HiBob has published research showing that AI skills are influencing promotions, performance ratings and pay decisions in UK businesses. The findings point to a broader shift in how employers assess staff and candidates.

A survey of 200 UK business leaders involved in hiring and assessing AI talent found that 63% of organisations link AI skills to promotion decisions, 61% factor them into performance ratings and 31% connect them directly to pay.

Demand appears to be spreading beyond specialist technical teams. Some 77% of respondents expect the ability to use AI effectively to become a baseline requirement across most non-technical roles within the next two years, while 82% say their organisations are investing in upskilling or reskilling staff to meet that change.

Pay pressure

The research suggests employers are attaching a financial premium to some of the hardest-to-find skills. AI safety, ethics and governance emerged as the area attracting the strongest pay uplift, with 43% saying they would pay at least 10% more for that expertise.

Other AI-related skills also carried a premium. The study found that 39% would pay more for people who can evaluate and improve AI outputs, while 37% would pay more for automation and technical integration experience. Just 3% would not offer a premium for any AI-related skills.

Employers are also using non-pay measures to attract AI-skilled workers. Clearer performance metrics were cited by 30% of respondents, opportunities to lead or join AI initiatives by 29%, and defined career pathways linked to AI capability by 28%.

Hiring strain

Even as employers increase rewards, recruitment remains difficult. The hardest skillset to recruit for was AI safety, ethics and governance, cited by 41% of respondents, followed by automation and technical integration at 38%, and workflow evaluation and redesign at 36%.

That scarcity is prompting a more deliberate hiring approach. Four in five respondents said they have a defined strategy for sourcing candidates with strong AI skills, including talent communities, applicant tracking system tagging and referral campaigns.

Many organisations are also trying to build skills internally rather than relying only on the external market. While 82% are investing in upskilling or reskilling, the methods vary. Around a third offer funded learning, protected practice time or prompt and workflow libraries, while 99% say peer coaching is important.

The figures suggest much of the practical burden of AI skills development sits with managers and teams. That could leave uneven standards between organisations and departments as businesses try to fold AI use into day-to-day work.

Management challenge

The survey also found that companies are beginning to track whether those skills improve results. The most commonly measured outcomes were quality and accuracy, cited by 32%, followed by compliance and risk reduction at 29%, with time saved and cost savings both at 25%.

Ken Matos, director of insights at HiBob, said: “AI skills are no longer a future requirement. They’re already shaping who gets promoted, how performance is measured and, increasingly, how much people are paid. Employees are now expected to use AI with judgment, accountability and consistency, reflecting a broader shift where AI is not just a technology change but a cultural one that demands new skills and discipline.

“The challenge for organisations is turning that expectation into something practical. That means defining what strong AI capability looks like, embedding it into roles and performance, and giving managers the confidence to assess and develop it.

“Managers are increasingly expected to lead this shift, but many organisations have yet to invest in the structure, training and support needed to help them do so effectively. The next phase of AI adoption will depend on how well businesses equip their managers to turn AI from a tool into a consistent way of working.”

The results add to evidence that AI literacy is moving into the mainstream of workforce planning. For employers, that means AI is no longer only a recruitment issue for specialist teams, but part of how organisations judge readiness for progression, assess performance and set pay.

For workers, the findings indicate that familiarity with AI tools, oversight and responsible use is becoming more closely tied to career prospects. The strongest demand is not only for technical implementation, but also for the ability to govern AI use safely and assess the quality of its output.

HTEC has published a report on AI adoption in the telecommunications sector, finding that only 24.8% of telecom executives believe their organisations can scale AI rapidly.

Based on a survey of 255 C-suite telecom leaders in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the study identifies skills shortages, fragmented deployments and weak executive alignment as the main barriers to wider adoption.

More than half of operators surveyed, 53%, said they still rely on isolated deployments, pilots or limited use cases. By contrast, 47% said AI is fully embedded across multiple functions.

The findings suggest many operators have embraced AI in principle without building the structures needed to roll it out across networks, IT systems and commercial teams. Almost half of respondents, 47.5%, identified lack of executive alignment as the biggest obstacle to scaling AI.

Technical capability is another pressure point. Almost all respondents, 99%, reported critical skills shortages, with the most acute gaps in cybersecurity and data privacy, AI and machine learning, and data engineering.

According to the survey, those shortages are already affecting performance. Some 46% of leaders said the gaps are driving higher costs, 42% reported margin pressure and 41% said they are reducing innovation.

Timing pressure

The research also points to a narrow window for operators trying to keep pace with the market. Executives said it would take an average of 1.95 years to rebuild competitiveness if they failed to act on AI opportunities, while major AI-related initiatives were estimated to take between 1.6 and 1.8 years.

That overlap suggests little room for delay as operators work through digital transformation plans, edge strategies, workforce changes and new service models. The report argues that the time needed to recover from inaction is roughly the same as the time available to deliver core programmes.

Understanding of AI strategy remains uneven at senior level. HTEC found that 57.7% of telecom leaders fall into moderate, low or very low AI literacy categories, raising questions about whether management teams are equipped to oversee deployment at scale.

Integration is another challenge. Some 45.1% of respondents said they struggle to embed AI into legacy OSS and BSS environments and distributed infrastructure, underlining how older telecom systems continue to complicate technology change.

Edge focus

One area where operators expressed greater confidence was edge AI. The survey found that 93% of telecom leaders are familiar with the concept and 96% said they can deploy it, reflecting the sector’s experience in running distributed infrastructure.

Respondents expect edge AI to improve network reliability, strengthen data privacy and deliver commercial benefits through lower latency and lower costs. Many said they are pursuing hybrid build-and-partner approaches to bring those projects into service.

When asked where AI is most likely to produce measurable returns, executives most often pointed to 5G and 6G network optimisation and dynamic bandwidth allocation, cited by 49.4%. Connectivity and network performance at scale followed at 45.9%, while 42.4% pointed to operational cost reduction through automation.

New revenue models beyond core connectivity were selected by 42% of respondents, while 38.4% identified AI-driven customer experience personalisation as a likely source of returns.

The study forms part of a broader cross-sector research project commissioned by HTEC and conducted by Censuswide. The wider programme gathered responses from 1,529 C-suite leaders across several industries, with the telecom findings published as a sector-specific subset.

Philip Otley, Global Managing Partner, Telecommunications, HTEC, said: “Telcos are slow muscle that think in multi-year investment cycles. The GenAI ecosystem is fast muscle moving at an unprecedented pace. Right now, a race is underway between telcos reaching customers with AI services and companies like OpenAI and Anthropic capturing that same consumer attention. Telcos have the advantage of established customer relationships, trusted identity management, and the ability to deploy AI at the edge. But advantages only count if execution keeps pace. This will be the biggest change most people live through in their lives, with hundreds of trillions of dollars in value at stake. Telcos have a real chance to be part of that. The window to gain or lose plays out in the coming few years.”

Tim Sears, Chief AI Officer, HTEC, added: “The sector is strategically aligned but operationally fragmented. Leaders agree AI matters, but far fewer understand how to scale it. Our data shows the penalty for falling behind and the time needed to catch up are almost identical windows. That leaves operators with no margin for delay.”

JOSEPH GABRIEL LAGONSIN

News Editor

Christopher Sullivan of Aldi has been named Microlise Driver of the Year 2026 after also winning the long-distance category.

The overall award was presented at a ceremony in Manchester recognising HGV drivers and transport operators from across the UK. Sullivan was selected from a field of more than 200,000 drivers whose anonymised data was assessed through Microlise’s in-vehicle systems.

The awards were split into two broad groups. One focused on driving data across short, medium and long-distance work, along with compliance and operator awards. The other recognised drivers nominated by colleagues and employers for mentoring, improvement and going beyond their day-to-day role.

Sullivan’s win put Aldi at the top of the headline category, while other large retailers and logistics groups also featured strongly among the winners and runners-up. Tesco Distribution, Sainsbury’s GXO, Gist, Maritime, Hovis, Warburtons and Schenk Tank Transport were all represented in the final results.

Data awards

In the data-based categories, Andrew Phillips of Tesco Distribution won the short-distance award, while David Hallam of Gist took the medium-distance title. Declan McAdams of Hovis was named compliant driver of the year.

Schenk Tank Transport won Outstanding Operator of the Year, with Sainsbury’s and Tesco Distribution named runners-up.

Sullivan was also a runner-up in the compliance award, underlining his standing across more than one measured category. In the long-distance class, he finished ahead of Paul Dowdalls of Co-op and Timothy Stocks of Sainsbury’s GXO.

Peer nominations

The nomination-based awards reflected performance recognised by others in the industry rather than by driving data alone. Dale Cox of CCF won the Extra Mile award, while Fletcher Peart of Brian Yeardley Continental took the Rookie Driver title.

Mareks Kvetins of Sainsbury’s GXO won Commitment to Improve. Connor Brennan, also of Sainsbury’s GXO, was named Driver Hero, and Gavin Jones of Warburtons won Outstanding Driver Mentor.

The Lifetime Achievement award went to Graham Whitby of Matthew Clark, recognising long service in road haulage and a sustained record behind the wheel.

The range of companies represented among the winners highlights the breadth of employers competing for recognition, from supermarket fleets to specialist haulage businesses. Those attending included supermarket groups such as Tesco, Waitrose, Co-op and Sainsbury’s, alongside transport operators including GXO, Gist and Maritime.

The awards come as the road haulage sector continues to focus on recruitment and retention. Concerns over driver supply remain a recurring issue for operators managing delivery networks, compliance demands and the need to attract new entrants.

Microlise, a provider of fleet management and transport technology, said the data awards were judged using anonymised information gathered from drivers using its systems. This meant the headline categories were based on recorded driving performance rather than panel assessment alone.

Nadeem Raza, chief executive of Microlise, said: “The Driver of the Year awards is our annual celebration of all that is good in the road haulage industry, and we are delighted for Christopher and his thoroughly well-deserved success.

“Research from the Road Haulage Association has estimated that more than 200,000 new drivers will be needed over the next five years. It is therefore our privilege to highlight what a dynamic sector road transport logistics is and to promote the importance of bringing new drivers into the industry.

“It is vital that we recognise the extremely talented individuals working as drivers who deserve the plaudits for the great work they are doing so early in their careers.”

Major grocery and distribution groups featured repeatedly across the categories, reflecting the scale of their transport operations and the visibility of driver performance within those fleets. Sullivan’s double win for Aldi was the clearest individual result of the night, with the long-distance title leading to the overall Driver of the Year award.