Derren Nisbet, CEO of Virtuoso QA, analyses the UK Government’s strategy regarding artificial intelligence
It is entirely positive that the UK government is actively engaging in plans around artificial intelligence (AI), and computer power is at the centre of the plans for national renewal, which were announced in January 2025. These plans can generate growth in the economy, improve productivity and enhance the quality of life for citizens. The key here is that we embrace it across public, private, healthcare and education sectors: no area will be immune to AI, and we can all benefit if we remain open-minded and ambitious in our plans and execution.
The next industrial revolution
In this next phase of AI development, Britain must actively reshape industries and workforce dynamics to take the lead and form the AI revolution.
One of the pillars of this development will be regulatory leadership and the crafting of agile AI regulations that encourage innovation while protecting societal values.
Investment in R&D will mean the support of world-class AI research in universities and tech hubs across Britain, which would encourage people to follow the innovation, creating the equivalent of Silicon Valley in the UK. Ideally, we would leave the finance in the city and move the tech outside.
Public-private collaborations need to strengthen partnerships between government, AI startups, and tech giants to ensure AI applications serve both economic and social needs.
AI Safety
The UK positioned itself as a global leader in AI safety by hosting the first AI Safety Summit in 2023, something of which we should be proud, alongside the launch of an AI Safety Institute to research risks and create governance frameworks. We must not rest on our laurels, though, and we need to work with global partners to ensure every one is as aligned as possible while encouraging innovation to flourish.
Speaking personally, I believe the key aspect of AI safety is ensuring criminals do not misuse it. This must come before we tackle transparency and alignment with human values. These are obviously important, but the threat from cyber attacks, deepfakes, and the like is so concerning that we have to pull together on a global basis to protect everyone as a priority.
Action Plan
I do not envy Matt Clifford’s task of creating an AI Opportunities Action Plan for the British government. This exciting but daunting task will require him to balance innovation, public/ private sector collaboration, economic growth and responsible governance – can he do all of this? Can anyone?
In addition to ensuring that we support start-ups in the AI arena, we need to provide the infrastructure for the UK to flourish, from SMBs and start-ups to enterprises and the public sector. It is also essential that he manages the relationships with OpenAI, Google, and DeepSeek, as well as the shift we will see in employment, which is a huge task as AI will certainly replace a lot of jobs. We need to be in a position to counter that by generating employment from AI safely and within a truly global economy.
Skill gap
A great way to reduce the talent dearth is to upskill and reskill where possible. The dearth of AI talent or the competitiveness and need for companies to fill their open roles quickly will drive a supply and demand problem. The ability to leverage what organisations already have is the smartest way of addressing this.
When hiring new talent, companies need to lose the ‘educated to x level’ or ‘with y years experience’ monikers. It will become necessary to onboard younger and far less experienced people to fill the roles or become extremely competitive in providing the financial and support environments more tenured people will demand.
Future-proofing the UK
The UK Government needs to be off the mark quickly by promoting AI in schools and universities with funding to encourage AI and ML research and qualifications. In essence, this prepares us for the future. We can also encourage immigration with visas and work permits in the tech space, as well as retain those foreign students who choose to study here.
Could AI be the gamechanger
It is highly encouraging to see the UK government acknowledge that AI can be a game-changer and will have a significant impact on the global economy as well as on the UK. The key to success will be whether or not the Labour government will be prepared to cut the red tape to make adoption easy. Any technology requires people to embrace it, test, fail, try again, fail and eventually get there. Let’s see if the government is prepared to adopt the same attitude to get support from the Opposition.
If we get it right, innovation will thrive, and young entrepreneurs should be encouraged to build out AI technology that will, in turn, create jobs, which will help equalise job losses driven by AI efficiencies. This is a must-do for the UK. To be at the forefront of AI development and innovation is critical to our economic future. AI will replace low-cost employment, and we simply cannot afford to have low-cost economies become the leaders in innovation.
