We read four party leaders' conference speeches in full. AI comes up in ten sentences. Jobs isn't in any of them

Conference season is over for every party except the SNP, which meets in Aberdeen from 15 to 17 October. We read every leader's speech we could find in full and counted what each one said about AI and work.

Four texts were available. Andy Burnham's of 29 September and Zack Polanski's of 2 October are published by their parties. Rhun ap Iorwerth's of 2 October is on Plaid Cymru's site, partly in Welsh, and we read the English passages. Ed Davey's of 22 September is on Mark Pack's blog, which labels it the full text, rather than on the party's own site.

Across the four, AI comes up in ten sentences. Mr Burnham has three. Mr Davey has seven. Mr Polanski and Mr ap Iorwerth have none. The word jobs is in none of the ten.

Mr Burnham's three are about investment and diplomacy: bringing big AI names such as Kyndryl "into the city", putting AI "centre stage" when Britain chairs the G20, and Britain as "an honest broker". We reported on 5 October that his speech left work out. The rest of the season doesn't change that.

Mr Davey's seven are about danger. He wants a global treaty to pause superintelligent AI and an international safety agency modelled on the nuclear one. One sentence touches work: handled well, AI "could cure diseases, make work easier".

We found no published text of Kemi Badenoch's speech of 7 October. The Conservative site carries a video. None of the four news write-ups we read reports any mention of AI. We haven't counted it. Reform UK's conference was in early September, and we found no text of Nigel Farage's speech either.

Below the leaders

The clearest words on AI and work came from the Chancellor, John Healey, on 28 September. "AI is the greatest innovation of our time," he said. "We won't let AI leave Britain's workers behind." He announced the return of the Union Learning Fund with "a new focus", and said it trained 180,000 people a year the last time it ran. The published speech gives no budget and no start date.

The Conservatives' headline offer on work was to halve employers' National Insurance on young people's jobs. In interviews Ms Badenoch justified it with a "graduate recruitment crisis". The reports we read don't link it to AI. The static cost is £3.25 billion.

The motion that may not have been heard

Labour's delegates chose AI as one of their priority debates on 27 September. The motion, Composite 9, was moved by the Communication Workers Union. It asks for an independent AI regulator "with robust enforcement powers", a legal right for unions to negotiate how AI is brought into a workplace, and for employers to show that AI restructuring won't undermine British jobs.

The conference timetable listed it for Wednesday 30 September. A report on the Labour Hub site on 7 October says it was not taken because of time. We have found nothing else either way, and we've asked the CWU.

The Trades Union Congress had already passed three motions on AI on 15 September, including one asking for protection for apprenticeships and entry-level jobs. So the demands existed before the parties met. None of the four leaders' speeches we read answered them.

WHY IT MATTERS HERE

A minister's speech isn't a plan. But it is where a party says what it thinks matters. This autumn, the leaders who spoke about AI spoke about money, the world stage and danger. The people whose work it changes heard from a Chancellor and a union, and the union's motion may not have reached a vote.