Unlocking Britain’s next era of productivity: Building a nation of AI trailblazers

开启英国生产力的新时代：打造人工智能先锋之国

The top 15% of AI users report stronger performance reviews, pay increases and substantial time savings. The challenge now is upskilling the remaining 85% to enable everyone to use AI to unlock personal progression. 排名前 15% 的人工智能用户报告称，他们的绩效评估表现更佳、薪资有所增长，并节省了大量时间。现在的挑战在于如何提升其余 85% 用户的技能，使每个人都能利用人工智能实现个人职业发展。

The UK’s AI adoption: fast, but uneven

英国的人工智能应用：快速但分布不均

We’ve worked with Public First on one of the most comprehensive UK AI adoption studies to date. The research reveals that workplace AI adoption has doubled in the past year, (up to 73%, from 34% in 2025). Yet, this momentum reveals an uneven adoption curve, where only a minority - the top 15% - are significantly more likely to report promotions, pay rises and faster career progression. 我们与 Public First 合作开展了迄今为止最全面的英国人工智能应用研究之一。研究显示，过去一年中，工作场所的人工智能应用率翻了一番（从 2025 年的 34% 上升至 73%）。然而，这种增长势头揭示了一条不均衡的应用曲线：只有少数人（前 15%）更有可能获得晋升、加薪和更快的职业发展。

Our analysis reveals that AI usage is a spectrum, with most of the UK’s workforce still stuck in early-stage adoption. We’ve segmented the workforce into four progressive stages: 我们的分析表明，人工智能的使用呈现出一种光谱分布，英国大部分劳动力仍处于应用初期。我们将劳动力划分为四个渐进阶段：

‘AI Spectators’ (10%) - People who aren’t yet experimenting with AI
“人工智能旁观者”（10%） - 尚未开始尝试使用人工智能的人群。
‘AI Experimenters’ (38%) - Beginners testing the waters with simple tasks
“人工智能实验者”（38%） - 通过简单任务进行初步尝试的初学者。
‘The AI Practitioners’ (37%) - Intermediates using AI as a reliable daily tool.
“人工智能实践者”（37%） - 将人工智能作为可靠日常工具的中级用户。
‘AI Trailblazers’ (15%) - Advanced users pushing boundaries and finding entirely new ways to work.
“人工智能先锋”（15%） - 不断突破界限并探索全新工作方式的高级用户。

The AI Trailblazer advantage

人工智能先锋的优势

The UK’s AI Trailblazers are creating a new benchmark for modern work and saving almost 8 hours across both their personal and professional lives - effectively gaining an extra day each working week. 英国的人工智能先锋们正在为现代工作树立新标杆，他们在个人和职业生活中每周共节省了近 8 小时——相当于每周额外获得了一天的工作时间。

The research found that even after accounting for differences in age, sector, gender, ethnicity, education and business size, deeper AI use is associated with greater professional momentum. Trailblazers are: 研究发现，即使在考虑了年龄、行业、性别、种族、教育背景和企业规模等差异后，更深入地使用人工智能仍与更强的职业发展动力相关。先锋们：

84% more likely to have been promoted in the past year.
在过去一年中获得晋升的可能性高出 84%。
88% more likely to achieve a positive performance review.
获得积极绩效评估的可能性高出 88%。
55% more likely to secure a pay rise.
获得加薪的可能性高出 55%。

But, this deeper AI use is unevenly spread across age groups, genders and geographical location. The longer we wait to take action the more that this gap will grow. 然而，这种深入的人工智能应用在不同年龄段、性别和地理位置之间分布不均。我们采取行动的时间越晚，这种差距就会越大。

The good news is that these disparities are entirely addressable. Reaching this advanced level doesn’t require deep technical knowledge or coding expertise. Anyone can become a Trailblazer. 好消息是，这些差异完全是可以解决的。达到这一高级水平并不需要深厚的技术知识或编程专长。任何人都可以成为“先锋”。

Breaking down the barriers

打破壁垒

The real challenge is converting everyday experimentation into a level of AI literacy that unlocks career progression and, in turn, nationwide economic growth. 真正的挑战在于将日常的实验转化为能够开启职业发展，进而推动全国经济增长的人工智能素养。

So, how do we help the other 85% unlock these benefits? The barriers holding people back are surprisingly easy to overcome, with collective focus. They are, for the most part, either behavioral, cognitive or organisational: 那么，我们如何帮助其余 85% 的人获得这些益处呢？只要齐心协力，阻碍人们进步的壁垒其实很容易克服。这些壁垒大多属于行为、认知或组织层面：

Behavioral - The “One-and-Done” habit: Most casual users haven’t gotten into the habit of using AI effectively. Many aren’t yet iterating prompts, matching the right tool to the task, or are unsure of how to get started with multi-modal capabilities (text, visual, and audio inputs and outputs) and agentic workflows (where AI autonomously plans and executes multi-step tasks).
行为层面 - “一劳永逸”的习惯： 大多数普通用户尚未养成有效使用人工智能的习惯。许多人还没有学会迭代提示词、为任务匹配合适的工具，或者不知道如何开始使用多模态功能（文本、视觉和音频输入输出）以及代理工作流（即人工智能自主规划并执行多步骤任务）。
Cognitive - The traditional “Search Box” mindset: Millions of users naturally apply their familiar search habits to AI tools, instead of treating it as a creative partner. Despite AI’s highly collaborative nature, only 37% of previous users have ever asked an AI to help them write a better prompt to quickly achieve more effective results.
认知层面 - 传统的“搜索框”思维： 数以百万计的用户自然地将他们熟悉的搜索习惯应用到人工智能工具上，而不是将其视为创意合作伙伴。尽管人工智能具有高度协作的特性，但只有 37% 的既往用户曾要求人工智能帮助他们编写更好的提示词，以快速获得更有效的结果。
Organisational - The “Permission to Prompt” gap: Many workers are waiting for explicit permission to use AI. Only one-third of AI users have clear professional guidance to help them use AI confidently, and fewer than half know who to ask about responsible use.
组织层面 - “提示许可”的缺失： 许多员工在等待明确的许可才敢使用人工智能。只有三分之一的人工智能用户获得了明确的专业指导来帮助他们自信地使用人工智能，且不到一半的人知道该向谁咨询有关负责任使用的问题。

Building a nation of AI Trailblazers

打造人工智能先锋之国

Levelling up starts with knowing where you stand. That’s why today, Public First is launching the AI skills quiz, an interactive diagnostic tool that lets you benchmark your skills against the rest of the population, learn more about the type of AI user you are and get actionable skills to instantly elevate your AI use and help unlock career growth. 提升技能始于了解自己的定位。因此，Public First 今天推出了“人工智能技能测验”，这是一款交互式诊断工具，让你能够将自己的技能与其他人进行对比，了解自己属于哪种类型的人工智能用户，并获得可操作的技能，从而立即提升人工智能使用水平，助力职业成长。

Our nationwide AI upskilling initiative, AI Works for Britain, aims to tackle this specific uneven adoption challenge, and builds on our Google Digital Garage programme - which has already trained over 1.2 million people over the past decade. This is a key element of our partnership with the Government to help achieve their goal of training 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030. Together, we can close the adoption gap, build a nation of AI Trailblazers, and help every worker unlock their full potential. 我们的全国性人工智能技能提升计划“AI Works for Britain”旨在解决这一特定的应用不均衡挑战，该计划建立在我们的“Google 数字车库”项目基础之上——该项目在过去十年中已经培训了超过 120 万人。这是我们与政府合作的关键一环，旨在帮助实现到 2030 年培训 1000 万名员工掌握人工智能技能的目标。齐心协力，我们可以缩小应用差距，打造一个人工智能先锋之国，并帮助每一位员工充分发挥潜力。

The impact of Google’s products and services

Google 产品与服务的影响

One of the most important ways we can enable deeper AI adoption and unlock growth and progression is through helpful AI tools. In 2025, Google’s tools supported £140 billion in economic activity across the UK - equivalent to the economy of Greater Manchester. Over 40% of that activity (£60bn) comes from empowering British SMBs who are using our tools to innovate and grow. Our products such as Search, Android, Cloud and YouTube are already saving British workers 51 million hours a week - roughly the weekly output of the National Health Service’s (NHS) entire workforce. To discover more insights, read Google UK’s full Economic Impact Report. 我们推动更深入的人工智能应用并开启增长与进步的最重要方式之一，就是提供实用的人工智能工具。2025 年，Google 的工具在英国支持了 1400 亿英镑的经济活动，相当于大曼彻斯特地区的经济总量。其中超过 40%（600 亿英镑）的经济活动源于我们为英国中小企业提供的赋能，他们正在利用我们的工具进行创新和发展。我们的搜索、Android、云服务和 YouTube 等产品每周已为英国员工节省了 5100 万小时的时间——这大约相当于英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）全体员工每周的工作产出。欲了解更多见解，请阅读 Google 英国的完整《经济影响报告》。