A mysterious act of vandalism in Cornwall has thrown a stark, spray-painted question onto the nation's walls: is an AI-driven jobs apocalypse imminent? Police are searching for a masked individual captured on CCTV daubing the phrase "AI will take our jobs" across several sites in the villages of Polbathic, Widegates, and Crafthole.
The Human Fear vs. The AI Reassurance
The graffiti artist's stark warning taps into a deep-seated anxiety for many workers. The pervasive fear is that artificial intelligence will eventually make it easier, cheaper, and more efficient for businesses to rely on technology than to employ, train, and manage human staff with their inherent needs and rights.
When posed the same question, AI chatbots like ChatGPT often offer a reassuring historical perspective, arguing that major technological shifts have historically created more work than they destroyed. Yet, as Christian May, Editor-in-Chief, notes, this placating answer can feel suspiciously self-serving coming from the technology itself.
The Current UK Reality: A Tech Skills Boom
While fears of mass displacement persist, the immediate impact of AI on the UK labour market is telling a different story. Demand for tech expertise is currently soaring. According to data from TotalJobs, mentions of tech-related capabilities in UK job adverts increased by 12 per cent between 2024 and 2025.
Furthermore, one in four recruiters now ranks AI proficiency as the most valuable skill when deciding pay rises or promotions. This demand is translating directly into wages: two-thirds of tech workers received a pay increase in the last year, significantly above the national average.
Separate research by Robert Half confirms this trend, finding that 56 per cent of UK firms plan to expand their technology teams in the first half of 2026.
Analysts Divided on the Scale of Disruption
Despite the booming tech sector, concerns about displacement are not unfounded. Many analysts, including those at the World Bank, suggest that entry-level and graduate positions are the most vulnerable to automation by AI.
However, the debate is far from settled. Oxford Economics expressed scepticism in a recent note, questioning whether companies can seamlessly substitute workers with AI, even in the most susceptible sectors. They point out that if widespread replacement was already happening, measures of labour productivity should be sharply rising as output is maintained with fewer workers—a phenomenon not yet evident in the data.
As things stand, employment taxes and increased labour costs are currently seen as a far more significant driver of unemployment than AI. The Cornish graffiti artist has undoubtedly highlighted a critical national conversation, but as the evidence suggests, their message might benefit from a few nuanced caveats.
