AI Opportunities – UK AI Action Plan Unveiled
January 16, 2025
On 13 January 2025, Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled plans to leverage AI for a “decade of national renewal” that is intended to transform the UK into an AI superpower that can “move fast and take action to win the global race”. The plan, based on 50 recommendations from the AI Opportunities Action Plan, aims to improve public services, boost productivity and put more money in people’s pockets.
Key changes to the plan include:
- creation of AI Growth Zones to accelerate AI infrastructure development
- 20x increase in the public compute capacity, starting with the creation of a new supercomputer
- creation of a National Data Library
- £47 billion gain in annual productivity if AI is fully embraced (as projected by the IMF).
The plan is a pivotal step in navigating the transformative AI landscape. What we have observed among our clients is that it is crucial that leadership delivers to their business a strong, clear message about the vast opportunities AI presents alongside the equally important emphasis on responsible AI implementation, ensuring ethical standards are upheld. The UK AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Government response brought both of these aspects to the fore for the UK.
What is the impact of the AI Action Plan?
Regulations
It has been debated if the UK would pursue a comprehensive and standalone AI law (like the EU and other jurisdictions). However, Starmer has emphasised the need to “test and understand AI” before regulating it, with any regulation being “proportionate and grounded in the science”. This aims to strike the right balance between innovation and regulation.
Data centres
The Government’s plan expands on the continuing and extensive investment into data centres, which includes the:
- use of AI Growth Zones to accelerate planning approvals for data centres, enabling them to have better access to the energy grid and draw in outside investment
- recent commitment by three major tech firms (Vantage Data Centers, Nscale, and Kyndryl) to invest £14 billion into digital infrastructure and 13,250 new jobs.
Employment
- The plan emphasises the transformative potential of AI in generating tens of thousands of new jobs across the UK (from large data centres to technology hubs and more), attracting diversity and talent and committing to training tens of thousands of STEM graduates and apprentices
- The Government acknowledges that mindset will be key to growth
- While new technology can provoke fear and caution, the plan highlights that bigger risks lie in not adopting AI and losing out on opportunities it may present
- For employers and employees, fears over the potential for job replacement and concerns around AI and privacy/bias/prejudice risk, need to be balanced with the opportunities for significant job creation.
What else do I need to know?
The plan builds on the UK AI White Paper (which advocates for a pro-innovation approach to AI regulation) and underscores the UK’s fostering of innovation elsewhere. This is balanced alongside the recent ICO’s joint statement on data scraping, the IPO’s consultation into AI and copyright law (and the recent EDPB Opinion on processing of personal data in LLMs/AI models). The UK’s robust AI safety approach further ensures that AI technologies are developed and deployed responsibly, maintaining public trust and safety.
Supported by Will Powell (Trainee Solicitor) and Clare Johnston (Knowledge)