Report: AI seen to bring job boon

Artificial intelligence could help create up to more than 7 million jobs in Britain over the next 20 years and help boost the economy, a report by leading accountancy firm PwC has revealed.

Although there are fears that sectors including manufacturing and transportation will suffer job losses because of the increasing automation of such roles, the report says that the number created by the introduction and expansion in the workplace of the technology known as AI - estimated at around 7.2 million - will be greater than those lost, which is thought to be around 7 million.

"We have estimated that AI could have a positive effect on GDP by 2030," PwC's chief economist John Hawksworth told London newspaper City AM.