The Institute for Social and Economic Research is delighted to announce the British Chambers of Commerce will take up the latest MiSoC Policy Fellowship, to support their research into how AI is changing hiring for UK businesses.
MiSoC Director, Professor Emilia Del Bono, said: “We are absolutely delighted to support the British Chambers of Commerce with their research into how AI adoption will impact companies and businesses in the UK. The new MiSoC policy fellow, David Bharier, Head of Research at the British Chambers of Commerce, will be working closely with our academic experts on AI and the labour market, led by Dr Ben Etheridge, to produce important new findings which will shine a light on what is happening right now and the implications for the future.”
David Bharier, new MiSoC Policy Fellow and Head of Research at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: ““AI will be the most significant economic transformation of our generation. Working with MiSoC at the Institute for Social and Economic Research is a major opportunity to combine leading analytical expertise with real-world business data, helping us understand how AI adoption is affecting productivity and the labour market. This research will form the key evidence base for the British Chambers of Commerce in its mission for growth and in shaping policy decisions and business practice.”
The MiSoC British Chamber of Commerce Policy Fellow will address the following policy issue and research questions:
The overall policy issue concerns understanding how AI adoption affects staffing and hiring practices in UK businesses. As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into business operations, there is limited empirical evidence on how this impacts workforce composition, job roles, training investments, and hiring practices across different sectors.
Research questions:
1. How has AI adoption affected the restructuring of job roles within UK businesses? What tasks are being reallocated or eliminated, and which new roles are emerging?
2. What changes in hiring practices are associated with AI adoption? How are businesses adjusting their recruitment for both AI-related and non-AI roles?
3. What training and upskilling investments are businesses making in response to AI adoption? How do these investments vary by firm size, sector, and existing AI exposure?
4. What are business expectations regarding future AI adoption and its impact on staffing needs over the next 12 months?
5. How do the effects of AI differ between augmentation (AI supporting workers) and automation (AI replacing tasks) modes of deployment?
The research findings will be published later in 2026 in a special report for the British Chambers of Commerce and for the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
About the MiSoC Policy Fellowship programme
The ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) Policy Fellowship is a professional mentoring programme. It is targeted towards policy professionals in early to mid-career, whose role requires an understanding of the use, interpretation, synthesis, and communication of social science research for policy analysis and evidence synthesis.
The programme aims to enhance the use of MiSoC and others’ research evidence in answering policy questions and informing policies and programmes that tackle social inequalities. It aims to forge and sustain new partnerships between academia and policy.
The Fellowships are bespoke and comprise a tailored programme of discussions, events, in-depth conversations and professional development. They offer unique access to a multi-disciplinary team of social science experts and to library resources at the University of Essex.
The Fellowships will provide insight into the type of research being undertaken in MiSoC and the broader range of research that complements and supports the work of MiSoC. The centre is multi-disciplinary and international, so the Policy Fellows will have the opportunity to network and engage with researchers and academics globally. The Fellows will also have access to the vast resources and expertise in ISER and the University of Essex.
Each Policy Fellow will have bespoke objectives according to the theme area and deliverables, and previous policy fellows have come from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The Race Disparity Unit, the Department of Business and Trade, and the UK Health Security Agency .
Read more about the previous MiSoC policy fellowships and how to apply here.