Speaking on a leadership panel organised by the Chamber of Commerce as part of the island’s AI Sprint series of events, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said the prospect of AI reshaping employment was ‘cause for concern’ for an island that has been drawing around 77% of its revenue from income-based taxation.
‘When you are dependent to the tune of 77% on income-based taxation, and you are looking at potential impacts on employment and/or earnings because of AI, that is cause for concern,’ she said.
The deputy linked the risk directly to the case for tax reform, saying the States’ decision to pursue a goods and services tax as part of moves to broaden and diversify the island’s tax base, now expected to come in some time during 2029, would leave Guernsey less exposed.
‘I’m pleased to say that the States have agreed to diversify, and that will improve our resilience going forward,’ she said. She described the island’s current position as ‘quite vulnerable’.
She said government also had to prepare for the wider social consequences. ‘We have to be aware of and prepared for potential impacts on employment and potentially earnings, and our tax system in particular is in its current state quite vulnerable.’
The warning was echoed by Chamber of Commerce president Brooke Kenyon, who said the uncertainty was already affecting decisions about taking on young people entering the workforce.
Employers were ‘making different plans than they might have done two or three years ago’ about recruiting school leavers, she said – not through any reluctance to train islanders, but because the impact of AI remained unclear.
‘That’s not because we don’t want to train the people in the island. It’s because we don’t know yet,’ she said. ‘We’re in this moment of uncertainty still, and you’re looking around and thinking, okay, well, let’s pause.’
She acknowledged the effect that caution could have on young islanders looking for work. ‘That is really unhelpful to those people who want jobs. We know that we need those people to have roles,’ she said, but argued businesses had to weigh up ‘the commercial viability’ of decisions in a fast-changing market.
The concerns were confirmed in a PwC report on the impact of AI on the jobs market, including Channel Islands jobs, which was published over the summer.
PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, analysing more than a billion job adverts, found AI was splitting the labour market into two tracks – with the Channel Islands no exception. Globally, 52% of jobs are being ‘democratised’, where AI takes over complex tasks, shifting people toward less specialised work and lowering entry barriers, while 22% are being ‘professionalised’, with routine tasks automated, raising the value of human expertise.
In the finance industry, PwC expects roles such as portfolio managers to be democratised and compliance-heavy anti-money laundering and customer due diligence work increasingly automated – potentially needing fewer staff.
Its central warning was for entry-level jobs – it found that traditional ways of developing junior workers are ‘no longer fit for purpose’, and firms risk cutting the recruits who become future managers. PwC urged companies to redesign training and career paths rather than retrench, noting 58% of island business leaders fear they are not transforming fast enough to keep pace.
The panel event brought together leaders from government, finance, technology and education to discuss how AI was impacting leadership locally.
You need to be logged in to comment.