Ai Opportunities Action Plan Govuk

AI Opportunities Action Plan — What does it mean for you?

The UK aims to become a global AI leader. How will this impact you?

Earlier this week, the UK Government announced a comprehensive AI Opportunities Action Plan aimed at driving growth, boosting living standards, and making the UK a global AI leader.

Key actions include:

1. Establishing AI Growth Zones:

  • Goals: speed up planning approvals and improve access to energy connections for AI infrastructure.
  • The first zone will be in Culham, Oxfordshire, with more planned for de-industrialised areas to stimulate local jobs and investment.

2. Investing in AI Infrastructure:

  • Committing £14 billion in private sector investments from major tech companies (Vantage Data Centers, Nscale, Kyndryl), creating over 13,250 jobs.
  • Building a new supercomputer and increasing public computing capacity twentyfold by 2030.

3. Adopting AI in public and private sectors:

  • Setting up a new digital centre within the Government to pilot and scale AI innovations in public services, reducing administrative burdens and improving efficiency.
  • Cabinet ministers have been tasked with promoting AI adoption across their respective departments.

4. Establishing national AI capabilities:

  • Creating a team to build sovereign AI capabilities and support AI businesses with guaranteed access to data and energy.
  • Launching a National Data Library to safely unlock public data for AI development.
  • Establishing a dedicated AI Energy Council to manage energy demands for AI growth.

5. Meet long-term strategic goals:

  • The plan aligns with the government’s industrial strategy and aims to attract international AI businesses to the UK, maintaining its status as a global AI hub.
  • The plan is expected to boost annual productivity by up to 1.5%, potentially adding £47 billion to the economy each year over the next decade.

Industry leaders from Microsoft, Darktrace, OpenAI, Wayve, AWS, techUK have welcomed the initiative, praising its ambition to position the UK at the forefront of AI development while calling for swift implementation to maintain competitive advantage.

This bold plan is a critical step in fostering innovation, enhancing public services, and generating widespread economic benefits across the UK.

What does the AI Action Plan mean for you?

1. AI is unignorable

Regardless of your stance on AI, this technology has become unignorable; you cannot bury your head in the sand anymore.

Now is the time to gather your stakeholders and discuss what AI can do for you and how and where it's feasible to apply it. It could save you much repetitive work and make your operations more secure and streamlined.

2. You need to prepare your infrastructure

Once you've committed to a strategy, audit your processes and create an adoption timeline for each impacted department. Do you have AI adoption skills in-house? Do you need to upskill your team, or can you even include AI in the onboarding pathway?

The good news is that top IT companies have developed a wide array of AI training, from short courses aimed at technical and non-technical stakeholders to highly specialised AI courses aimed at Developers, Data specialists, Cyber Security professionals, etc. We've covered the best courses in this blog.

Once you've considered the available options, get in touch with a bespoke training provider such as Firebrand for advice. Did you know we can adapt these certifications to your training needs, helping your team get the skills they need faster? You can read all about our team training options here. 

3. You need to stay agile

As HM King Charles stated at the AI Safety Summit, the development of advanced AI is “no less important than the discovery of electricity.”

As the capabilities of AI continue to expand, their ripple effect makes itself known in all areas of tech, from immediate Cyber Security concerns to Software Development, Data Science, Project Management, Operations, and much more. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news about top AI training.

How can we help?

At Firebrand, we help people attain skills fast. 

We bring you the latest courses from top IT vendors such as Microsoft, ISC2, AWS, ISACA, EC-Council, Cisco, and many more, taught in our time-tested method that helps you retain information faster and become competent, confident, and certified at pace.

Could one of our courses be right for you, or your team?

Check out our latest AI courses and get in touch for advice.