Here are the business stories making the headlines in Scotland and across the UK this morning.

AI will not be mass destroyer of jobs - Bank chief

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not be a "mass destroyer of jobs" and human workers will learn to work with new technologies, the governor of the Bank of England has told the BBC.

Governor Andrew Bailey said while there are risks with AI, "there is great potential with it".

The Bank says businesses expect to see the benefits to productivity soon.

Almost a third told the Bank they'd made significant AI investments in the past year.

Mr Bailey added "I'm an economic historian, before I became a central banker. Economies adapt, jobs adapt, and we learn to work with it. And I think, you get a better result by people with machines than with machines on their own. So I'm an optimist…"

Water bills to rise by average 6% from April - as price hike branded 'a disgrace'

The average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales is to go up by an average 6% from April to help unlock "record investment", an industry group has announced.

Water UK said the increases, equivalent to £27 a year, would leave households with an average annual bill of £473.

The body said the increase, while down on the previous year's hike, was needed to fund infrastructure improvements following a backlash over deliberate sewage discharges and poor water supply resilience.

It announced in October last year that it was seeking permission for a much greater contribution from bill-payers over the second half of the decade.

Meta share price surges as Facebook's parent company announces dividend for first time

Shares in Facebook's parent company Meta have soared after it was announced that dividends will be paid to investors for the first time.

Stock in the tech giant surged by more than 15% - adding more than £110bn to its valuation. To put this into context, that rise alone is five times higher than the whole value of its rival Snap.

Meta has been on a winning streak in recent weeks, hitting record highs for the first time in over two years, with its financial performance beating expectations in its latest results.

Analysts say the company has clocked one of its most impressive quarters - with revenue rising 25% to $40.1bn (£31.5bn) in the final three months of 2023.

TikTok pulls Taylor Swift and The Weeknd's music

TikTok has removed music by stars including Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Olivia Rodrigo from videos after a row with their record label, Universal Music Group (UMG).

A licensing agreement between TikTok and the label expired on Wednesday, and a new deal could not be reached.

UMG said TikTok wanted to pay a "fraction" of the rate other social media sites do for access to its songs.

TikTok accused UMG of presenting a "false narrative and rhetoric".

All videos which have UMG music on them will be muted and new videos will not be able to be made with those tracks.

More like this…

View all