Companies have abandoned London for ‘false promise' of New York, says stock exchange group chief
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The chief executive of the company behind the London stock exchange has hit out at the "false narrative" that has lured major UK-listed companies to ...
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The Irish Sun
38 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
UK Government's Casement Park boost hailed as ‘milestone' by GAA
THE DECISION of the UK Government to contribute €59million to the redevelopment of Casement Park has been described as 'a milestone' by the GAA. Amid a row over funding, uncertainty surrounded the future of the west Belfast venue since it lost its 2 Pacemaker Press 04-09-2024: Casement Park principal Gaelic games stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press. 2 GAA President Jarlath Burns welcomed the decision by the UK government - but more funds are still needed But the latest commitment from Westminster is a considerable boost as €140m has already been pledged by the GAA, the Stormont Executive and the Irish Government. 'We thank the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, the Chancellor of The Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, and the UK Government for their positive and generous contribution to ensure our provincial stadium at Casement Park is finally realised. 'From taking office, the Secretary of State was clear that Casement Park needs to be delivered. read more on gaa 'He recognised the GAA's commitment and goodwill in sharing venues for the benefit of everyone in our society. 'His support and that of the UK Government now represents a critical opportunity to finish this NI Executive flagship project, delivering the last remaining stadium of the 14-year Regional Stadia Programme and helping to leave a lasting legacy for all of society.' But with the Casement Park project set to cost approximately €305m, a shortfall of over €100m must still be met. Burns added: 'We know, however, that this is not the final piece of the jigsaw. Most read in GAA Football 'There is much more work to do.' GAA fans 'loved seeing and hearing' the late Micheal O Muircheartaigh as he features in RTE documentary Hell for Leather
Irish Times
38 minutes ago
- Irish Times
‘This latest generation of AI could change every job': are fears of a slash and burn of white-collar roles well founded?
During Ocado's most recent earnings call, chief executive Tim Steiner said the group's advances in artificial intelligence and robotics had allowed it to fulfil online grocery shops at an ever faster pace. In 2012 it took 25 minutes of human labour to pick a 50-item order. That is now down to 10. But Ocado's technological progress means the company requires 500 fewer workers this year, after it already announced 2,300 jobs would be at risk in 2023. The UK company's move over many years to phase down human labour where feasible exemplifies workers' fears about generative AI: it may boost productivity, efficiency and profitability but it can also displace staff. Some businesses are yet to embrace the shift but many have spent more than a year experimenting and engaging in workplace pilots. READ MORE 'Companies are moving from asking, 'What is our AI strategy?' to experimenting ... implementing generative AI into processes,' says Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn. 'It is starting to change the landscape of work.' Now employees, bosses and policymakers are trying to decipher what exactly the benefits of generative AI look like. 'This latest generation of AI could change every job. I don't think that is too much of an exaggeration,' says Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK's professional body for HR and people development. 'Of course you can see examples where AI in different forms is already making a difference to their workforce, but it's still early days for many companies.' [ Job numbers in occupations exposed to AI up 94% in Ireland since 2019 Opens in new window ] It is primarily changing roles, not eliminating them, enabling humans to focus on more value-add elements of their jobs. Many employers are cutting jobs under the guise of economic and political uncertainty. But high-profile examples of AI-driven lay-offs in recent months, from technology company IBM to language learning app Duolingo, are fuelling questions about whether a slash and burn of white-collar roles is under way. The 42-year-old billionaire Dario Amodei, who runs AI developer Anthropic, has warned the technology he and peers such as OpenAI are building could wipe out half of all entry-level office jobs in the next five years. Already, graduates account for just 7 per cent of hires across the 15 biggest technology companies, with the number of new recruits down a quarter compared with 2023, according to SignalFire, a venture capital firm. 'AI is starting to get better than humans at almost all intellectual tasks, and we're going to collectively, as a society, grapple with it,' Amodei told television network CNN last month. 'AI is going to get better at what everyone does, including what I do, including what other CEOs do.' Academics, recruiters and management consultants are split on whether talk of a bloodbath is just scaremongering or a clear-eyed view of AI's potential to shake up the labour market. But even if AI is not destroying jobs at scale today, it is certainly redesigning them and changing the equation between work, output and headcount. 'No sector is immune [to the impact of AI],' says Peter Brown, a global workforce expert at PwC. 'But it is primarily changing roles, not eliminating them, enabling humans to focus on more value-add elements of their jobs.' For now, Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect trade union, which represents some 160,000 members across the public and private sectors in the UK, largely agrees. He says it is important to differentiate between industries. 'If you work in air traffic control, on transmission and distribution networks, run infrastructure or manufacturing processes, you have been shifting your talents to align with new technology for years and years. AI can help, but the human aspect will have to be retained for systems resilience.' By contrast, says Clancy, 'email jobs' – those reliant on text responses, from solicitors to customer service agents – would undergo 'spectacular shorter-term change' even if there was a 'long lead time to realising the benefits'. [ Challenge of AI is to bridge the culture gap between its creators and custodians Opens in new window ] Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, workplace experts have been trying to ascertain whether companies will opt to amplify their capacity by empowering staff to do more work alongside AI or seek to keep the same output while reducing hiring. Schroders is one example of the former. 'We don't see a short-term revolution and mass displacement of roles but we do anticipate these trends will drive an evolution over the next five to 10 years that will reshape workforces,' says Meagen Burnett, chief financial officer at the fund manager. Using AI to run analytics of the company's data, create reports and provide support with queries are examples of uses that could be 'transformative'. Having a more 'AI literate' workforce would make staff more productive, give them an edge and help them to deliver higher-value work, adds Burnett. Biotechnology company Moderna's recent move to combine its human resources and technology functions – opening the door to more automation – is another sign of how companies are beginning to think about workplace planning. Lots of traditional sectors are still grappling with the basics of governance and data protection policies in a world of generative AI IBM has gone further, using AI agents to take on the work of hundreds of HR staff. Klarna, the Swedish fintech, says its AI assistant now manage two-thirds of customer service queries, drastically cutting volumes handled by humans (the chief executive later admits such stark cost cuts lower quality). At Google and Meta, AI is reshaping engineering, recruiting and marketing, contributing to reorganisations and headcount cuts. Other companies are 'at the start of the journey', says James Milligan, the global head of technology at recruiter Hays. 'Lots of traditional sectors outside of tech – large private-sector companies, FTSE 250, Fortune 500 – are still grappling with some of the basics of good governance and data protection policies in a world of generative AI.' [ Can AI make my life easier? I spent a week living and working with chatbots to find out Opens in new window ] AI is already shifting the skills workers need. Those fluent in the new tools or who have experience deploying them in workplaces are being promoted, paid more and recruited aggressively. LinkedIn data shows a rise in hiring for roles including prompt engineer, head of AI and responsible AI use architect. A new PwC report, which analysed almost a billion job advertisements across six continents, found AI-skilled workers were being paid 56 per cent more in 2024 than those without knowledge of the technology, compared with 25 per cent more the previous year. It also found industries deemed 'most exposed' to AI experienced three times higher growth in revenue per employee than those considered 'least exposed'. For optimists, this is proof AI is making individual workers more valuable. 'Contrary to fears about job losses, job numbers – and wages – are growing in virtually every AI-exposed occupation, including the most highly automatable jobs,' the PwC report said. Yet there is a big question over how long this will last. PwC says AI-exposed jobs are growing more slowly (at a rate of 38 per cent) than less-exposed jobs (at 65 per cent). The number of roles such as financial analyst, legal associate or market researcher is increasing at a more sluggish pace than before. There is also a risk that workers get left behind. According to PwC, the mix of capabilities sought by employers is changing 66 per cent faster in occupations most exposed to AI, such as financial analysts, than in those least exposed, such as physical therapists. This acceleration makes it harder to keep up with demands for new skills, especially for mid-career workers who may not be AI natives, and those not working for large companies. In all analysed countries, women hold a higher share of AI-exposed jobs than men. Workers who see their responsibilities absorbed into new technologies are 'rotating towards skills generative AI can't do', says Kimbrough at LinkedIn. These individuals are 'disrupted' rather than 'displaced', she adds, meaning they are prioritising human-centric skills. Claudia Harris, chief executive of Makers, a tech talent and training platform, said 'a two-speed economy is emerging' between the companies investing in AI and those that are not. 'The dividing lines are not traditional. This is not about innovative industries versus not. This is about companies and cultures that are able to make this huge and decisive shift.' – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Irish Times
Casement Park redevelopment: British government offers £50m to back scheme
Uncertainty over the British government's commitment to rebuilding Casement Park in west Belfast ended at lunchtime on Wednesday. After weeks of speculation, a £50 million (€59 million) investment was offered by the treasury to Stormont to 'support the redevelopment' of the stadium as part of the British government's spending review. This sets out the government's spending plans over the coming years, subject to 'sufficient finance' being raised elsewhere. And therein lies the rub, given that there is a £90 million shortfall remaining of the estimated £260 million cost to transform the dilapidated site. [ Government 'absolutely committed' to pursuing redevelopment of Casement Park for Euro 2028 Opens in new window ] But for the GAA and those who have long campaigned for a redeveloped Casement Park, the government's funding commitment gives fresh impetus to a project mired in controversy for more than a decade. READ MORE 'This needs to be the beginning of the end of the saga,' said former Antrim County Board member Brendan Mulgrew. 'Funding is place by the British government. Some very hard conversations need to take place very quickly around what's the maximum that can be given by other bodies ... today is an opportunity to inject urgency into this project.' To date, Stormont, the Irish Government and the GAA havejointly contributed £120 million towards Casement. And for many campaigners, its fate now rests with them. Legal challenges, political disputes and spiralling costs have delayed progress on plans to build the proposed 34,500-capacity venue. The stadium, the home ground of Antrim GAA, closed in 2013. [ 'People said it will never happen but I was firm believer it would' Opens in new window ] Preparatory work at the Andersonstown Road site began last February when it was chosen as a venue for the Uefa Euro 2028 soccer tournament. The plan was pulled when the British government said seven months later it could not bridge the gap in time for the games. 'Stormont Ministers, the Irish Government and the GAA need to get round a table and decide how they are going to get this over the line,' said Mulgrew. Within 20 minutes of British chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves confirming details of her government's spending plans, Tánaiste Simon Harris welcomed its investment and said he 'will now engage' with the GAA, British and Northern Ireland authorities 'to deliver a redeveloped stadium'. Up to €50 million was offered through the Irish Government's Shared Island fund last February. The GAA recently confirmed it will also increase its contribution from an original £15 million. However, the Stormont contribution could prove to be a stumbling block as Casement has become an increasingly politicised issue. Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill has welcomed a commitment of €50 million from the Irish Government towards the rebuild of Casement Park. Stormont Ministers committed £62.5 million to Casement in 2011, as part of a strategy to revamp it along with Windsor Park and the rugby ground at Ravenhill. While the two other Belfast-based projects proceeded, the GAA scheme stalled. As recently as Monday, DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said that no 'special case' should be created to fund one particular organisation or sport in Northern Ireland, when asked about her support for Casement ahead of Wednesday's announcement. With Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O'Neill calling for Casement to be built in the wake of the British funding commitment, the onus will now be on her Executive team to deliver. The project is an Executive 'flagship project' and 'more than just a sporting venue', she said on Wednesday.
