The AI Action Plan
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The UK government recently unveiled its AI Opportunities Action Plan, developed by Matt Clifford, tech entrepreneur and Chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
Summary
The plan outlines a strategy to solidify Britain’s position in the global AI landscape, focusing on economic growth, public service improvement, and expanding opportunities.
Britain currently stands as the world's third-largest AI market, with companies like Google DeepMind, ARM, and Wayve operating within its borders.
But despite the UK's historical contributions to technology—from Alan Turing to Tim Berners-Lee—it faces significant challenges in keeping pace with AI advances from the US and China.
The action plan is structured around three main strategic areas:
1. Laying the foundations for AI growth,
2. Changing lives by embracing AI and
3. Securing our future with homegrown AI.
The government has endorsed all the plan's recommendations, publishing a response with timelines for implementation within the next 12 months.
An AI Opportunities Unit has been established within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to track progress.
Pillar 1: Laying the foundations for AI growth.
The first step in strengthening the UK's AI ecosystem is investment in infrastructure, data access, workforce development, and regulation.
Pillar 2: Changing lives by embracing AI.
The second section of the action plan focuses on how government and businesses can adopt AI to improve services and boost productivity.
Pillar 3: Securing our future with homegrown AI.
The final section of the action plan looks beyond adoption to position the UK as a developer of frontier AI capabilities, not just a user of technologies created elsewhere.
Pillar 1: Laying the Foundations to Enable AI
This section of the plan focuses on building infrastructure to support AI development.
Computing Resources
The plan calls for securing access to sufficient computational power through three distinct channels: sovereign AI compute owned by the public sector for national priorities, domestic compute privately operated within the UK for economic security, and international compute accessed through partnerships with like-minded countries for complementary capabilities.
The AI Research Resource (AIRR), the UK's national compute facility, is central to the sovereign compute strategy. The plan recommends expanding AIRR's capacity by at least 20x by 2030, transforming it into specialised clusters that bring together computing power, data, and talent. The government has committed to doubling AIRR through a new supercomputing facility accessible to UK researchers and SMEs by early 2025.
The plan proposes AI Growth Zones (AIGZs)—designated areas with streamlined planning approvals to accelerate the construction of AI data centres and ensure reliable access to clean power.
Talent Development
The plan prioritises attracting and developing talent through multiple channels: expanding AI-focused university courses, supporting alternative training pathways, and launching a flagship AI scholarship program comparable to the Rhodes Scholarship or the Fulbright Program to attract elite international talent.
It also recommends establishing an internal headhunting capability to bring top AI researchers to the UK.
Data Access
The plan recommends identifying at least five high-impact public datasets to make available for AI research while developing guidelines for structuring government data to support AI applications. The National Data Library will play a pivotal role in responsibly opening up government-held data.
The plan also confronts an urgent issue in intellectual property rights. The current uncertainty around copyright and AI training is hindering innovation and the UK is falling behind the EU, which has already implemented regulations that balance AI development with creators' rights. The plan calls for immediate action to resolve this barrier to AI progress.
Regulation
The UK is to maintain its de-centralised, context-specific approach to regulation rather than creating a single AI law like the EU's AI Act, with recommendations to continue supporting the AI Safety Institute while ensuring regulators have the expertise to enable safe innovation.
The plan emphasises that well-designed regulation and effective assurance tools could actually fuel faster, wider AI adoption rather than hinder it.
Pillar 2: Changing Lives by Embracing AI
This section of the plan focuses on the practical adoption of AI across government and business.
Government Adoption Process
For government, the plan proposes a practical "Scan → Pilot → Scale" approach. First, spot opportunities where AI could help. Then, quickly test promising solutions without getting bogged down in red tape. Finally, roll out what works nationally, breaking through departmental boundaries.
The plan recommends appointing AI leads for each government mission and building teams that understand both the technology and the specific challenges they're trying to solve. It also suggests creating faster ways to try new ideas, including streamlined procurement that doesn't disadvantage smaller, innovative companies.
The plan also proposes a dedicated scaling service with central funding to help successful projects expand nationally. It points to the NHS AI Diagnostic Fund as an example, which has helped deploy AI imaging tools across 66 hospitals.
Knowledge Sharing
As the country's largest customer, government can use its purchasing power to shape the market.
The plan suggests making government systems more accessible to innovators through standardised interfaces, similar to how tech companies allow others to build on their platforms.
An AI Knowledge Hub would allow organisations to learn from collective experiences rather than starting from scratch.
Business Adoption
The plan recognises that for many businesses, AI adoption isn't just about access—it's about affordability, expertise, and trust.
It recommends working with regulators to create regulatory sandboxes, where companies can test innovative AI applications in controlled environments with reduced regulatory burdens. These have already proven successful in sectors like financial technology and could help accelerate AI adoption in areas with complex regulatory requirements.
The plan also recommends appointing AI champions in key industries like financial services, life sciences, and creative sectors. These champions would help identify the most valuable AI applications for their industries and help overcome adoption barriers.
Pillar 3: Securing the Future with Homegrown AI
The final section of the plan aims to position the UK as a developer of frontier AI capabilities, not just a user of technologies created elsewhere.
UK Sovereign AI
Current market leaders enjoy significant advantages that make it difficult for new competitors to emerge without strategic support. Perhaps the plan's boldest recommendation is the creation of a new UK Sovereign AI Unit. This unit would provide AI companies with access to computing infrastructure, datasets, talent support, and collaboration opportunities with the national security community. But, to be effective, it must operate with the speed and agility of a private-sector investor—moving decisively to back emerging AI leaders.
The approach represents a shift toward more active state involvement in technology development, with the aim of securing economic benefits and influence over AI development. The economic rewards could be substantial, but equally important is the ability to ensure AI develops in ways that reflect UK values and priorities.
An asymmetric bet
The plan concludes that this is a critical 'asymmetric bet'—one where the potential upside from success far outweighs the investment required.
The cost of inaction isn’t just economic—it risks leaving the UK dependent on foreign AI systems, with little say in how one of the century’s most powerful technologies evolves.
Government Response
The government has endorsed all the plan's recommendations, setting timelines for implementation within the next 12 months. An AI Opportunities Unit has been established within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to track progress.
📌 For infrastructure investment, they've pledged to double the AI Research Resource capacity through a new state-of-the-art supercomputing facility. UK researchers and SMEs will gain access to this expanded resource in early 2025, enabling them to develop more sophisticated AI systems. This forms part of a broader promise to expand sovereign compute capacity by at least 20x by 2030.
📌 The first AI Growth Zone will be established at Culham, headquarters of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. This zone will accelerate the development of AI data centres with enhanced access to power and streamlined planning approvals. A process to identify further zones will begin in Spring 2025, with consideration for how these can support regional growth opportunities.
📌 Energy demands for AI are to be addressed through a new AI Energy Council, co-chaired by the Science and Technology Secretary and Energy Secretary. This council will bring together industry leaders to identify solutions for powering AI sustainably, including exploring renewable energy sources and small modular reactors.
📌 On the data front, government is developing the National Data Library to unlock public sector data assets for AI research and innovation. This will be underpinned by privacy-preserving safeguards, with further details expected by Summer 2025.
The UK has the talent, research, and ambition to be at the cutting edge of AI. But ambition alone isn’t enough—without decisive investment, adoption, and strategic leadership, the country risks becoming a consumer of AI rather than a creator.
AI is moving fast. The UK must move faster.
Resources
📌 Read the AI Opportunities Action Plan.
📌 Read the government response to recommendations set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan.
📌 Read the press release Appointment of Matt Clifford CBE as the AI Opportunities Adviser.
📌 Learn more about the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
📌 DeepMind is a British-American artificial intelligence research laboratory, now a subsidiary of Google (Alphabet Inc).
📌 Wayve is a UK-based autonomous vehicle company that takes a unique approach to self-driving technology. Unlike many competitors who rely heavily on detailed maps and multiple sensors, Wayve focuses on using deep learning and computer vision to teach cars to drive with less predefined programming. The company was founded in 2017 and has pioneered an AI-first approach to autonomous driving that can potentially adapt to different environments more flexibly.
📌 The AI Research Resource (AIRR) is a national facility in the UK that provides world-leading AI-specialised compute capacity to public researchers, academia, and industry. It was established following a recommendation by the Independent Review of the Future of Compute and was initially announced in March 2023.
📌 See the Government’s consultation on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence.
📌 The Rhodes Scholarship, established in 1902, is one of the oldest and most prestigious international graduate scholarship programs in the world.
📌 The Fulbright Program, founded in 1946, is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational and cultural exchange program
📌 Learn more about the EU AI Act.
📌 The UK’s Industrial Strategy, known as “Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy”, is a comprehensive 10-year plan aimed at driving economic growth, fostering innovation, and enhancing global competitiveness. Set to be published in spring 2025, this strategy focuses on creating stability and certainty for businesses to invest in high-growth sectors.
📌 The Digital Centre of Government in the UK refers to the Government Digital Service (GDS), which has been restructured and expanded to lead the country’s digital transformation efforts. It is part of the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) and serves as the central hub for modernising public services through digital and AI-driven solutions.