For years, modern slavery was understood through a familiar lens: factories, fields, construction sites and informal labour markets at the margins of the economy. The abuses were no less severe, but they were visible, physical and – in theory at least – inspectable.
That picture is now rapidly becoming outdated.
According to the UK’s Independent Anti‑Slavery Commissioner, modern slavery is not only rising to record levels, but evolving faster than institutions and employers can respond. In 2025, referrals to the National Referral Mechanism reached 23,411 – the highest figure ever recorded, nearly double the level seen just five years ago. Crucially, this increase is not being driven by better detection alone. It reflects a crime that is adapting, professionalising and increasingly enabled by technology.
Exploitation without a factory floor
The commissioner’s report is clear: traffickers are using artificial intelligence, digital platforms and online labour models to scale exploitation and hide it in plain sight.
Victims are being recruited through social media, controlled via tracking apps, coerced into online fraud, or funnelled into gig‑economy work arrangements that blur the line between employment and exploitation. The report highlights the rise of so‑called “scam compounds”, where individuals are forced into digital fraud operations, as well as new forms of “remote control” enabled by surveillance technology and synthetic identities.
In this environment, exploitation can occur through debt manipulation, algorithmic pay practices, platform‑based dependency and digital isolation – often across borders, jurisdictions and regulatory frameworks simultaneously.
Why traditional approaches are no longer sufficient
For many organisations, modern slavery compliance has historically centred on statements, audits and supplier questionnaires. Those tools still matter, but they were designed for a different risk landscape.
The commissioner warns that as exploitation becomes more technologically enabled, it also becomes less visible and harder to disrupt. Physical site inspections tell you very little about online recruitment pathways. Standard procurement due diligence does not capture the risks embedded in platform labour models. And legacy human rights frameworks struggle to account for AI‑driven exploitation that sits at the intersection of technology, migration, labour and financial crime.
A new profile of human rights professional
What this shift demands is a different type of human rights expertise inside organisations.
Increasingly, employers need specialists who can:
- understand how AI and data are being used to recruit, monitor and control workers
- assess exploitation risks in gig economy and platform‑based labour models
- identify early warning signals in digital supply chains and recruitment practices
- work across functions, including HR, compliance, procurement, IT and risk
These are not skills that can be added as a side responsibility to an already overstretched compliance or ESG role. They require dedicated, specialist practitioners with experience that spans technology, labour standards, investigations and, often, cross‑border risk.
The rise of domestic digital exploitation
One of the more confronting findings in the data is that modern slavery is increasingly domestic, not remote. UK nationals accounted for more than one‑fifth of all referrals in 2025. This matters because digital exploitation thrives in local contexts – using housing insecurity, debt, online dependency and informal work arrangements that can sit entirely within national borders.
For employers, this challenges the assumption that modern slavery risk lives “elsewhere” in distant supply chains. It also reinforces the need for UK‑based human rights capability with local insight into labour markets, vulnerability and enforcement systems.
Human rights professionals are core to every corporate risk strategy
The commissioner’s report calls for a whole‑system response involving government, law enforcement, civil society and business. But businesses cannot play a meaningful role in that system without the right people in place.
As exploitation evolves, human rights teams need to focus on anticipatory risk management. That means spotting patterns before harm occurs, shaping workforce strategy, and influencing how organisations deploy technology, outsource labour and design operating models.
In practical terms, this is why employers are increasingly seeking senior human rights professionals with the credibility to advise boards, challenge commercial decisions and work across organisational silos.
A widening gap between risk and readiness
The uncomfortable reality is that while the risks are accelerating, the talent pool is not. There is already intense competition for human rights specialists who understand technology‑enabled exploitation, and demand is rising faster than supply.
The result is a growing gap between the complexity of modern slavery risk and the capability organisations have in place to address it.
As the report warns, without decisive action, exploitation will continue to become more professional, more hidden and more resilient. For employers, investing in the right human rights expertise is essential to keeping pace with a rapidly changing threat landscape.
Modern slavery has changed shape. The question now is whether organisational skills and structures will change with it.
For further information on hiring human rights expertise, please contact Adam Bond.
