City Hall report puts a million London jobs in AI’s exposure zone

TL;DR:

• A new 71-page Greater London Authority report finds at least one million London jobs are “highly or significantly exposed” to generative AI, with 46% of all London workers — 2.4 million people — in roles where some tasks could be automated.
• Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan will use a Bloomberg CityLab speech in Madrid to argue that 7% of large UK businesses have already cut staff because of AI, calling complacency a risk.
• The 46% London exposure figure sits above the 38% UK national average, repositioning the capital — not just the manufacturing belt — as the centre of gravity for the UK’s AI labour-market debate.

A new study commissioned by City Hall and authored by economist Jeff Dwan-O’Reilly puts hard numbers behind warnings about generative AI’s impact on London’s workforce. According to the 71-page Greater London Authority report, at least one million jobs done by Londoners are “highly or significantly exposed” to AI, with more than 300,000 administrative roles facing the highest level of exposure because their clerical work most closely overlaps with current generative AI capabilities. A further 748,000 roles in IT, data analysis and secretarial work are flagged as variably at risk.

The report says 46% of London’s workforce — around 2.4 million people — sit in jobs where generative AI could automate part of their tasks, against a 38% UK average. Women, who are overrepresented in administrative and clerical roles, young people and graduates emerge as the most exposed groups. Brokers, web designers, telephone salespeople and journalists are also named, while architects, barbers, chefs, chief executives, driving instructors, florists and undertakers are flagged as least at risk.

How this fits the wider UK conversation

The findings echo, and quietly upgrade, recent commentary from former prime minister Rishi Sunak — now an adviser to Anthropic and Microsoft — who argued last week that AI is flattening the jobs market for young people in law, accountancy and creative industries. Where Sunak’s intervention was qualitative, City Hall now offers a city-level dataset and a clear gap between London (46%) and the rest of the UK (38%), suggesting concentrated exposure in financial and professional services rather than evenly distributed risk.

Speaking at the Bloomberg CityLab Summit in Madrid, Sir Sadiq Khan will say a “hands-off approach” could “cause significant harm to London’s labour market” and cite a finding that 7% of large UK businesses have already used AI to cut staff. He emphasises that high exposure does not guarantee job losses — the same tasks could be augmented rather than eliminated — but argues “we cannot afford to be complacent”.

Looking forward

For UK SMEs and London-based employers, the practical implication is that workforce planning conversations need to move from generic “AI will change jobs” framing to specific occupational mapping. The GLA’s exposure breakdown gives HR and operations leaders a credible starting point: clerical and back-office roles need redesign now, while client-facing and craft roles have more time. Politically, expect City Hall to use the report to argue for skills funding, retraining commitments and possibly conditions on public-sector AI procurement — a domain where the capital’s AI strategy could diverge from Westminster’s.