The signal is loud and it points at people, not pounds. 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 The Register (Accenture data). When demand nearly triples in twelve months, the first thing to run short is qualified people, and that is exactly the pattern we see in safety-focused teams.
Government sees the same gap and is trying to close it at scale. 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. That is a big bet on supply, but it takes years to land, so the near-term constraint stays firmly on the talent side.
The hard part is depth, not headcount. The proportion of employers struggling to fill vacancies has declined, but a comparison with the Cyber Security Skills 2024 report showed 70% of cyber firms reported at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. Safety and security roles share that profile: they need judgement built over years, and you cannot shortcut it with budget alone.
Pay dynamics add another twist. Top technology firms can pay sizeable wages to skilled migrants, leading to wages far above the salary threshold, while pay for engineering professionals on the Skilled Worker route is broadly in line with the UK average Professionals in IT and Engineering (Migration Advisory Committee), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. A small group of senior specialists commands intense competition, while the broader engineering base is more evenly spread. For safety teams, the scarce tier is where the real pressure sits.
There is a promising shift in how teams build talent, though. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. That tells us more employers are growing their own specialists rather than waiting for the market to supply them.
Start by splitting the problem. A handful of senior safety specialists need to be sourced actively and quickly, because they rarely sit on the open market for long. The rest of the team, the engineers and analysts who do the daily work, can be hired more broadly and grown over time. Given that apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report, a build-and-buy mix is now a proven route, not a backup plan.
The common thread is speed and reach. When the constraint is people, the teams that win are the ones that see more of the market and act on the right candidates before anyone else does.
This is where we help. We search 15 million candidates to surface people with the depth your safety-critical roles demand, and we rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds so you can move on the scarce senior tier fast. 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. If talent is your live constraint, let us find the right people for your AI safety team.
