Let’s do AI-powered job matching for MORE people. It’s time.
Rt Hon Chloe Smith, Sept 2025
OpenAI ’s big play on an AI-powered hiring platform bets that AI can match workers’ talents to employers’ needs.
I think they should go further.
A giant prize is up for grabs – growing the labour market by helping millions MORE people get into the right vacancies. A new jobs platform could seize the moment to design in ways for employers to reach untapped talent pools.
Here in the UK 9 million people are out of the market, economically inactive. For many, this is a tragic waste of their potential, and they want the right opportunity to contribute. For business, securing the right talent is still a top problem. For Britain, it’s impossible to meet our growth potential without fixing this issue. This represents collective cost and individual tragedy. As I wrote earlier in the summer, it’s one of the UK’s major, strategic challenges. Solving it will be top of mind for the new leaders helming the departments for welfare, skills, business and technology – as well as the chancellor writing her November budget – and for many CEOs and CPOs.
Now is the time for AI innovation to help do just this.
This is a technology that can match people with jobs and support faster, cheaper and in a more personalised way than we’ve ever been able to before. My initiative ‘AI x Economic Inactivity’ is now underway, and we are finding insight.
I'm thrilled that a great group of pioneers, award winners, CEOs and experts in relevant fields are coming together. We’ve discussed how AI is ready to personalise support and free up job coaches’ focus on their human contribution – like we’ve seen in Estonia. We see how AI could integrate currently disparate approaches – like healthcare as well as employment. “Done right, Generative AI has the ability to become a great equaliser” for overlooked talent, and an unlocker of human potential, writes Churchill Fellow Rachael Mole and nearly 90% of jobseekers want access to more AI tools say Adzuna .
We acknowledge anxiety that AI may bring fresh barriers. So we’re interested in whether AI can value potential, not just past experience; is AI correcting or reinforcing bias?; can it shift employer incentives and investment? Can large-scale AI models serve local needs, and can it humanise Jobcentres and employment support?
I loved Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) 's ai-in-employability-report.pdf counting out nine areas where AI could make a difference to getting people into work, like marketing & engagement, initial conversation, assessment, training & signposting, planning & job-coaching, job start, in-work support and employer engagement. It has “transformative potential” for greater personalisation, engagement, trust and retention – just what most employers are looking for in a classic talent strategy.
We’re now examining what this looks like for a key sector in the UK economy. Manufacturing carries 55 000 unfilled live vacancies, costing £5bn in lost output. Manufacturers are facing increasing early retirement, an aging workforce and elevated ill health in their teams. That’s a perfect storm that is critical to their present operation and future growth. Firms are moving cautiously, with only 9% are using AI in their HR so far. Make UK 's excellent Skills Commission shares more.
In that sector, what do employers want? Recruitment efficiency, effective translation of skills, personalisation for particular talent pools, and workforce participation support? AI tools can now address all these improvements.
And the people profession stands ready to support their organisations, with CIPD engaging members on guidance for AI in recruitment, and skills for AI in businesses.
This challenge is bigger than employers or jobseekers alone. Government has a key role too in shaping this market. Both employers and government can be expected to use technology increasingly to better match people, jobs and support.
The UK government just published a set of ‘AI Exemplars’, “projects that will explore new ways to make best use of emerging technology as part of a modern digital government”. Matching people, jobs and support should be an exemplar project.
We hope to contribute in our ‘AI x Economic Inactivity’ initiative. We’ll be looking at the hospitality sector next, and analysing more from people’s experiences. Our aims are to:
If OpenAI is moving thoughtfully into the labour market space, could they take on the true scale of this challenge?
The prize, here-and-now not far off in the future, is huge. And these are real people’s circumstances. We could have positive impact for millions as well as major gains for the country. If we could reduce the cost of long-term sick leave, we could help millions be well and save the economy £66.3bn a year in lost productivity by 2030. If we could increase the employment rate for people aged 50-64 we could add £9bn to GDP. Recent data suggests that only 5% of carers are able to sustain jobs – if we could double that, could over 75,000 people play a valued role in the workplace as well as at home?
With my rare background having headed both the labour market and technology departments of a G7 nation, I believe this intersection of people, work and technology could not be more important.
If you too are passionate about applying technology to help millions MORE people secure jobs at a time of pronounced change, I’d love to hear from you.
People and AI Strategist. TEDx and Keynote Speaker. TechUK Council Member.
1moSuch a powerful call to action, Chloe and excited to be a part of it! The opportunity isn’t just about using AI to make hiring faster but also fairer to unlock human potential at scale.
Director Commercial Accessibility, Trusted Technology Group, Microsoft
1moThis is about moving systems from screening out to matching in. Both have the risk of discriminating against people well matched but not matching AI profiles. Disability data will be critical. Kate Headley
Managing Director at Lodestar Potential, Executive Coach, Leadership Development, Talent, DE&I and Learning expert. CIPD Board member and PCRC Chair, HR Most Influential
1moChloe, thanks for this. it is tempting to fear the impact of A1 on employment. I am so encouraged by what you describe here and the work you are doing
Co-Founder and CCO | Spotted Zebra | Helping companies spot the right hire every time with skills science and AI
1moGreat article Rt Hon Chloe Smith, and excited to be part of the AI x Economic Inactivity with you and so many great minds. As Kate Shoesmith rightly says, the opportunity is in connecting the systems, knowledge and platforms that exist to tackle this in a coherent way. For instance, we already have the technology to identify the skills needed for success in a role, and to profile an individual's alignment with these role requirements. AI can be used to transcribe, summarise and evaluate interviews in line with these skills, helping hiring managers to understand how a candidate with a different background or set of experiences can meet their role requirements. Used in this way, skills science can uncover the hidden talent ready to take on the 55k unfilled manufacturing roles that you reference. I'm energised by the opportunity to tackle this at scale. There's no doubt that the human potential is there, we just need smarter ways to spot it 🦓