UK Chancellor's City AI Skills Compact: Mandatory AI Training During Work Hours, Three-Year Commitment

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a City "skills compact" this week with nearly 20 initial participants — major financial services, asset management, and infrastructure firms — committing to rolling three-year strategies covering at least five key skills, with AI mandatory as one. Training must be delivered during work hours through professional courses, qualifications, certifications, or digital learning, with employers reporting progress by November 2026. While the announced signatories are financial services firms, the compact's design — mandatory AI training during working hours, employer commitment, government-backed reporting — is the UK government's clearest signal yet that AI workforce readiness is being treated as a competitiveness and public policy issue, not just an individual firm choice. For legal sector innovation leads and managing partners tracking the regulatory and policy environment, the compact signals that UK firms not investing in structured AI training during working hours will face both talent and regulatory headwinds — particularly as the SRA's AI supervision guidance makes clear that AI literacy is a professional competence requirement, not an optional upgrade.