Artificial intelligence industry in the United Kingdom

In 2024, the United Kingdom ranked sixth in the world and second in Europe by the number of AI-related patents.[1]

As of 2025, the artificial intelligence (AI) market in the United Kingdom is worth over £21 billion, and is expected to exceed £1 trillion by 2035.[2] It is the world's third-largest AI market[3] and consistently ranked 3rd in private AI funding between 2013 and 2024,[4] both behind the United States and China. The country ranked third globally in a 2024 report on AI development by Stanford University.[5]

AI strategy

The UK government has proposed a plan to boost the country's AI infrastructure and expand its use in public services, with the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying that the country would become one of the "AI superpowers".[6]

The United Kingdom's AI strategy aims to balance safety and innovation; unlike the European Union which adopted the AI Act, the UK is reluctant to legislate early, considering that it may lower the sector's growth, and that laws might be rendered obsolete by technological progress.[7]

In July 2025, the UK government published its UK Compute Roadmap outlining up to £2 billion for a modern public compute ecosystem and a 20-fold expansion of the AI Research Resource by 2030, alongside AI Growth Zones.[8][9] Also in July, the UK government signed a deal with OpenAI to use its products in public services to increase productivity.[10]

History

The British computer scientist Alan Turing laid the theoretical groundwork for artificial intelligence as a field of research with his 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence.[11]

The United Kingdom founded in April 2023 a safety organisation called Frontier AI Taskforce, with an initial budget of £100 million.[12] In November 2023, it evolved into the UK AISI, and continued to be led by Ian Hogarth. The AISI is part of the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.[13]

In November 2023, the first global AI Safety Summit was held in Bletchley Park in the UK to discuss the near and far term risks of AI and the possibility of mandatory and voluntary regulatory frameworks.[14]

Companies

The following is a list of UK-based AI companies:

Researchers

See also

References

  1. ^ Buntz, Brian (3 November 2024). "Quality vs. quantity: US and China chart different paths in global AI patent race in 2024 / Geographical breakdown of AI patents in 2024". R&D World. Archived from the original on 9 December 2024.
  2. ^ Hooson, Mark (2025-05-02). "UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statistics And Trends In 2025". Forbes Advisor UK. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  3. ^ "Artificial Intelligence". www.great.gov.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  4. ^ Michael, Chisom (2025-04-24). "Top 12 countries investing the most in AI". BusinessDay. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  5. ^ "Global AI Power Rankings: Stanford HAI Tool Ranks 36 Countries in AI". hai.stanford.edu. 21 November 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  6. ^ "Artificial Intelligence: Plan to 'unleash AI' across UK revealed". www.bbc.com. 2025-01-13. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  7. ^ Henshall, Will (April 1, 2024). "U.S., U.K. Announce Partnership to Safety Test AI Models". TIME. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  8. ^ "UK Compute Roadmap". Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. July 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  9. ^ "Britain boosts computing power in $1.3 billion AI drive". Reuters. 17 July 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  10. ^ Labiak, Mitchell; Rahman-Jones, Imran (2025-07-22). "OpenAI and UK sign deal to use AI in public services". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2025-08-06.
  11. ^ Turing, A. M. (October 1, 1950). "COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE" (PDF).
  12. ^ "Initial £100 million for expert taskforce to help UK build and adopt next generation of safe AI". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2024-07-06.
  13. ^ "Introducing the AI Safety Institute". GOV.UK. November 2023. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  14. ^ Milmo, Dan (3 November 2023). "Hope or Horror? The great AI debate dividing its pioneers". The Guardian Weekly. pp. 10–12.
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