Government will partner with technology companies, unions and industry leaders to accelerate AI adoption and provide workers with AI skills

Thousands of workers and businesses across the UK will benefit from a major new initiative to harness AI. This means helping businesses adopt this technology and equipping people with the skills to use AI.

At the first-ever AI Adoption Summit (Monday 8 June), the government will bring together leading technology companies, unions and industry leaders to drive the adoption of AI in a way that fosters growth while creating new opportunities for workers and supporting them with new skills. In addition to this, more than £200m of government investment, backed by industry and trade union partnerships, will help put the approach into practice, support skills, develop young people’s paths to AI careers and help businesses put AI into practice.

Many businesses and individuals want to use AI, but still lack the tools, support, and confidence to do so, hindering productivity and growth. Today, the government announced its first partnership on AI deployment. We will work with businesses, unions and workers to expand adoption across the economy, giving workers the skills they need to succeed in the AI ​​era, while giving them a say in how AI is introduced into the workforce.

To put that ambition into action, a new support package backed by £200m will make it easier for businesses to test, deploy and scale AI. The measures announced today include:

• We will expand our ‘Bridge AI’ scheme with £100m to match UK businesses with UK AI, as well as support on skills, AI guarantees and practical help to help businesses understand how they can use AI to secure the strongest growth potential to accelerate the uptake of AI in business.

• A further £53 million will be spent on new initiatives to drive AI adoption and innovation, including expanding the Tech Town program pioneered by Barnsley.

• This also includes a £4 million extension to the Spärck AI Scholarship Program to double our impressive talent pipeline. The expansion will provide placement support into up to 50 industries, allowing academics from top universities to gain significant practical experience at leading UK companies. Companies that have already signed up to provide placements include BT and Universal Music Group.

• We will invest £5m in each AI Growth Zone to support local businesses to adopt AI and upskill local workers.

• Industry-led AI adoption plans created by AI experts will help sectors like advanced manufacturing and financial services put AI into practice, test what works, and share lessons for others to follow.

• The new AI Advisory Growth Labs has been set up to bring businesses, regulators and experts together to trial AI in the workforce, starting with legal services, providing businesses with clear and actionable information on how to responsibly deploy AI while complying with regulations.

• Nobel Prize-winning economist Simon Johnson is director of the Institute for the Economics of AI, which will track how AI changes jobs and growth.

• The Government signed a joint statement with Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI, pledging to work closely with the UK Government and the Frontier AI Institute to support evidence-based policymaking and responsible AI development.

• More than 30 leading companies, including BT, Rolls-Royce, Accenture and EDF, have signed up to share data and insights on how they use AI in the workplace, including supporting employees and adapting ways of working. This will help shape future policy and share expertise with small and medium-sized enterprises looking to implement this technology.

• A new award to recognize and promote organizations in the UK that are helping workers adapt to AI or creating new job opportunities through the responsible use of AI, which will also be led by Simon Johnson.

This comes as the government and industry AI Skills Boost program has completed more than 1.7 million AI skills courses and nine companies, including Cisco, IBM and Deloitte, will help expand training to employers, contribute to job creation and help small and medium-sized businesses adopt the technology. Industry groups are also launching their own efforts to share what works for AI adoption and highlight what needs fixing.

These efforts form a concerted national drive to accelerate adoption across key sectors of the economy earmarked for growth under the Industrial Strategy, giving businesses the tools and confidence to deploy AI and ensuring people have the skills to benefit.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said:

AI is the defining technology of our lives and has the power to change lives for the better, but only if everyone participates in it.

That’s why we unite businesses, unions and workers in a common mission to leave no one behind.

By giving workers the skills they need, opening up opportunities for young people and helping businesses of all sizes adopt this technology, we will ensure that AI is available to everyone, in every region of the UK.

Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said:

Britain’s future will be shaped by the choices we make now. Our economic plan is the right one, and AI and innovation are one of the three big options for growing our economy.

Now, we are working even faster to advance AI adoption, give workers and businesses the tools and skills they need, and leverage AI to deliver safe and resilient growth across the country.

By working together, the public and private sectors can ensure that people and businesses have what they need to reap the benefits of AI. By combining investment in skills with practical support for AI adoption, the UK is creating the conditions to foster growth, better jobs and opportunity across the country.

Note to editor

Here in the UK, pioneering companies and leading organizations are already at the forefront of AI adoption, including:

• Accenture is reaching more than one million people across the UK through its Regenerative AI initiative, helping individuals, especially those from historically underserved backgrounds, get online and access the tools they need to build their digital and AI skills.
• Multiverse furthers its commitment to improving workforce AI skills and supporting employer AI adoption, opening new technology hub in Edinburgh and creating 200 new jobs across the UK
• Reflection, the US-based open source AI lab founded by former Google DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou, is expanding its footprint in the UK, with plans to hire more than 100 highly skilled employees within the next 12 months and expand to more than 1,000 roles within three years. Reflection’s decision to significantly scale up in the UK reflects the country’s world-class AI research talent pool and its position as a world-leading destination for investment and development in frontier technologies.
• Perplexity launches The Billion Pound Build, the UK version of its computer-native startup competition. Perplexity will award up to £1 million in Perplexity Computer credits to up to three winning teams in the UK, who will compete to build trusted businesses to a £1 billion valuation.

• Synthesia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DSIT, committing to support DSIT’s ambitions to upskill the UK workforce across industry, the public sector and education in the practical application of AI.

• Eleven Lab signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DSIT, building on its existing research partnership with AISI and committing to collaborate across public services, human resources and upskilling opportunities.

• SAS releases AI Cities Index 2026, showing how UK cities are implementing AI and where more can still be done – Manchester tops, followed by Bristol and Glasgow
• CBI is working with Marsh Business’ Oliver Wyman to lead the AI ​​Adoption Acceleration Taskforce. It brings together senior business leaders, AI experts, academics, and governments to develop practical recommendations to accelerate AI adoption at scale.
• Convened by techUK, UK industry bodies including ABPI, ADS, Creative UK, Energy UK, ICAEW, Make UK and TheCityUK are forming a new coalition to share best practice, highlight barriers to adoption and drive responsible AI adoption across the economy.
• Boston Consulting Group has published a new report showing that if implemented properly, AI implementation could add up to £1tn to the UK economy over the next 10 years.
• German AI unicorn n8n is a strong supporter of the UK’s AI talent ecosystem and will expand its investment in the UK by delivering up to 200 highly skilled jobs over the next three years.

• Cisco has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DSIT to explore ways to further support the AI ​​Skills Boost, Barnsley Tech Town and TechFirst programs.

• IBM is supporting the government’s mission to equip 10 million UK workers with key AI skills by 2030, expanding its SkillsBuild program with new free AI learning courses.
• This year, eBay is putting AI at the heart of local communities and expanding online and in-person training for business sellers to help them start, grow and innovate online. We will also be piloting place-based AI training and peer-led learning to support Barnsley Tech Town.
• Deloitte and Nvidia are launching Adopt 100, a new program designed to help businesses realize the full potential of AI by matching Deloitte customers with carefully selected AI solutions.

You can read about AI Champion’s AI implementation plan and the government’s response to it on GOV.UK.

The Financial Services AI Implementation Plan will be published in due course.

Newly signed up companies to support the Spärck AI Scholarships Program are BT, HSBC, LSEG, National Grid, Octopus Energy, WPP and Universal Music Group. These join existing anchor partners AISI, Beamery, CausaLens, Darktrace, Faculty, Flok, i.AI, PolyAI, and Quantexa.

In collaboration with BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, we are also launching the AI ​​Assurance Stakeholder Consortium. AI assurance (essentially, how the trustworthiness of AI systems is measured, assessed and communicated) is a strong and growing market for the UK, with the potential to reach £18.8bn in gross value added by 2035. The consortium will develop guidance and best practices to support the advancement of the field and help deliver AI that people can trust.

Organizations can apply for the ProWorker AI Expo Award.

Here is a list of organizations that have signed the AI ​​Adoption Insights agreement: