The study, carried out by Opinium in April 2026 across four cohorts — 2,000 UK adults, 1,000 young people aged 16–29, 1,000 university students, and 506 employers — found that fear of AI's economic effects is widespread and cuts across age, sector, and seniority. One in five respondents believe AI will eliminate jobs fast enough to cause civil unrest; among university students, that figure rises to one in three.
The employer–public divergence is one of the more structurally significant findings. Where 48% of employers believe AI will create as many or more jobs as it displaces, only 17% of the general public agree. Employers also report materially different workplace realities: 86% say they have seen productivity improvements from AI adoption, and 92% say they are already using AI in some area of their organisation. Twenty-two percent have already made roles redundant or reduced hiring because of AI — a proportion that rises to 29% among large organisations.
Among workers, the pattern is less straightforward. While 55% of workers say they are not worried about AI replacing their own role, graduate workers are notably more anxious: 45% expressed concern, including 19% who are very worried. University students are the group most likely to anticipate a tough job market on graduation — a majority expect conditions will be worse by the time they finish their degree.
The research captures a tension that is likely to define the regulatory debate over the next few years: strong public appetite for intervention alongside a business community that is moving quickly and largely optimistically. Majorities across all groups back government-guaranteed retraining for displaced workers (53%) and a tax on companies that replace workers with AI to fund retraining (53%). Two-thirds favour close regulation of AI firms even if it slows development.
Professor Elena Simperl, Director of The King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence, said: "These findings tell us something important: the British public isn't asking us to slow down on AI, they're asking us to do it better. People want these tools, they want more of them, and they've used them enough to know where they fall short. Employers see creative thinking as the top benefit AI can offer, ahead of productivity, but the public and the experts both doubt that today's tools deliver this.
Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of The Policy Institute at King's College London, said: "The public, workers, young people and university students are watching the rapid development of AI with more fear than excitement, with real concern for what it will do to jobs, particularly at entry levels, and, therefore, the prospects for our young people and the economy in general.
The full report is available at King's College London's Policy Institute website. The findings are being launched at the King's AI Summit: Workforce Futures on 19–20 May.
