Nearly one-in-four UK business leaders pretend to know more about AI than they actually do, while even more are worried that their lack of expertise will affect career prospects.

New research from Emergn found that 23% admit to bluffing about their AI knowledge, with 38% believing their career will suffer unless they drastically improve their AI skills within the next year.

Despite the fact that every respondent had been in their role for at least five years, 22% said they feel anxious or lose sleep over how fast AI is changing their industry, with the same proportion feeling out of their depth because of AI’s impact on their role.

Training, though, is thin on the ground. Only 43% of UK senior leaders told researchers they had taken part in substantial, ongoing AI training in the past 12 months.

Four-in-ten, meanwhile, said that they’d change jobs if a new employer offered better AI training.

Workers are worried about AI skills capabilities

These concerns extend to their staff, with more than four-in-ten leaders saying they rate AI skills above formal qualifications, and 36% saying delivery performance would deteriorate significantly if their most experienced transformation people left.

“It is hard to admit you do not understand something when you are supposed to be the person with the answers. But pretending leaves you with the same unanswered question tomorrow. Employers need to make it easier for people to say where they are stuck and get useful help,” said Alex Adamopoulos, CEO at Emergn.

“If someone is worrying about their career or losing sleep over AI, telling them to keep up is not much of an answer. Give them time to learn and coaching they can use in the working day. People need to see a future for themselves as the work changes.”

It’s not just leaders that are bluffing about their AI skills. A survey earlier this year from Pluralsight found that 79% of tech workers pretend to know more about AI than they actually do.

Despite this, though, nine-in-ten tech workers and execs said they believed they have the necessary skills to use AI in their day-to-day roles.

Earlier this year, the government launched a new program to train 10 million people in practical AI skills for work.

The idea is to teach them to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace for tasks such as drafting text, creating content and completing administrative tasks.

Broadly speaking, the UK is severely lacking in AI skills, according to a report from the Learning and Work Institute and The Rigby Foundation.

Comprehensive AI upskilling could help boost UK productivity by 2.3% by 2035, creating a net present value of £80 billion over the next nine years.

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