Automation to take 1 in 3 jobs in UK's northern centres, report finds

Workers in Wakefield and Mansfield worst affected as tech advances risk widening north-south divide

Workers in Mansfield, Sunderland and Wakefield are at the highest risk of having their jobs taken by machines, according to a report warning that automation stands to further widen the north-south divide.

Outside of the south of England, one in four jobs are at risk of being replaced by advances in technology - much higher than the 18% average for wealthier locations closer to London. Struggling towns and cities in the north and the Midlands are most exposed. A total of 3.6m UK jobs could be replaced by machines.

Artificial Intelligence has various definitions, but in general it means a program that uses data to build a model of some aspect of the world. This model is then used to make informed decisions and predictions about future events. The technology is used widely, to provide speech and face recognition, language translation, and personal recommendations on music, film and shopping sites. In the future, it could deliver driverless cars, smart personal assistants, and intelligent energy grids. AI has the potential to make organisations more effective and efficient, but the technology raises serious issues of ethics, governance, privacy and law.

Productivity is an economic measure of the efficiency of a workforce. It typically measures the level of output per hour of work, or per worker.