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Ninja doesn't just produce coffee makers — its multi-function brewers can prepare drip coffee, espresso, and even cold brew, all in one. As TechRadar's resident coffee expert, I'm consistently impressed by their all-round performance, so I was delighted to see that so many of them have received big price cuts for Amazon Prime Day.

• Browse the full US Amazon Prime Day sale
• Check out the full Prime Day sale in the UK

Here I've put together a list of my three favorite Ninja brewers, plus links to all of today's best prices in both the US and the UK. If you can't see the Ninja coffee machine you're after, I've also provided links below that will take you directly to the appropriate deals pages at all the major retailers.

Ninja deal quick linksUS links

• Amazon: limited time Prime Day deals
• Best Buy: up to $100 off Ninja coffee makers
• Kohl's: offers on hot and cold Ninja brewers
• Ninja: save on espresso and drip machines
• Target: Ninja Luxe Café deals on now

UK links

• Amazon: Prime Day deals end tonight
• Argos: save 20% with the code RED20
• Currys: up to £70 off Ninja appliances
• John Lewis: Ninja deal prices matched
• Ninja: big savings on espresso machines

Best all-roundNinja Luxe Café PremierFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

This Ninja coffee maker (originally called the Luxe Café) is a makes espresso, filter coffee, and cold brew all in one, and is excellent for beginners. When preparing an espresso, for example, the machine does the hard work of dialing in the grinder for you, suggesting an appropriate grind size and then funneling the prepared coffee neatly into the filter basket.

A calibrated tamper helps you create a perfectly even bed of coffee, and once the handle is inserted under the brewing group, the Luxe Café Premier will time your shot to make sure it's not extracting too fast or slow.

You can push the steam wand down into your milk jug to use the automatic frothing system, or lift it a few degrees to use it manually, depending on how confident you feel. We found that the auto system worked equally well with dairy milk and plant-based substitutes like oat and almond.

The Luxe Café Premier takes the trial and error out of making coffee, handling the trickiest barista tasks for you and helping even first-time users produce a consistently well-extracted brew with a fully rounded flavor, and comes highly recommended.

Read our full Ninja Luxe Café Premier review

Luxe Café Premier: was $599.99 now $499.99
Amazon has knocked $100 off this superb beginner-friendly coffee maker, and the deal applies to four colorways so you can find one that matches your kitchen. It's the only appliance you need for your coffee nook.View Deal

Luxe Café Premier: was £549.99 now £429.99
Amazon's Prime Day deal is even better in the UK, shaving almost a quarter off the list price. I've seen it a little cheaper before, but not by much, so it's up to you whether you grab it now, or hold out for an even more generous offer on Black Friday.View Deal

Best automaticNinja AutoBarista ProKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / FutureKaren Freeman / Future

The Ninja AutoBarista Pro is another multi-function coffee maker, but unlike the Luxe Café, this is a fully automatic machine that handles the entire brewing process for you. Just pick your preferred drink from the full color touchscreen, then sit back while the Pro does the work.

This is an upgraded version of the original AutoBarista, with the added benefit of swappable bean carafes so you can choose between two different coffees on the fly (perfect if, like me, you prefer to switch to decaf in the afternoon), plus an expanded menu. The 'Grind IQ' feature automatically dials in the ideal grind size for your chosen beans, and you can choose to brew hot or cold, with the latter producing a mellow, smooth-tasting drink that's ideal for summer days.

The automatic milk frother is a real highlight as well. During our tests it worked equally well with dairy and plant-based milk, and can produce different textures depending on the drink you've selected, with just the right proportions of steamed milk and foam.

Read our full Ninja Autobarista Pro review

The Ninja AutoBarista Pro isn't included in Amazon's Prime Day sale (in fact, it doesn't appear to be available there at all) but Costco members can grab it for $80 off the list price, which is a great saving and better than any other retailer.View Deal

The Autobarista Pro isn't included in Amazon's Prime Day sale in the UK either, but the original Autobarista is. The biggest difference is that this model lacks the swappable bean carafes, but it's still a superb coffee maker — particularly with £130 off.View Deal

Best for drip coffeeNinja Prestige DualBrew SystemFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFutureFuture

This two-in one coffee maker, also known as the Ninja Espresso and Coffee Barista System in the US, is part drip coffee maker, part Nespresso machine — and it's ideal for mornings when you're feeling groggy and want to enjoy a fresh brew as quickly as possible.

The drip coffee maker on the left-hand side offers a choice of brew sizes, three profiles (normal, rich, and over ice), and a timer so you can prepare everything last thing at night. When you wake, the double-walled carafe will be full of fresh coffee, kept at the ideal temperature by a smart hot plate designed to avoid overheating your drink and spoiling its flavor — and it works.

The Nespresso machine on the right-hand side uses Nespresso Original pods (the ones shaped like a little top hat) and again offers a choice of three brew sizes. Once it's reached temperature (both parts of the Barista System use the same water tank), it can brew a very nicely balanced espresso in about a minute.

Read our full Ninja Prestige DualBrew System review

Expresso and Coffee Barista System: was $279.99 now $229.95
This is a relatively modest saving for Prime Day, but still respectable when you consider just how much you're getting for your cash — this one appliance can replace both an espresso machine and a drip coffee maker on your kitchen counter.View Deal

Prestige DualBrew System: was £249.99 now £169.99
There's a much more generous Prime Day offer in the UK, with almost a third off this all-purpose coffee maker. The silver color option is on offer too, but you'll get the biggest saving if you opt for this darker gunmetal version.View Deal

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.36
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $28
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $89
• Smartwatches: up to 36% off Garmin & Apple
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $49

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: up to 67% off Fire, Ring & Blink
• Amazon Haul: extra 15% off for Prime members
• Appliances: up to 40% off Ninja & De'Longhi
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: cleaning & groceries from £2
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: record-low Nintendo Switch 2
• Headphones: up to 50% off Anker & Sony
• Laptops: up to £800 off Microsoft & Asus
• Tablets: up to 50% off Fire tablets
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 50% off Shark & Dyson
• Wearables: Samsung & Oura from £31

It's hard enough being a small-scale farmer. Then the Iran war drove up fertilizer prices. So farmers are using a traditional Asian recipe to make their own. They call it a "labor of love."

(Image credit: Andy Higgins for NPR)

Crystal Lake is one of the biggest horror releases in October 2026, and we don't have long until we can binge watch this Friday the 13th spin-off series.

I've been feeling really excited about this series, which sees Linda Cardellini stepping into the shoes of iconic villain Pamela Voorhees. Despite her being such an important character in the original Friday the 13th movie, we haven't really seen a lot of her.

Crystal Lake focuses on Pamela before the events of Friday the 13th. The story takes place a year after a young, sickly Jason Voorhees tragically drowns. As a result, his single mother, Pamela Voorhees, is consumed by grief and clings to a desperate, delusional hope that her son is somehow still alive.

Interested? Read on to see when you can watch Crystal Lake.

What time can I watch Crystal Lake on Peacock?

Crystal Lake arrives just in time for your Halloween celebrations, alongside this month's new horror movies. Outside of Peacock, it will be able to stream internationally via places like Sky/NOW TV in the UK, but release dates do vary depending on which territory you're in.

Usually new releases hit the platform at midnight Pacific Time, so based on that, here's when and where Crystal Lake is expected to release around the world.

US (Peacock) – Thursday, October 15 at 12am PT / 9pm ET

Canada (Crave) – Thursday, October 15 at 12am PT / 9pm ET

New Zealand (Neon) – Thursday, October 15 at 8pm NZDT

Australia (Stan) – Friday October 16 at 5pm AEDT

UK (Sky/NOW TV) – Monday, October 19 at 8am BST

When do new episodes of Crystal Lake come out?

(Image credit: Peacock)

All eight episodes of Crystal Lake will drop on streaming services at the same time, but right now, we don't have episode titles for all of them. Below I've listed the information we do have at the time of writing.

Here's what to expect from the upcoming Crystal Lake episodes.

Episode 1: The Great Pretender

Episode 2: Are You Experienced?

Episode 3: TBA

Episode 4: TBA

Episode 5: The Acid Queen

Episode 6: Helter Skelter

Episode 7: Blue Skies

Episode 8: TBA

The 46mm cellular model is just $900, but the clock is ticking.

I've spent years testing headphones and earbuds here at TechRadar, and Sennheiser is a brand that almost never fails to impress me. You know what you're getting with Sennheiser: faithful, detailed audio, great build quality, and fantastic ergonomics. And so I was delighted to discover that some of the best Sennheiser headphones and earbuds we've tested are discounted in the Amazon Prime Day sales.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

There are a lot of great offers to pick from, but I've narrowed it down to my five favorties for both US and UK shoppers. One of the highlights for me is the Sennheiser IE 200 for $99.95 (was $159.95) in the US and just £81.69 (was £129.99) in the UK — these were already exceptional IEMs for the price, and now they're an absolute steal.

Another amazing bargain is the Sennheiser Accentum Plus for $109.95 (was $249.95) in the US and only £103.19 (was 199.99) in the UK. They're a fantastic-sounding pair of wireless headphones, and at around half-price, they're very easy to recommend.

Want to know more about these sweet deals? Simply scroll on down for the best prices, and additional details on each product.

Today's best Sennheiser deals in the US

I've been using the Sennheiser IE 200 for years, and they've never let me down. The level of detail they can unearth would be impressive enough at full-price, so this deal makes them a true must-buy for audiophiles or musicians on a budget.View Deal

Accentum Open Wireless Earbuds: was $129.95 now $59.95
While I'm yet to try these for myself, this is a staggeringly low price for a pair of wireless earbuds from Sennheiser. With a flexible open-style fit, 28 hours of battery life, and IPX4 waterproofing, there's a lot to like about this deal.View Deal

We raved about the Sennheiser Accentum Plus when we reviewed them a couple years back, talking up their punchy, assertive sound, strong battery life, and quality build. At 56% off, this deal almost feels too good to be true.View Deal

Now that their successor has launched, it's perhaps unsurprising to see the Sennheiser Momentum 4 get a juicy discount for Prime Day. These five-star headphones offer spectacular, impactful audio, huge battery life, and a timeless design that we can't get enough of. And at 43% off, it feels like the perfect time to snap up some of our favorite wireless headphones that Sennheiser has ever put out.View Deal

My esteemed colleague and TechRadar Reviews Editor, Josh Russell, often speaks of his love of the Sennheiser HD 660S2, and it's not hard to see why. They supply nuanced, neutral, and engaging audio and a supremely comfortable fit that's ideal for musicians and audiophiles alike. At almost 30% off, these are worth every penny.View Deal

Today's best Sennheiser deals in the UK

The Sennheiser IE 200 might just be some of my favorite IEMs ever made. That comes down to the fact that they provide such impressive levels of detail and insight while remaining highly affordable. So now, at less than £85, I would urge any audio enthusiast on a budget to scoop these up. View Deal

I take the Sennheiser CX 80U with me everywhere I go to use with my Nintendo Switch 2 or listen to tunes on my phone, and they continue to impress me no end. They offer amazing audio quality, with especially refined treble and instrument separation, plus the convenience of USB-C connectivity, and even a built-in mic for taking calls. In my view, there aren't any similarly priced USB-C earbuds that can compete with these. View Deal

I've not tried the Sennheiser Accentum Open Wireless Earbuds yet, but this deal felt too good to leave out. With an ergonomic open-style fit, IPX4 waterproofing, and 28 hours of battery life, you're getting an awful lot of value for sub-£50 Sennheiser earbuds.View Deal

We're huge fans of the Sennheiser Accentum Plus here at TechRadar, and continue to recommend them regularly, even years after release. They offer punchy, assertive audio, plenty of playtime, and a stylish look that already felt like great value for money. So now, at almost half-price, it would be impossible for me not to advise you to snap these up!View Deal

HD660 S2: was £369 now £305
Finally, we have a set of audiophile-grade wired headphones in the Sennheiser HD 660S2. Our Reviews Editor, Josh Russell, always speaks highly of his pair, which offer satisfyingly neutral, insightful sound as well as an ergonomic fit and eye-catching design. A tidy saving of £64 only adds another reason to grab these, whether you enjoy making music or you're a hobbyist audiophile.View Deal

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.36
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $28
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $89
• Smartwatches: up to 36% off Garmin & Apple
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $49

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: up to 67% off Fire, Ring & Blink
• Amazon Haul: extra 15% off for Prime members
• Appliances: up to 40% off Ninja & De'Longhi
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: cleaning & groceries from £2
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: record-low Nintendo Switch 2
• Headphones: up to 50% off Anker & Sony
• Laptops: up to £800 off Microsoft & Asus
• Tablets: up to 50% off Fire tablets
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 50% off Shark & Dyson
• Wearables: Samsung & Oura from £31

As TechRadar's Senior Fitness and Wearables Editor, it's my job to test every Garmin watch that crosses my desk. As a result, I've tested almost every modern Garmin watch released in the last five years, and I've parsed the Amazon Prime Day Garmin deals to find the best Garmin watches worth your time.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

It's tough to just say "buy this one" and be done with it, because there are a) so many different Garmin watches, each with their own target demographic — adventurers, runners, gym-goers and so on — and b) so many different deals across the US and UK.

I'm not seeing the broad swathes of discounts I've seen in previous years. However, the three deals I've picked offer good value for money — should get a lot out of whichever watch you choose, especially at these reduced prices.

Below, you can find the three models I've chosen, links to the deals, plus a little bit about why I've chosen these particular models, and who should buy them.

Garmin Fenix 8

(Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)

• US deal: Garmin Fenix 8 (47mm): was $999.99 now $731.34 on Amazon US
• UK deal: Garmin Fenix 8 (47mm): was £699.99 now £595.56 on Amazon UK

The Garmin Fenix 8 is a powerful watch. In our official Garmin Fenix 8 review, we gave it five stars, calling it "rugged, expensive perfection". It's amazing for long-distance running, skiing, multi-day hikes, and any workout that involves finding your way outdoors. However, it's not cheap.

That's why it's nice to see some lowest-ever prices in the US and the UK for this watch. We know the reason why — the Garmin Fenix 9 Pro and 9 have just been released, so it's only natural to see the Fenix 8 coming down in price. However, that doesn't stop a Fenix 8 for under $750 / £600 feeling less like an extravagant purchase and more like a smart deal.

This is the Garmin deal to get if you're a serious outdoor enthusiast, long-distance athlete, or hiker.

Fenix 8 (47mm): was $999.99 now $731.34
Save an impressive $268.65 on the listing price of the Garmin Fenix 8. This is a lowest-ever price on the standard 47mm Fenix 8, and the only version of the watch that's seriously discounted, with other colors and sizes costing more. However, the middle-of-the-road size offers incredible performance, full-color maps, SatIQ multi-band GPS, all the health metrics you could want, and a battery life of up to 16 days.

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 reviewView Deal

Fenix 8 (47mm): was £699.99 now £595.56
Save a cool £100 off the UK listing price of the Garmin Fenix 8. This is the ultimate adventure watch, and while the discount isn't quite as good as the US one, the lowest starting retail price means you end up with an equivalent value. Given the price of other watches such as the Forerunner 570, which doesn't have all the features of the Fenix 8, I can heartily recommend this deal.

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 reviewView Deal

Garmin Forerunner 165

(Image credit: Future)

• US deal: Garmin Forerunner 165: was $249.99 now $198.99 at Amazon US
• UK price: Garmin Forerunner 165: now £160.99 at Amazon UK

The Garmin Forerunner 165, like the Garmin Fenix 8, has been replaced in the lineup this year by a more recent model, this time the Garmin Forerunner 170. As a result, we're seeing prices drop on the older model, which means you're getting a good watch at a great price.

When I reviewed the Garmin Forerunner 165, I gave it 4.5 stars, noting its wonderful bright screen, feature-rich software and 11-day battery life as good value for the price even then. It's all-plastic, so it can feel a bit cheap, but it does make the training tool very lightweight.

The US deal gets you 20% off, and while the UK Amazon deal doesn't state a temporary drop in price, it began life as a £249.99 watch, and Currys has it listed at £199 right now, meaning the above Amazon link is the cheapest place to buy it.

As the name suggests, regular runners should look closely at this watch. While it doesn't have full-color maps, it's got more than enough functionality for most people running distances from 5-10km up to marathons, in addition to daily health tracking.

Forerunner 165, Black: was $249.99 now $198.99
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is ideal for runners, as it provides race-adaptive training plans based on your upcoming events, and daily suggested workouts. A combination of buttons and touchscreen operation means it can be used with gloves in the cold winter months, and it tracks your training and recovery with its Readiness score. The Whitestone color is available for an extra $10.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 165 reviewView Deal

Forerunner 165, Black: was £199.99 now £160.99
Nominally, this isn't a deal, as Amazon hasn't labelled it as such, but the Forerunner 165 has come down in price. You're still saving 20% at Amazon compared to other retailers like Currys, so I'd recommend buying it here rather than elsewhere.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 165 reviewView Deal

Garmin Vivoactive 5/6

(Image credit: Future)

• US deal: Garmin Vivoactive 5: was $299.99 now $189.90 at Amazon US
• UK deal: Garmin Vivoactive 6: was £234.99 now £176.34 at Amazon UK

The Garmin Vivoactive series is a watch for generally active people, rather than one specifically geared towards runners or adventurers, and as a result, it's very popular. I gave the Garmin Vivoactive 6 an impressive 4.5 stars in my review, calling it "a pocket rocket" Its small size and cheaper price make it a great gift, and it's come down in price in the UK.

In the US, the Vivoactive 6 is still at full price. However, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is shockingly cheap in America, and there isn't that much difference between them. The Vivoactive 6 packs advanced running metrics, course mapping on-wrist, double the storage its Smart Wake alarm, but the two watches share the same screen, software, battery life, fitness tracking and general look.

I'd recommend these watches to gym-goers, joggers or sporty people — anyone who loves the gym or multi-disciplinary forms of exercise, and wants something longer-lasting than an Apple or Samsung watch.

You can save a huge 37% on the Garmin Vivoactive 5 in the US. Its 11-day battery life, bright AMOLED screen and combinations of buttons and touchscreen make it really versatile, while metal accents and notification management ensure it's wearable all week long, and looks nice in the office and on the street as well as in the gym.

Read our full Garmin Vivoactive 5 reviewView Deal

Save 25% on the do-it-all Vivoactive 6 in the UK. It takes the 11-day battery life, AMOLED screen and button-touchscreen of the 5, adding more comprehensive running metrics, a silent Smart Wake alarm linked to your sleep tracking to rouse you at the lightest stage of sleep, basic route navigation features using Garmin's excellent Create a Course functionality, and an Evening Report as well as a Morning one.

Read our full Garmin Vivoactive 6 reviewView Deal

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.36
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $28
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $89
• Smartwatches: up to 36% off Garmin & Apple
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $49

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: up to 67% off Fire, Ring & Blink
• Amazon Haul: extra 15% off for Prime members
• Appliances: up to 40% off Ninja & De'Longhi
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: cleaning & groceries from £2
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: record-low Nintendo Switch 2
• Headphones: up to 50% off Anker & Sony
• Laptops: up to £800 off Microsoft & Asus
• Tablets: up to 50% off Fire tablets
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 50% off Shark & Dyson
• Wearables: Samsung & Oura from £31

A possible Iranian threat led the U.S. to remove long-range bombers from a U.K. base. And, Israelis are learning that their prime minister may have been warned before the Oct. 7 attacks.

(Image credit: Dan Kitwood)

A thinly traded prediction market offers a starting point. We explore potential winners and the big ideas that could earn them economics' biggest prize.

(Image credit: Kena Betancur)

Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.

(Image credit: Fredrik Sandberg)

It's not just mortgages being at their highest level in almost three years — but the cost of loans for cars and higher education are among the borrowing costs affected, too.

(Image credit: Nam Y. Huh)

Researchers uncovered the graves of more than 1,000 children next to juvenile detention facilities in 29 states. At one Maryland gravesite, 230 Black boys are buried.

(Image credit: Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR)

Northern Nevada has a reliably red congressional seat, represented by a Republican since it was drawn in the early 1980s. A complicated candidate and a potential blue wave this year could change that.

(Image credit: William Hale Irwin)

The pop superstar is showing art from his personal collection for the first time. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is packed with fans.

(Image credit: Ethan Miller)

Flu season typically starts in October or November. But it looks like the flu started to pick up in September this year.

(Image credit: Rebecca Blackwell)

Midterm candidates are talking up Medicare for All, and in a poll 2 out of 3 Americans said they support it. The phrase speaks to a desire for radical change, though many don't really know what it is.

(Image credit: Paul Sancya)

On the three-year mark since the Hamas-led deadly attack, Israelis are grappling with reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was repeatedly warned by regional allies ahead of time.

(Image credit: Debbie Hill)

The federal Civil Rights Data Collection, for the first time in decades, tells us about the teacher workforce and reminds us racial disparities are still stark in American public schools.

(Image credit: Joel Solis)

The Trump administration has been hostile to federal spending on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. But there's bipartisan support for a multiuse trail that would connect Ohio and West Virginia.

(Image credit: Joel Rose)

Research and Development (R&D) is fundamentally linked to a nation’s prosperity, and ability to respond to major challenges. Without a strong R&D pipeline, innovation and opportunity would be limited.

From tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, to advancing in sustainability and clean energy, R&D has been at the forefront of many breakthroughs.

The AI age is no exception.

Yet, while organizations are investing exponentially in AI, and rushing to adopt the latest tools, many leaders are overlooking a more fundamental foundation that needs to be in place first: the people. While AI may be scaling innovation, it is the R&D professionals that are needed to develop and improve these technologies and implement them effectively.

Organizations that focus entirely on AI adoption, without investing in the skills needed for successful AI deployment, risk forming a capability gap that will hinder them in the long-term. Thus, building talent must become a strategic business priority, or else leaders risk falling behind in the AI age.

Reactive hiring is a losing game

For many organizations, hiring remains a reactive process: recruit when there is a vacancy or the workload needs it. While this approach may have worked in the past, it is no longer aligned with a landscape where demand for specialist tech skills continues to outpace supply. While hiring reactively may solve immediate business challenges, it does not build the long-term knowledge and expertise needed to sustain innovation in the R&D space.

Instead, organizations should think about building talent pipelines. This could mean partnering with universities or offering a range of internships and graduate programs to bring in young people at the start of their career. There should also be a focus on providing mentorship opportunities, and embedding continuous learning into the workplace. Existing employees can then continue to gain skills, and drive the research and development organizations seek.

A successful R&D workforce is not built overnight; like all good investments it is a slow and steady process. AI is progressing rapidly and defined by instant results, and it can be easily forgotten that people don't develop at the same speed as technology. Instead, a consistent flow of skilled professionals is required, who can grow and change alongside the organization, and adapt to the technologies that emerge.

Why culture is the retention differentiator, not salary

Higher salaries are an attractive proposition for many employees, but they quickly lose their appeal when it comes from an organization that has not built a culture to support or retain its people.

Increasingly, employees want more that simple compensation. People are looking to join environments of continuous development, bold innovation, experimentation, and collaboration. Not only will this make organizations stand out in the job market, but it will also make people want to stay longer-term and build higher job satisfaction.

When this becomes embedded into the fabric of a company, organizations become far better equipped at attracting, developing, and retaining the highly skilled R&D talent they seek.

With technology changing and advancing so quickly, this culture of continuous learning becomes even more vital. Organizations should see it as a priority to provide access to technical training, certifications in fast-moving areas such as: cloud-native development, AI and DevSecOps, as well as providing mentoring for employees. There should also be opportunities that allow people to work on emerging technologies – from AI-assisted development tools to automation and advanced analytics - and share knowledge across the wider team.

True innovation is rarely the result of one individual. The most successful R&D outcomes are driven by teams that work together with their different perspectives, skills and experiences; bolstered by a work culture that empowers them to do so.

The R&D goldmine most companies are sitting on

While businesses continue to invest heavily in AI tools and develop technologies, there is one untapped R&D resource that many are overlooking. And it’s free for them to use: their own customers.

Most organizations collect a vast amount of customer data and information, yet much of it remains underutilized. But when combined with AI-driven analytics, this data can become a powerful tool for innovation. Failing to do so, would be missing a valuable opportunity for many companies to better understand their customer needs, and guide future development.

AI can analyze large volumes of data very quickly and efficiently. In doing so, it can help organizations identify patterns, recurring issues, and unmet customer needs, that may go otherwise unnoticed. As a result of these insights, R&D teams can then make better decisions based on actual evidence and user experiences. Paired with upskilled engineers, this is where real opportunity lies. Automation and analytics allows teams to be free from repetitive tasks, so their time can instead be dedicated to solving the more complex problems that drive meaningful innovation.

In an ever-changing market, organizations cannot innovate based simply on guesswork. AI can help uncover what customers need, but it is the R&D teams that must help bring this to life. When this all comes together, businesses are far more likely to develop innovations that resonate and drive long-term growth.

People are significant contributors to AI in driving its successful deployment, so it’s logical that the businesses seeing the greatest success in this new wave of AI, are those that have invested heavily into developing R&D talent and upskilling.

Through implementing a strong talent pipeline, building cultures of bold innovation, and utilizing the goldmine of customer data that most businesses are sitting on, organizations will be far better equipped to turn AI’s development into meaningful, long-term growth.

Check out our list of the best job sites.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

Industrial employers sitting on unfilled technical roles and a generation locked out of work are two halves of one fixable equation.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that around 13% of UK 16-24 years olds are not in employment, education or training. The government's own interim review has warned this could mark the makings of a "lost generation."

At the same time, close to a fifth of the engineering and manufacturing workforce is expected to retire by the end of the year, taking with it an estimated half a million skilled engineers, technicians and operators.

One side of the ledger is a generation that wants to work and cannot get in. The other is an industrial base that needs people and is about to lose its most experienced. Treated separately, both look intractable. Treated together, they start to look like a single problem with a single answer. The solution: training AI agents to become autonomous and fill this gap.

A knowledge problem, not a hiring problem

The first mistake is to see the industrial shortage as a hiring problem. Recruiters and trade bodies have been clear that external hiring alone cannot close the gap: the issue is not just empty seats but the decades of judgment walking out the door with every retirement. When a maintenance lead or a supplier audit manager leaves, the loss is rarely the task itself. It is the accumulated reasoning behind it, and the why that never made it into a manual.

That is precisely why hiring and knowledge transfer demand completely different solutions. A vacancy can be filled in months. Thirty years of tacit knowledge cannot be replicated by recruitment, and the so-called "hollowed-out middle" - the shortage of workers with five to fifteen years' experience - means there is often no intermediate layer left to pass that knowledge down. The conveyor belt that once carried expertise from veteran to apprentice has lost its middle section.

Where AI changes the arithmetic

This is where AI changes the arithmetic, and not in the way the headlines assume. The breakthrough is not a chatbot that answers questions. It is the ability to capture the relationship between an organization's structured records, the purchase orders, the part numbers, and the unstructured reasoning that surrounds them: the emails, the annotations, the informal decisions made in the margins.

Map how the two influence each other, embed that context into the daily workflow, and decades of institutional memory become an operational asset rather than a folder no one can find.

Done well, this compresses the experience curve. Instead of acquiring judgment slowly, over years, a newer engineer inherits a working version of it from their first day on the job. The relevant history, the prior decisions, and the reasoning surfaced from the very beginning. The point is not that experience stops mattering. It is that the ramp becomes far shorter.

The window to exchange knowledge is narrow, and it is closing now. Context can only be captured while the people who hold it are still in the building. Once an expert retires, the structured data remains, but the reasoning that made it usable leaves with them. Every quarter of delay is a quarter of irreplaceable judgment lost. The retirement wave is not a distant problem to be scheduled around; it is already underway.

Where AI is used the wrong way

There is an honest objection to confront. AI is widely blamed for hollowing out entry-level work, and the data gives the charge weight: the same interim review found that entry-level roles have become less plentiful and more demanding, recruitment more remote, automated and less human, and apprenticeship starts for young people are down by more than 40%.

But AI is rarely the real culprit; the mindset behind it is. Too many organizations are still buying the technology the way they bought software a decade ago - as a line item that removes people rather than a capability that makes them more valuable. Pointed at entry-level work, AI will cut it and call the result “efficiency”.

Pointed at the opposite goal, making inexperienced people productive faster, the same technology widens the door rather than narrows it. The real question is not whether AI has to close off the old way in, but whether companies choose to use it to open a new one.

A different way in

This only works if the argument is honest about who these young people are. The cohort behind the NEET numbers is not, for the most part, trained engineers waiting for a vacancy. Six in ten have never held a job at all; many are contending with poor health, disrupted schooling or years of disengagement. Employers are willing to take them on yet hesitate because an unproven candidate feels like a risk a smaller firm cannot afford.

AI lowers the cost of that bet. When a system surfaces the right context and lets a newcomer direct complex processes in plain language, the absence of a track record stops being disqualifier. For a 23-year-old walking onto a factory floor for the first time, that is the difference between being screened out and being let in.

That is the opportunity hiding inside the two statistics. The retirement cliff and the NEET crisis are usually filed under different departments: workforce planning on one side, social policy on the other. They belong on the same page. Capture the expertise that is about to leave, put it within reach of the people who are desperate to start, and the industrial sector does not merely plug a gap. It builds the on-ramp for a generation that has been told, too often, that there was no way in.

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