The UK jobs market has had a brutal start to 2026 and one of the biggest worries among workers and jobseekers alike is the rise of artificial intelligence.
Dario Amodei, the chief executive of AI company Anthropic, suggested in January that AI models could replace software engineers within a year. Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, warned in December that the impact of AI would be comparable to the Industrial Revolution when it comes to job disruption.
But while the new technology is threatening many roles, opportunities remain for those willing to work with AI and not against it.
Graham Paterson, chief executive of AI-powered property portal Jitty, said: “AI is going to disrupt many, many industries and traditional careers. Careers that will thrive are ones that blend a high degree of responsibility, require real-world manual skills and some level of data administration and reference work.
“The key is to look for careers where AI can automate lower value tasks but won’t be able to replicate the human touch in higher value parts of the job.”
Here, Telegraph Money reveals 10 jobs that are likely to be helped, not hindered, by AI.
Cybersecurity consultant
Salary expectations: A skills shortage means salaries in cybersecurity are high and rise quickly with experience. Entry-level jobs pay between £25,000 and £40,000, according to technical recruitment consultancy Morson, rising to between £80,000 and £100,000 or more for security architects and chief information and security officers.
The job: Britain now experiences four “nationally significant” cybersecurity attacks a week, according to the National Cyber Security Centre. That means demand for specialists in cybersecurity is only going to increase.
Mr Paterson said: “Scam emails from people claiming to be princes would hardly fool anyone in days gone by – but now criminals can write an email from a loved one using AI-generated photos, their exact tone of voice and even an identical copy of their actual voice.
“This will create a glut of work for cybersecurity professionals, who will benefit from AI tools, as well as an increase in supply of customers.”
How to get started: According to Morson, a broad range of degrees can open the door to a career in cybersecurity, including computer science, IT and software engineering, in addition to dedicated cybersecurity degrees.
If you are already working in the field there are also a number of professional cybersecurity qualifications you can take to help you progress (SSCP, CISSP and CISM).
Teacher
Salary expectations: Pay starts at just under £33,000 for new teachers (outside London) but can rise to more than £50,000 a year as you gain experience – and considerably higher in leadership roles.
The job: While AI can cause difficulties in teaching, particularly with students deferring to tech to do their homework, education is already starting to benefit. Generative AI is starting to play a significant role in education, marking work and creating lesson plans. It may also be used to support students and provide feedback.
“AI will undoubtedly commoditise parts of teaching but it will never be able to take charge of the human relationships with children and help guide a class, and individuals,” said Mr Paterson.
“In a world where the future of employment is shifting, people will see the education of their children as more important than ever – and they won’t trust that to a machine.”
How to get started: If you have a bachelor’s degree in any subject then you can apply for postgraduate teacher training, or you may be able to do a teacher degree apprenticeship.
Paramedic
Salary expectations: Salaries for paramedics start at Band 5 on the NHS pay scale (£31,049 to £37,796), usually rising to Band 6 (£38,682 to £46,580) within two years.
The job: “Paramedics deal with patients far away from a desk and computer, and require in-the-moment decision-making taking into account a variety of factors,” said Mr Paterson.
However, he added that AI could provide important assistance to the vital role: “They will benefit from having more knowledge available when possible and useful – and, from my experience building Deliveroo’s AI dispatch system, I know there will be significant efficiency improvements to scheduling, dispatch and planning.”
How to get started: To work as a paramedic, you’ll need a degree in paramedic science or an apprenticeship degree.
Doctor/GP
Salary expectations: Resident doctors completing their training will earn a salary between £38,831 and £44,439, while doctors working within a speciality can earn between £61,542 and £99,216. Salaries for GPs range between £76,000 and £115,000, depending on experience.
The job: You might not expect AI to take much of a role when you visit your GP but the technology is already being used to reduce time-sapping admin.
“AI note-taking and diagnostic support tools are transforming those precious 15-minute appointment windows,” said Simon James, the managing director of data and AI strategy at Publicis Sapient.
“With less time spent on paperwork, doctors can focus on what drew them to medicine: meaningful patient care, nuanced diagnosis and empathetic communication with patients. This isn’t about replacing human expertise, it’s about removing the obstacles that prevent professionals from applying it fully.”
How to get started: To become a doctor, you’ll need to complete a medicine degree followed by the two-year foundation programme. If you’d like to become a GP then you’ll need specialist training for a further three years.
MRI manager
Salary expectations: The salary range starts at around £31,000, rising to £47,000 for senior radiographers. The average salary for an MRI manager is around £53,000 a year.
The job: AI is playing a significant role in scanning and diagnostics, creating significant opportunities for radiographers within the NHS and the private sector.
Take MRI managers. Their role may include overseeing the safe running of a hospital’s MRI services, while also leading the implementation of new technologies.
Spire Healthcare, for example, has adopted Deep Resolve AI-assisted image reconstruction, which delivers faster scans and improved imaging.
Christopher Gunn, the director of diagnostics at Spire Healthcare, said: “AI enhances image reconstruction but radiographers remain responsible for patient safety, patient care, protocol decisions, positioning, contrast administration and adapting scans in real time.”
He added: “At Spire sites, scan rates increased from 1.9 to 2.3 per hour, meaning waiting times for patients have reduced from an average of three weeks to one week – yet clinical judgement remains central.
“AI allows staff to focus even more on the human connection: to recognise anxiety and help patients through the experience.”
How to get started: To qualify as a radiographer, you’ll need to complete a degree in diagnostic radiography or an apprenticeship degree.
Tech product manager
Salary expectations: £45,000 to £70,000 in a start-up. Bigger tech firms will pay north of £70,000 but they are likely to require more experience.
The job: In a tech business, a product manager is the bridge between the team building the software and the sales team. They’ll gather customer feedback and translate that into new features for the tech team to build.
Kabir Bali, the co-founder of start-up hiring platform Jumpstart, said: “[Product managers] are incredibly important as a product becomes more complex, as they are in charge of prioritising which customer features are most important to company growth and making sure they get built.”
AI and “large language models” (LLMs) have made it much easier to write software but they’re not foolproof.
“In most start-ups these days, engineers spend most of their time prompting an LLM to write the code they want and then reviewing it,” Mr Bali said.
“While this makes the bar for building software a lot lower, it means the skill and intuition for what a ‘good’ product or user experience is has become even more important as we all get inundated with half-baked software apps written by AI. Hence the role of a product manager is becoming more important.”
How to get started: Mr Bali said that applicants will need one to two years in an operations or tech role – either within a start-up or blue-chip consultancy.
AI trainer
Salary expectations: Earnings will vary according to where you choose to specialise. As a guide, Harriet Meyer, an AI trainer, charges between £500 and £5,000 for her courses.
The job: If everyone around you is panicking about AI, there will be an opportunity to help people and businesses use it to their advantage, and there are lots of ways to go about this.
Rather than running from AI, Ms Meyer, a journalist, has embraced it with open arms. She now runs AI for Media and provides training courses for journalists and PR teams to help them make the most of the new technology without losing that all-important human touch.
“I started experimenting with generative AI years ago, driven by fear of being replaced by a machine brain,” she said. “At the time, I was working as an editor and wanted to get ahead of the curve.
“I soon became utterly fascinated by AI, spending hours every day learning about this new technology and how it was changing our lives. I wanted to help others in my industry thrive in the age of AI without losing their minds or their humanity.”
AI for Media offers bespoke workshops, consultancy and one-to-ones.
“I also work as an AI speaker and this is enabling me to travel around the world delivering masterclasses. I couldn’t have done this without the help of my little team of AI assistants,” Ms Meyer said.
Similar experts will exist for different fields – and, if they don’t, perhaps you could take a similar route to fill the gap.
How to get started: Ms Meyer had more than 20 years of experience working as a financial journalist before she became an expert in AI.
Anaesthetist
Salary expectations: The average salary for an anaesthetist who has completed their training is £95,637 a year.
The job: AI can play a valuable role in supporting patients while they are under the knife: monitoring their breathing, blood pressure and anaesthesia throughout surgery. But it can’t replace a human anaesthetist.
Mr Paterson said: “AI will be able to provide faster referencing of how different drugs and conditions interact, as well as be able to calculate quantities faster with fewer mistakes. However, anaesthetists hold a vital role of keeping the patient stable in case they’re needed, much like a pilot in the cockpit of a plane that largely flies itself.”
How to get started: If you want to become an anaesthetist then you’ll first need to complete your doctor training (obtaining a degree in medicine, followed by the two-year foundation programme). You’ll then need to start paid specialist training to become an anaesthetist, which can take seven or eight years.
Social media and content executive
Salary expectations: £30,000 to £50,000 a year
The job: It’s a social media and content executive’s job to promote their brand online and across platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and X.
In addition to creating content, they manage posting schedules, launch campaigns and play a key role in shaping the image and voice of their company online.
Mr Bali said: “AI can generate content quickly but it cannot build curated ‘taste’, cultural relevance or genuine 360-degree brand voice. As more companies flood social media with generic AI-written posts, the ability to create distinctive, high-quality content becomes more valuable.”
How to get started: This can be a relatively junior role, with hirers looking for one to three years’ experience in a marketing, media or start-up environment. But Mr Bali said a strong personal presence on social media is often valued more than formal qualifications.
Machine learning engineer
Salary expectations: Entry-level jobs start at around £35,000 a year, but can rise to £80,000 within three to five years.
Guy Allen, the director at Futura Talent, which specialises in technology recruitment, said: “Senior roles can go well beyond £100,000 and in top tech and finance firms, total packages (including equity and bonuses) can approach and even exceed £200,000 in exceptional cases.”
The job: Last but not least, you could lead the charge by becoming a machine learning engineer, a role that combines data analysis with software engineering.
Machine learning involves building programs and algorithms to teach computers to learn and work independently without further programming.
Mr Allen said: “Machine learning can be used anywhere there is a predictive or pattern recognition element. In pharmaceuticals and biotech, these systems analyse complex biological data to predict which molecules are most likely to become effective new medicines.
“In finance, they help detect potentially fraudulent or suspicious transactions. In healthcare, image recognition systems can be used to support clinicians in identifying diseases such as cancer more efficiently. In transport and robotics, they’re used in self-driving cars, advanced robotics and industrial automation.”
Although AI is increasingly being used in these roles, companies are still seeking experts.
Mr Allen added: “Some coding tasks are becoming partially automated by AI tools but this isn’t reducing the demand for these roles, so much as shifting their focus to ensuring solutions are reliable, secure, compliant and deployed responsibly.
“As AI becomes more embedded across more industries, the need for people who can implement and manage it safely is likely to remain significant.”
How to get started: Employers will typically look for applicants with degrees in computer science, electrical engineering or maths, potentially with more specialist postgraduate studies. Computer programming experience is also essential.