The UK wants to lead on AI, but who is going to build it?
Not long ago, data centers were something the average person on the street rarely thought about. They powered the digital services we used every day, but sat largely out of sight.
That has changed. Look at almost any national news site and you will see another data center scheme being proposed, from a £9.5bn data center next to the proposed Universal theme park in Bedfordshire to a £2bn data center in the Borders hills, west of Duns.
Managing Director for UK at Onnec.
This is no longer just a story about Slough, London or a handful of established technology corridors. Data centers are appearing in former industrial sites, rural areas and regional communities, becoming a visible part of the UK’s infrastructure debate.
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Part of this is being driven by the Government’s AI ambitions. Through AI Growth Zones, ministers want to accelerate the build-out of AI-enabled data centers by improving access to power and planning support.
But if the UK wants to compete in AI, there is a practical question sitting beneath all this ambition: who is actually going to build these data centers?
AI demand is moving faster than the workforce
AI has changed the scale of the data center conversation. The sector is being asked to provide the physical backbone for a new industrial wave, creating pressure not only on land, power and planning, but also on people.
The energy behind AI is outstripping the skilled labor resources available. The UK may have the policy momentum and investor appetite, but the workforce is not expanding at the same pace.
Data centers do not build themselves. They need engineers, electricians, commissioning specialists, project managers, safety teams, quality experts, construction partners and operational leaders. They also need people who understand these are critical environments where mistakes can be costly.
The industry is still too reliant on traditional routes into work, leaning on training patterns that may have worked 20 or 30 years ago, rather than asking what is needed for the next five.
The sector is missing people who are hiding in plain sight
Women remain underrepresented in data centers. So do career returners, flexible workers, people from adjacent industries and those who may not have followed a conventional technical route
If data centers keep looking in the same places, they will keep running into the same shortages. The sector needs to widen the front door and think more creatively about how people work once they are in.
Why shouldn’t a major site have crèche facilities? Why can’t more roles be structured around hybrid or flexible models where the work allows it? These changes could help experienced people return, stay and progress, while giving employers a stronger, more engaged workforce.
That starts with explaining the range of roles more clearly. Not every data center job is a narrow engineering role. Program management, safety, quality, finance, legal, facilities, operations, construction and customer delivery skills can all transfer into the sector.
The industry also needs to tell a better story about itself. Too often, public debate focuses on power, water and planning friction. Those issues matter, but data centers are also part of the infrastructure behind AI, digital services, healthcare, finance, scientific research and economic growth.
Training needs to become more flexible and joined up
The answer is not simply to hire faster. It is to build clearer, more flexible routes into the sector.
Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry offers a useful blueprint. Its growth was supported by government, education providers and major employers working together to build the skills the sector needed.
Data centers need the same mindset: better visibility of future demand, stronger regional skills pipelines, more apprenticeships and clearer routes for people with transferable experience.
Someone managing safety on a large infrastructure project may be much closer to a data center career than they realize. The industry’s job is to make that route visible, credible and accessible.
Common standards matter too. As delivery accelerates, every company trying to solve training, quality and safety alone will create duplication and inconsistency. Shared frameworks would give employers, subcontractors and new entrants a clearer view of what good looks like.
The infrastructure strategy needs a workforce strategy
The UK does not lack ambition. It has data center plans coming forward, government policy designed to support AI infrastructure, and investors looking for places to build.
But ambition will not be enough. AI may be digital, but the infrastructure behind it is physical. It depends on people with the right skills, in the right places, at the right time.
If the UK wants to lead in AI, it cannot treat the workforce as an afterthought. It needs to bring more women into the sector, make better use of transferable skills, create flexible routes into work, and give regions the tools to prepare before demand arrives.
The country can approve the sites and attract the investment. The bigger test is whether it can build the workforce to match.
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