Think of it as a split between speed and accountability. A PLC, or programmable logic controller, is the small computer that runs a machine. The "block" is a chunk of its logic. An AI agent can now draft that routine logic fast: timers, sequences, standard motion. The "interlocks" are the safety conditions that stop a machine doing something dangerous. Those stay with people. A human engineer reviews what the agent wrote, checks it against the plant and the people near it, and signs it off. The agent produces a first draft; the person owns the outcome.
This matters because adoption is still early. Only 2% of manufacturers say AI is widely embedded across their operations The Manufacturer / Make UK – AI, Skills and the Future of UK Manufacturing. So the near-term win is not full automation. It's giving skilled engineers a faster way to produce routine code while they keep hold of the parts that carry risk.
The appetite is there, the people aren't. Over 50% of manufacturers cite skills shortages as the main barrier to AI adoption The Manufacturer / Make UK – AI, Skills and the Future of UK Manufacturing. That's the headline problem: firms want to adopt, but can't find the people to do it safely.
The wider shortage sets the backdrop. Skills shortages rank as the top barrier to growth for 75% of manufacturers, with recruitment at 36% and talent retention at 32% Barclays Corporate – Skills shortage in UK Manufacturing. And the gap has a price: in 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year Make UK – Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025.
The prize for closing that gap is large. Targeted innovation and digital investment could add £150 billion to the UK's GDP by 2035, with the UK currently ranking just 24th in global robotics density Making it Smarter: Global Lessons for Accelerating Automation and Digital Adoption in UK Manufacturing - Make UK. The firms that pair agents with the right people first will move up that ranking fastest.
The job is shifting from writing code to verifying it. Six in ten (59%) manufacturers cited automation and half (50%) cited wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs, and 74% expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030 Make UK – 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap. In plain terms, that means judgement, problem-solving and the ability to reason about what a machine is doing become the premium skills.
That's exactly the engineer you want owning interlocks. Someone who can read an agent's PLC block, spot where it misses a safety condition, and understand the physical consequence on the floor. The agent handles the routine; the person brings the context the agent doesn't have.
Many firms are building this capability from within. 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, a figure that rises for firms with more than 1,000 employees Make UK Executive Survey 2026. Upskilling and hiring work together here: you grow verification skills in your current team and bring in new people who already have them.
Start by rewriting the job, not just the advert. If an agent now drafts routine logic, the role you're hiring for is review, verification and safety ownership. Test for that in the interview. Ask the person to critique a flawed block of logic, not to write one from scratch. You're looking for someone who asks what happens if a sensor fails, not someone who just makes the code compile.
Prioritise the cognitive skills the data points to. With 74% of manufacturers expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to rise by 2030 Make UK – 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap, judgement and reasoning matter more than a long list of specific software tools. Tools change; the ability to catch a dangerous mistake doesn't.
Move quickly once you know what good looks like. With 55,000 long-term vacancies unfilled Make UK – Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025, the engineers who can do this work don't stay on the market long.
When you know the skills you need, we help you find the person fast. We search a database of 15 million candidates and return a ranked shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched people in under a minute, and can book an interview in under three minutes. Those are system speeds, so you spend your time on the judgement calls, not the admin.
Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. It's built around one thing: finding the right engineer to own your interlocks while agents take on the routine. Tell us the role, and we'll start the shortlist today.
