- Sadiq Khan warns AI could drive mass unemployment if rolled out without safeguards.
- London may be more exposed because it depends heavily on white collar industries.
- Entry level roles could be hit first, weakening career pathways for young workers.
- A new taskforce and free training aim to help Londoners adapt to AI at work.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has issued a stark warning about the pace of Artificial Intelligence adoption, saying it could usher in “a new era of mass unemployment” if governments and businesses fail to act quickly and responsibly.
Speaking to business leaders, Khan argued that London is uniquely exposed to AI driven disruption because the city’s economy leans heavily on professional services and white collar work. Industries such as finance, law, consulting, marketing, and accounting are not just major employers in the capital, they are also precisely the kinds of roles AI tools are getting better at supporting or, in some cases, replacing outright.
His message was blunt: the next phase of AI will not only reshape the way people work, it could remove entire career pathways, especially for those at the start of their working lives.
Entry level roles could be first in the firing line
Khan’s biggest concern is what happens to junior positions, the stepping stone jobs that traditionally help people build skills, gain experience, and climb into more senior roles over time. He suggested that entry level roles are likely to be hit first, as businesses look to automate repetitive tasks, streamline operations, and cut costs.
That matters because many early career jobs are built around structured learning and routine work. Those are exactly the areas where AI excels, whether it’s drafting documents, preparing basic reports, handling customer queries, summarising meetings, or generating first pass creative concepts.
Khan framed the issue as more than a business efficiency debate. He called it a moral, social, and economic responsibility, urging leaders to think beyond short term gains and consider the long term impact on employment, opportunity, and stability across the city.
A new London taskforce aims to prepare workers for the shift
Alongside the warning, Khan announced the launch of a London taskforce focused on AI and the future of work. The aim is to better understand how AI could reshape employment across the capital and to help reduce the harm where possible.
A key part of that response is free AI training for London residents, designed to help people adapt as workplaces evolve. The training push reflects a growing recognition that AI literacy is quickly becoming a baseline skill, not a specialist advantage. In other words, knowing how to work with AI tools may soon matter as much as knowing how to use spreadsheets or email.
The taskforce will also assess where AI could have the most damaging effects, particularly in sectors that employ large numbers of office based workers. London’s dense concentration of professional services makes it a high stakes testing ground for the future of AI in the workplace.
“Superpower” or “weapon” depends on how it’s used
Despite the strong language, Khan did not present AI as an automatic disaster. Instead, he positioned it as a turning point, where choices made now will decide whether the technology becomes an economic accelerator or a destabilising force.
He offered a clear challenge to business leaders: use AI responsibly and harness it as a tool for positive change, or ignore the risks and watch it become a “weapon of mass destruction” for jobs.
Khan also acknowledged the potential upside, echoing broader government optimism around AI’s ability to transform public services, boost productivity, and tackle complex problems. In that framing, AI could improve efficiency, reduce backlogs, and free up human workers for tasks that require judgement, empathy, and creativity.
But the benefits, he suggested, are not guaranteed. They depend on careful deployment, workforce planning, and policies that prevent the gains from being concentrated among a small group while everyone else absorbs the disruption.
The warning comes at a time when many workers are already bracing for change. More than half of Londoners reportedly expect their job to shift in the next year because of AI, a sign that the technology is no longer a distant concept but a near term reality.
Meanwhile, concerns are rising at the highest levels of the financial system too, with warnings that AI will replace some roles and that the market could face a sharp correction if the current AI boom cools suddenly.
That combination, job displacement plus economic turbulence, could put workers under pressure from multiple directions at once.
At the same time, the UK government is pushing ahead with major AI ambitions, including significant investment plans and large scale infrastructure projects aimed at embedding AI deeper into industry and public life. The tension is clear: accelerate adoption to stay competitive, but do it too recklessly and the social cost could be severe.
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