The Geography of New Technology: Exposure to AI, Software and Robots in European Regional Labour Markets

Abstract

This research examines the differentiated regional exposure to new technologies across Europe. Over the past 40 years, biased technological change, particularly the rise of computer technologies, has led to declining employment in routine occupations, with varying local impacts; some regions benefit, while other struggle. Recent adoption of AI-technologies will likely bring equally significant and regionally varied employment effects. With this as a backdrop, we assess regional exposure to AI, software, and robots by linking occupation-level exposure measures to NUTS-2 regions. Using data from the European Union Labour Force Survey, we show that i) AI exposure is particularly high in high-skilled regions and Robots and Software exposure in low- and middle educated areas and ii) that there are stark differences between Western/Northern regions and Eastern/Southern regions in the EU with the latter typically showing greater exposure to technology.