The barrier to progress in UK manufacturing is people, not machines. Over 50% of manufacturers cite skills shortages as the main barrier to AI adoption, and only 2% say AI is widely embedded across their operations, according to The Manufacturer's report with Make UK on AI, skills and the future of UK manufacturing. In other words, firms are buying the tools faster than they can staff them.
The gap is visible in how the UK uses automation. The country ranks just 24th in global robotics density, and targeted innovation and digital investment could add £150 billion to the UK's GDP by 2035, as set out by Make UK's Making it Smarter report on accelerating automation. That lag is confirmed elsewhere: the UK used only 101 robots per 10,000 workers in 2020, a figure cited in the government's Smart Machines Strategy 2035, drawing on International Federation of Robotics data. The productivity prize is real, but it needs people who can run the technology.
Automation and digitalisation are reshaping the jobs on the floor. 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, per Make UK's 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap report. Cognitive and meta-cognitive skills are the thinking skills: planning, judgement, and knowing when to step in.
That is exactly what directing an agent well looks like. A plant planner who can brief an AI scheduling or inventory agent, check its output, and correct it when conditions change turns a tool into a result. The same shift is already visible in neighbouring sectors: retail and logistics were already actively integrating AI to improve customer insights and streamline functions such as inventory management and supply chains, notes the government's AI adoption research. Manufacturing planners who master that oversight role stand out because the demand is rising faster than the supply.
Start by hiring for judgement, not just tool experience. Look for people who can explain a decision, read a dashboard critically and override a system when the shop floor tells a different story. The thinking skills matter most because 74% of manufacturers expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030, as Make UK's 2030 Skills report makes clear.
Then widen the net. Many of the right people are not actively job hunting, and 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, a figure that increases for firms with more than 1,000 employees, according to the Make UK Executive Survey 2026. So build a pipeline that mixes external hires with internal talent you train up, and move quickly: the people who can direct agents well are the ones every competitor also wants.
Practical steps help. Write job adverts around outcomes and oversight, not a long list of named systems. Test for reasoning in interviews with a real scheduling problem. And keep the process short, because a slow hiring loop loses the strongest planners to faster employers.
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