The backdrop is cautious. The wider labour market is currently described as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies have dropped below pre-pandemic levels the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report. Employers aren't cutting hard, but they are hiring slowly and deliberately.
There are signs of a turn. Permanent placements have finally stabilised, ending a decline in place since Liz Truss's premiership 45 months ago, while temporary billings increased for a fourth consecutive month the REC and KPMG Report on Jobs. For finance leaders, that means a market where every hire counts and the bar for who gets a seat is rising.
When finance teams do recruit, they recruit high. In financial services, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3-5 the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report. In plain terms, that's degree-level and above, the kind of work that leans on expertise and decision-making, not data entry.
AI is moving fast through the sector. Demand for AI skills increased nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK Accenture data reported by The Register. Much of that demand sits around the financial centre, where agents are already handling reconciliation, reporting and first-pass analysis.
The scale of change ahead is large. For the total of AI-related occupations, the net change ranges from approximately 696,000 jobs in the Automation Scenario to 1,072,000 in the Technological Opportunities Scenario, with replacement demand rising from 3,077,000 to 3,193,000 jobs across these scenarios GOV.UK's AI skills labour market projections. The jobs don't vanish so much as shift towards oversight, interpretation and judgement.
The system is gearing up for it too. During London Tech Week 2025, the UK government announced a partnership to upskill 7.5 million UK workers in essential AI skills by 2030, equivalent to around 20% of the UK workforce techUK. For finance teams, the question is no longer whether agents will do the volume work. It's who you want sitting on top of it.
Start by separating the task from the person. If an agent can draft the reconciliation or the first version of a report, you're no longer hiring for speed on that task. You're hiring for the person who can read the output, spot what's wrong and decide what to do next.
Hire for reasoning. Ask candidates to walk you through a messy, real decision: an unusual variance, a control that failed, a number that didn't make sense. Listen for how they frame the problem, question the data and weigh the risk. That tells you far more than a timed test of throughput.
Prioritise judgement under uncertainty, comfort with ambiguity and the ability to explain a call to non-finance colleagues. With recruitment concentrated at RQF 6+ roles the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report, you're already competing for people who can think, so your process should test thinking, not typing.
And move with intent. In a 'low hire, low fire' market the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report, strong people stay put and weigh their options carefully, so a slow, vague process loses them. Be clear on the role, the problems they'll own and how AI fits their day.
This is exactly the kind of matching an agent does well. We search 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds and help you reach matched people in under a minute, so you spend your time on the judgement calls that matter: assessing how someone reasons, not chasing CVs. 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. Try us on your next finance role today.
