A figure we could not trace, and why it is not on this site

There is a figure in circulation that says only 21% of UK workers feel confident using AI at work. It appears in a government press release from January. It is quoted widely. It is a good figure for anybody selling training, which is what this site does on the paid side.

It is not used here, and this is the page that says why.

What the search turned up

The figure is associated with a research programme published on 28 January 2026. The report exists. The programme exists. What could not be found was the figure itself in a published data table — the thing you would point at if somebody in a meeting asked where it came from.

Then the fieldwork date. The research behind that programme completed in March 2025. By the time the figure was being quoted as current, the answers behind it were sixteen months old, in the fastest-moving area anybody teaches.

What is used instead

The Office for National Statistics reported in July 2026 that 35% of UK businesses with ten or more employees use at least one AI technology, and that 11% say more than half their workforce has had AI training. Same release, same base, published with the survey wave and the response rate attached.

Two numbers, six days old at the time of writing, and you can click through to the table. That makes the same argument and it survives being challenged.

Why this matters more than the statistic

Everybody quotes digital skills numbers. Almost nobody says where they came from, and a striking number of the most-repeated figures turn out to be a misreading of a line in a report nobody went back to.

So the rule here is: every figure carries an organisation, a publication, a date and a link. Anything that cannot be traced gets cut, and the notable ones get listed with the reason. That list is on the evidence page, and it is the part of this site most worth reading if you are deciding whether to trust the rest of it.