Sadiq Khan’s AI fearmongering will set London back
Sadiq Khan’s warnings about AI has made London look like a city anxious, rather than ambitious, about AI. Investors will take note, writes Kulveer Ranger
London has heard this warning before. The current Mayor of London has proclaimed that artificial intelligence (AI) could trigger an “era of mass unemployment” in the capital. Alongside this, City Hall will announce a new taskforce on AI and the future of work, plus free AI training for Londoners. Preparing people for change is sensible. But Mayor Khan’s framing of AI primarily as a threat risks repeating a familiar and costly mistake made by many who don’t understand how business and particularly the tech industry work. I know this because we have been here before.
In 2010, when I established City Hall’s first Digital Office, London was standing on the brink of the app economy and a data-driven revolution. At the time, many voices raised similar alarms: technology would destroy jobs, hollow out industries and concentrate opportunity elsewhere. Instead, London chose to lead. The result was one of the most transformative growth periods in the city’s modern economic history.
Between 2009 and 2012 alone, the number of digital and technology firms in London surged from around 50,000 to more than 88,000. These businesses employed approximately 582,000 people and accounted for over a quarter of all new jobs created in the capital during that period. Far from mass unemployment, digital innovation became one of London’s most powerful engines of job creation.
That momentum did not fade. Technology employment in London grew by roughly 60 per cent over the following decade, consistently outpacing growth in the wider economy. London went on to become Europe’s leading tech hub, attracting more venture capital than Paris, Berlin and Stockholm combined, and drawing billions in global investment year after year. None of this happened by accident. It happened because London’s civic leadership understood a basic truth: new technologies do not simply replace work – they reshape it. Jobs change, skills evolve and entirely new industries emerge. The task of government is not to dampen innovation, but to ensure the city is positioned to benefit from it. That is why the current rhetoric around AI matters.
London must project AI ambition
AI is not a marginal technology. It is a foundational, platform shift – much like mobile internet, cloud computing and data analytics were a decade ago. It is already embedded across London’s strongest sectors: financial services, life sciences, creative industries, legal and professional services, logistics and advanced manufacturing. In many cases, AI is augmenting human capability rather than replacing it, making workers more productive, not redundant. We are already seeing this play out in the labour market. Demand for AI and advanced tech skills continues to rise, with specialist roles growing faster than many traditional white-collar professions. Software and computer services now employ more people in London than several long-established sectors that were once thought untouchable.
The danger is not that AI will arrive too quickly. The danger is that London talks itself out of leadership. Cities compete globally for capital, companies and talent. If London’s leadership projects anxiety rather than ambition, investment will not pause out of politeness. It will flow to places that offer confidence, clarity and support for innovation. New York, Paris and Singapore are not waiting to decide whether AI is frightening before backing their tech ecosystems. They are moving.
That is why the Mayor’s language matters as much as his policy announcements. Free AI training is welcome, but training alone is not a strategy. A taskforce is useful, but it cannot substitute for a clear, pro-growth vision. The leader of one of the world’s great global cities should be championing AI businesses, not warning that they may hollow out the workforce. London is uniquely well placed to lead the AI age. We have world-class universities producing cutting-edge research, deep pools of global talent, mature capital markets and a startup ecosystem that has already proven it can scale ideas into global companies. These are advantages other cities would envy.
Of course, there are challenges. Technological change always creates disruption. That is precisely why leadership matters – not to stoke fear, but to guide transition, support reskilling and ensure opportunity is broad-based. In the 2010s, London did this successfully with digital and data-driven growth. There is no reason it cannot do so again with AI. The lesson from the last major tech wave is clear: opportunity accrues to cities that shape change, not those that resist it. London’s prosperity has always been built on openness, ingenuity and ambition. Talking down AI risks undermining all three.
The future of work is not something that simply happens to London. It is something London can help define. But only if its leadership chooses confidence over caution, and champions innovation rather than fearing it.
Lord Kulveer Ranger is former digital adviser to Mayor Boris Johnson