The UK is leading other G7 nations in terms of its private and government sectors’ readiness to adopt, deploy, and integrate AI, according to a new study commissioned by Salesforce.
Salesforce’s UK AI Readiness Index found that both public and private sectors in the UK have embraced AI, citing a strong innovation culture, robust tech investments, and pragmatic regulations putting the UK ahead of its G7 peers.
The study is a composite index consisting of 15 proxy indicators taken from a combination of qualitative and quantitative data sources, including think tanks and research from the UN.
Overall, the UK scored a 65.5, which marks an increase of just over 4 points on the G7 average of 61.2.
The proxy indicators are split between the private and public sector with seven indicating business readiness and eight measuring the government's ability to take advantage of AI.
The UK’s government readiness outperformed its business readiness handily with a score of 78.9 compared to 52, and both of these scores were higher than the G7 average of 75.6 and 46.8.
Dr Samantha Torrance, head of global government advisory at Access Partnership, the public policy consultancy that conducted the research, said the UK is struggling to convert strong governmental performance across to the private sector.
“We’re seeing a bit of a lack of a transfer [in terms of] the government’s activities and direction to the private sector. The UK is ahead when we look at business sectors, but if we look at the absolute numbers, there is still a way to go in terms of really improving how ready businesses are.”
The study found the UK’s strong government score was driven by its high levels of e-participation, referring to the degree of engagement citizens have with digital government activities, as well as its principle-based regulation like the Online Safety Bill.
However, investment in emerging technologies is a weak spot for the UK government.
R&D and skills investments required for UK to push on in AI era
The UK’s private sector, on the other hand, exhibited a “robust adoption of emerging technologies and technology outputs”, but smaller enterprises including SMBs and scale-ups need further assistance.
Torrance highlighted the labor market, noting that skills shortages are negatively impacting both the private and public sector’s readiness to implement AI.
“A core and similar factor between both the business index and government index is human capital, both in terms of investment in human capital, but also their participation in the workforce,” she explained.
“If you look at the business index, you see that there’s a high rate of churn in that sector, so that really drives down that score in that sense. On the government side, it’s a lack of promotion of broader investment."
The recommendations outlined to uplift the UK’s AI readiness included improving talent development, developing more adaptive regulatory frameworks for enterprise AI, sustained investment in R&D, as well as boosting financing and venture capital capacity.
Torrance said that despite its strong performance overall, the UK is falling behind in terms of financing and venture capital, and its regulatory framework will require continued attention and updating to keep up with technological innovation.
“We see that the UK really falls behind on the financing element. So skills, financing, but also regulatory frameworks,” she concluded
“I think there’s opportunity, from an enterprise and a business perspective, to really make sure that the regulation is principles-based in that we’ve got ethics at the heart of it, but it’s really contextualized to risks that we’re looking at and considering this type of AI, and that there’s flexibility to end that regulation as the develops.”
