The government has published its long-awaited AI Opportunities Action Plan, led by entrepreneur Matt Clifford CBE, Chair of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency. The plan aims to help drive efficiency and growth across the UK economy.
The report makes 50 recommendations for how the UK can best shape the future of AI, working in partnership with innovators, investors and researchers. It aims to balance innovation with appropriate safety measures and oversight.
As the professional body for information technology, one of the key findings for BCS is that the UK will need to 'train tens of thousands of additional AI professionals across the technology stack to meet expected demand and proactively increase its share of the world's top 1,000 AI researchers.'
It recognised the need to grow these skills through channels ranging from apprenticeships to higher education and the need for greater diversity across the profession.
Summary of the 50 recommendations of the AI Opportunities Action Plan – the government agreed with all of them, albeit with some points where there was partial agreement
Expanding the UK's AI infrastructure, starting within six months:
This includes boosting the UK's AI infrastructure needs, backed by a 10-year investment commitment and, expanding the capacity of AI Research Resource by at least 20x by 2030 and establishing 'AI Growth Zones' (AIGZ) to facilitate the accelerated build out of AI data centres. It will also consider energy requirements, working with the National Energy System Operator. The government said it would 'mitigate the sustainability and security risks of AI infrastructure while positioning the UK to take advantage of opportunities to provide solutions.
Unlocking data assets in the public and private sector
Unlocking data that the AI can be trained on is central to the government's plan. The AI Opportunities Action Plan recommends rapidly identifying 'at least five high impact public data sets that the National Data Library (NDL) will seek to make available to AI researchers and innovators.' Also, to build public sector data collection infrastructure and finance the creation of new high-value data sets that meet public sector, academia and startup needs. The government said the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology will explore how to implement these recommendations as it develops the National Data Library and its wider data access policy. It will provide further details on the National Data Library and data access policy in due course. There was partial agreement around the recommendation that establishing a 'copyright cleared British media asset training data set, which can be licenced internationally at scale, saying the Department for Culture, Media and DSIT will 'engage with partner organisations and industry to consider the potential role of government in taking forward this recommendation.'
Training, attracting and retaining the next generation of AI scientists and founders
The government agreed with the report's recommendations, which include accurately assessing the size of the skills gap, supporting Higher Education Institutions to increase the numbers of AI graduates and teach industry-relevant skills, widening the diversity talent pool, and expanding education pathways into AI, along with ensuring the government's lifelong skills programme is ready for AI. The government said it will work closely with DSIT, the Industrial Strategy Council, and Skills England to bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government to develop a clear assessment of the country's skills needs – including AI and digital
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skills. DFE will take this forward with Skills England, aligning with the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) work, which will report in Autumn 2025. The government said DSIT will engage with the CAR to highlight the importance of digital and AI skills in the curriculum. The government partially agreed with the recommendation to explore how the existing immigration system can be used to attract graduates from universities producing some of the world's top AI talent.
The report also singles out non-academic routes to AI: "The government should encourage and promote alternative domestic routes into the AI profession—including through further education and apprenticeships, as well as employer and self-led upskilling."
Enabling safe and trusted AI development and adoption through regulation, safety and assurance
The report recommended that the government continue to support and grow the AI Safety Institute (AISI) to maintain and expand its research on model evaluations, foundational safety and societal resilience research. Other recommendations included working with regulators to accelerate AI in priority sectors and implement pro-innovation initiatives like regulatory sandboxes.
Adopt a “Scan > Pilot > Scale” approach in government
The report's recommendations included establishing an AI lead for each of the government's missions to help identify where AI could be a solution, and covers, for instance, procurement, building two-way partnerships with AI vendors and startups to anticipate future AI developments and signal public sector demand.
Enable public and private sectors to reinforce each other
This section looks at the how the AI ecosystem can work with DSIT around, for instance, procurement. The government said it will 'scope options' to create new opportunities for innovators.
Address private-sector-user adoption barriers
This section looks at how developing a new Industrial Strategy presents an opportunity to drive collective action to support AI adoption across the economy, including in the local growth plans.
Advancing AI
The report recommended creating a new unit with the power to partner with the private sector to deliver a clear mandate for maximising the UK's stake in frontier AI. The government said it would create a new function which will draw on broader government functions to partner with AI companies, including:
- Leveraging AI Growth Zones to support partnered companies and ensuring that new compute capacity is utilised strategically.
- Exploring making available high-potential data sets for partnered companies in coordination with the National Data Library.
- Supporting top AI talent in relocating to the UK to work with UK-based partnered companies.
- Helping to build relationships between partnered AI
Adam Leon Smith, a Fellow of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and international AI expert said: "The AI Opportunities Action Plan is a statement of belief in the UK's tech sector. We will need, at least, tens of thousands more people to become skilled AI professionals to transform the nation in the way this report envisages. We'll achieve this by investing not just in university students, but by re-training the over 50s, supporting apprenticeships and winning over the half million women missing from the tech industry.
"Just as importantly, the report recognises that AI safety, proportionate regulation and professional oversight can set the UK apart as a world-leader, rather than hinder our innovators.
"Investing heavily in public sector AI is a very important step, and this must be matched with mechanisms to ensure accountability, measurement of progress, and public trust.
"It's right that our leading minds can use 'fail-fast' strategies to test new ideas cost-effectively, but frontier AI must be overseen by strong technical standards, guardrails and ethical frameworks to avoid rushed rollout and risks to our safety.
"The government's commitment to the Alan Turing Institute's AI research is commendable. It will want to support all Royal Charter bodies to ensure the influx of new people working with AI, under this plan, all meet the shared professional standards to build public trust in this generational opportunity."
"BCS looks forward to the government working with a range of Civil Society organisations to ensure quality and safety at all levels of AI acceleration."
