Briefing | Policy development on AI and the CIPD

AI and the policy landscape 

Since the explosion in popularity of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, the rise of AI as a priority in the workplace and for government seems like a bolt from the blue. But the reality is that the wider policy context for AI has developed in the UK over a long period, and the technology has been around for even longer. The first UK Prime Minister to really talk about the potential benefits of AI was Theresa May back in 2018, who flagged the potential for AI and machine learning in healthcare. 

In the last few years, the UK Government’s approach to AI has shifted markedly. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave AI the first serious push to the forefront of public policy with his international AI summit. His focus was on the potential security risks posed by ‘frontier AI’ – the most advanced AI models. 

Meanwhile the EU Parliament was first to pass significant AI-specific legislation. The AI Act (2024) has been lauded by many as historic, but it also creates potentially significant obligations for organisations and hasn’t been universally welcomed. 

And while the US Government has yet to produce new legislation through Congress, outgoing President Biden did issue the US’s first Executive Order on AI in 2023, outlining the country’s policy on AI. Newly re-elected President Trump, who was joined by US tech leaders at his inauguration, was quick to revoke Biden’s 2023 Executive Order, but announced a US$500 billion investment in AI infrastructure alongside OpenAI.

CIPD engagement in UK AI policy developments 

The CIPD has been collaborating with important stakeholders on AI and the workplace for some time, and promoting the responsible use of AI within the profession - working with partners like Microsoft and the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) to provide guidance to HR leaders on supporting AI adoption to maximise the benefits for business and workers. 

We have sought to engage with the wider policy debate on AI too. We submitted evidence to parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights on AI and Surveillance back in 2023, in advance of our Chief Executive Peter Cheese giving oral evidence to the committee in October that year. We raised the issues employers and employees need to navigate as an employer’s ability to monitor its workers increases. 

In 2024, the CIPD was an adviser to the Trade Union Congress in its work of drafting an AI Bill to propose to the UK Government. While that work hasn’t led to specific UK legislative proposals, it was an early opportunity for the CIPD to engage with the trade unions and others, like Employment Rights Minister Justin Madders, on the potential impacts of AI on the workplace. 

Then ahead of its landmark report The Impact of AI on the Labour Market, published in October 2024, we were pleased to be able to speak to the Tony Blair Institute and share some of our research to inform its fact-finding.

Current and ongoing opportunities for the CIPD to shape AI policy 

The UK Government is likely to unleash a raft of initiatives flowing from its AI Opportunities Action Plan, which sets out its ambition to “push hard on cross-economy AI adoption” where the “public sector should rapidly pilot and scale AI products and services”, with the private sector encouraged to do the same. For the government this isn’t just about technological advances, it’s also a key part of its growth agenda and its plans for delivering savings in public spending. 

While the novelty name of its initial package of AI applications might draw attention, many of these will be focused on more mundane activities like summarising consultation responses and analysing the speeches and voting records of MPs. So it will be interesting to see what measurable improvements and savings these applications can demonstrate over the coming months and years. 

For the CIPD, the rapid developments in AI technology alongside all this policy activity means there will be a lot more to do, to continue to understand the ongoing implications of AI in the workplace, as well as how we can best work with and influence the UK Government. We have a number of projects in the pipeline in 2025 which do just that – including a new partnership with Innovate UK and IFOW. 

Ultimately, the CIPD’s goal is to ensure that as a country, the UK is not only investing in the frontiers of AI but is thinking about the potential benefits for all businesses big and small. That means we want the government focused on how to support firms to adopt AI in an ethical, sustainable way, to drive increased productivity and we want to help ensure that HR professionals have the strategies and tools to do that too.