The industry needs to develop hybrid skills if it’s going to keep up with AI, writes ECITB’s David Nash
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping industry.
Amid the rapid growth in AI adoption and innovation, it is vital our industries swiftly adapt and develop the skills to harness its benefits.
The engineering construction industry (ECI) and its supply chain companies engineer, project manage and install much of the UK’s critical infrastructure, including working on projects linked to the government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.
Government analysis indicates that the clean energy workforce could grow from around 440,000 jobs to around 860,000 by 2030. Skills in demand will be across construction, engineering, manufacturing and new future industry roles such as digital, robotics and AI.
Amid this demand for skilled workers, strategic workforce planning must be factored in alongside technological and AI innovations that are gathering pace across industry.
AI has huge potential to improve productivity and safety across energy infrastructure projects, building on digital technologies that are already being deployed for instance in predictive maintenance, emissions monitoring and project optimisation.
The OECD estimates that AI adoption could add 0.4 to 1.3 percentage points to the UK’s annual labour productivity growth over the next decade.
However, AI will only deliver value if the workforce has the data literacy and engineering capability to interpret and apply insights safely in real operational environments.
For sectors like energy, hydrogen, nuclear and carbon capture, the change is not necessarily about replacing engineers with AI capability, but more about supporting engineers and other project professionals to work confidently with AI-enabled systems and complex data environments.
Challenges around workforce capability
AI will increasingly underpin sustainability reporting and net-zero delivery.
Sustainability reporting will move from voluntary disclosures to data-driven, audit-ready reporting frameworks such as IFRS S1/S2 and UK Sustainability Reporting Standards.
This means companies will need workforce capability in data collection, emissions measurement, supply-chain reporting and carbon accounting.
AI can play a role in handling vast emissions data across complex supply chains, but industry still needs skilled engineers and project teams who understand the operational sources of emissions and can validate that data.
This creates a new demand for hybrid skills combining engineering, digital capability and sustainability expertise.
However, the ECI workforce doesn’t just need digital literacy bolted onto existing skills. It needs genuinely new competency layers, such as interpreting AI-generated outputs in safety-critical environments; validating sensor and emissions data against engineering judgement; and working confidently with digital twins and predictive systems.
These capabilities don’t map neatly onto current occupational standards and the training infrastructure isn’t yet designed to fill that gap. That’s the challenge industry and training bodies need to solve together – and solve quickly.
Helping future-proof the skills base
As the industry-led skills body for engineering construction in Great Britain, our new Leading Industry Learning strategy for 2026-30 sets out a plan to develop the skills needed for the delivery of critical infrastructure projects, energy security and net zero ambitions.
The strategy is built around three key pillars – Deliver, Grow and Transform. The Transform pillar focuses on identifying and launching bold interventions to revolutionise skills provision across the ECI.
Among its key priorities is helping drive technology adoption. This includes future-proofing the skills base by gathering and acting on intelligence and industry trends.
Alongside this, we aim to develop and roll out training interventions and products that enable industry to harness new technologies, including AI, at scale, as well as updating training and occupational standards to reflect emerging industry requirements.
Addressing AI skills shortages requires a collaborative approach that includes employers, governments, training providers and the ECITB.
Alongside the government’s own AI Skills Boost initiative – which aims to improve UK workforce readiness by upskilling 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030 – the ECITB is committed to work with industry partners to ensure the integrated energy workforce has the skills needed to meet current and future infrastructure demands.
Main image: David Nash is director of strategy and policy, at the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB)
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