Sunak: AI Reduces Youth Hiring, UK Can Lead in Deployment

Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that artificial intelligence is flattening the jobs market for young people, with company bosses privately acknowledging reduced recruitment due to the technology. Sunak said concerns from graduates looking for entry-level jobs were justified, particularly in service sectors such as law, accountancy, and the creative industries.

He stated that chief executives think they can continue to grow their businesses without increasing employment because they are starting to see how they can deploy AI.

To address this, Sunak suggested that governments should eliminate National Insurance to make hiring workers more attractive. He proposed rebalancing the tax system by abolishing National Insurance over time and replacing it with taxes on corporate profits.

Sunak said taxes on corporate profits would be boosted by productivity and efficiencies in deploying AI. Sunak said lots of countries will have to examine how to rebalance their systems as they face raising less revenue from employment taxes and have to find that money elsewhere.

"We should be thinking about, well, how do we tip the balance in favour of AI being used in that positive way… to help people do their jobs better [rather than replacing them]," he told BBC Newsnight.

" Sunak was appointed as an advisor to both Anthropic and Microsoft last year. He is also a senior adviser at investment bank Goldman Sachs. During his time as prime minister, Sunak set up an AI safety summit in 2023.