The UK is losing more jobs than it is creating because of artificial intelligence and is being hit harder than rival large economies, new research suggests.

British companies reported that AI had resulted in net job losses over the past 12 months, down 8% – the highest rate among other leading economies including the US, Japan, Germany and Australia, according to a study by the investment bank Morgan Stanley.

The research, which was shared with Bloomberg, surveyed companies using AI for at least a year across five industries: consumer staples and retail, real estate, transport, healthcare equipment and cars.

It found that British businesses reported an average 11.5% increase in productivity aided by AI. US businesses reported similar gains, but created more jobs than they cut.

It suggests UK workers are being hit particularly hard by the rise of AI, as higher costs and taxes also weigh on the job market.

Unemployment is at a four-year high, as rises in the minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions squeeze hiring.

More than a quarter of UK workers are now worried their jobs could disappear completely in the next five years due to AI, a survey by the international recruitment company Randstad found.

Younger workers, particularly those in gen Z, were most concerned about the impact of AI and their ability to adapt, while baby boomers – born in the postwar years between 1946 and 1964 and nearing the end of their careers – showed greater self-assurance.

The businesses surveyed by Morgan Stanley said they were most likely to cut early-career jobs, requiring two to five years of experience in the UK.

Earlier this month the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, warned that AI could destroy swathes of jobs in the capital and “usher in a new era of mass unemployment”.

In his annual Mansion House speech, Khan said London is “at the sharpest edge of change” because of its reliance on white-collar workers in the finance and creative industries, and professional services such as law, accounting, consulting and marketing.

Khan argued that “we have a moral, social and economic duty to act” to ensure that new jobs are created to replace those that will disappear, with entry-level and junior jobs the first to go.

Last week Jamie Dimon, the boss of the US bank JP Morgan, told the World Economic Forum in Davos that governments and businesses would have to step in to help workers whose roles were displaced by the technology, or risk civil unrest.