Prime Minister sets out blueprint to improve AI in public sector workplaces

Artificial intelligence will be “unleashed” across the UK to deliver a decade of national renewal, as part of a new plan announced today [13 January 2025].

The AI Action Plan will see £14bn and 13,250 jobs committed by private leading technology firms and dedicated AI Growth Zones set up to speed up planning for AI infrastructure. 

A key point in the plan is for the public sector to spend less time doing administration and more time delivering services. AI is intended to drive the government’s Plan for Change, “helping turbocharge growth and boost living standards”, the government said in a press release.

Unveiling details of the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan today, PM Sir Keir Starmer will say AI can “transform the lives of working people, offering the potential to speed up planning consultations to get Britain building, help drive down admin for teachers so they can get on with teaching our children, and feed AI through cameras to spot potholes and help improve roads”.

“In a marked move from the previous government’s approach, the prime minister is throwing the full weight of Whitehall behind this industry by agreeing to take forward all 50 recommendations set out by Matt Clifford in his game-changing AI Opportunities Action Plan,” the press release said. Clifford is co-founder and chair of talent investor and start-up accelerator firm Entrepreneur First, and chair of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).

Backing AI to the hilt can also lead to more money in the pockets of working people. The International Monetary Fund estimates that, if AI is fully embraced, it can boost productivity by as much as 1.5% a year. If fully realised, these gains could be worth up to an average £47bn to the UK each year over a decade, the press release said.

The plan’s introduction of new measures that will create dedicated AI Growth Zones are intended to speed up planning permissions, along with delivering the necessary energy connections.

“AI is already being used across the UK. It is being used in hospitals up and down the country to deliver better, faster, and smarter care: spotting pain levels for people who can’t speak, diagnosing breast cancer quicker, and getting people discharged quicker,” the press release said, adding this is already helping deliver the government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future.

The PM said: “Artificial intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people. But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that won’t sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race.”

Starmer said focusing heavily on AI would mean “more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets, and transformed public services”.

It comes as three major tech companies – Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl – have committed to £14bn investment in the UK to build the AI infrastructure the UK needs and deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK. That is in addition to £25bn in AI investment announced at the International Investment Summit.

Vantage Data Centres, which is working to build one of Europe’s largest data centre campuses in Wales, plans to invest over £12bn in data centres across the UK, creating over 11,500 jobs in the process.

Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider and a leading IT consultancy, announces plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years. This new tech hub will share the government’s ambition to roll AI out across the country to help grow the economy and foster the next generation of talent.

Nscale, one of the UK’s leading AI companies, has announced a $2.5bn (£2bn) investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years. It has also signed a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.

The plan includes the following initiatives:

  • the first of the new AI Growth Zones will be in Culham, Oxfordshire
  • increasing the public compute capacity by twentyfold to provide the processing power needed to fully embrace AI, which will begin with work on a brand new supercomputer
  • a new team will be set up to seize the opportunities of AI and build the UK’s sovereign capabilities
  • creating a new National Data Library to safely and securely unlock the value of public data and support AI development
  • a dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy secretaries will also be established, working with energy companies to understand the energy demands and challenges which will fuel the technology’s development - this will directly support the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower by tapping into technologies like small modular reactors.

The Action Plan is at the heart of the government’s Industrial Strategy and the first plank of the upcoming Digital and Technology Sector Plan that will be published in the coming months.

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