK earner
£28.4k
for context, all earners
The measured pay gradient runs opposite to the fear: automation-style usage falls from 57.9% in the lowest-paid fifth to 49.3% at the top. The full staircase, confounds included →

The money isn't all at the high end.

£846bn total · bar = wages, colour = outlook (green grows, red shrinks)

The biggest wage pools sit at exposure 3 and 7. The worst-placed money is the unclear middle (5–6): £188bn of wages on the lowest average outlook in the dataset.

AI 7+ · £288bn£521£832£1263£1094£1005£886£1607£648£649← less exposed · AI exposure score · more exposed →

The one place it bites hardest has a gender.

Same AI exposure (7+), opposite directions, and the workforces are mirror images. The roles AI is set to shrink are 69% women; the ones it's set to grow are 68% men. AI doesn't close the occupational gender gap. It locks it in.

Shrinks with AI
AI 7+, declining
69% women
31% men
1.3M women596.0K men
Grows with AI
AI 7+, growing
32% women
68% men
759.0K women1.6M men

The full gender cut: including the measured twist that reverses the usual claim →

The per-occupation wage pools come from the 738-occupation dataset (NCS pay × ONS employment); they are bases in play, not forecasts of wages lost. Median UK earner: HMRC / ONS all-earner income percentiles.