Thank you so much. It’s really fantastic to stand here and look out and see so many people in this room—to get a real sense of the energy, the commitment, and the professionalism, the entrepreneurial spirit that we have here.
Let me start by thanking you all for being here. We’re going to have a really good Tech Week. We already kicked off yesterday. We’ve got some major announcements to make, some real partnerships to build together, and I’m just so pleased to have this opportunity—this privilege—of opening this morning. It’s a real pleasure for me.
My constituency, the area I represent, is London. I’m a London MP, and that means I understand first hand just how important our sector is as we go forward—whether it’s entrepreneurs or the spirit in London, this is hugely, hugely important.
We have to recognise that for many people, they see AI and tech as transformative—something that’s going to do so much. And every time we say “over five years or ten years,” everybody says to me “it’s going to be more like five years or three years.” We’re going to bring about great change in so many aspects of our lives. Whether that’s in health—where I’ve seen for myself the incredible contribution that tech and AI can make. I was in a hospital up in the Midlands, talking to consultants who deal with strokes. They showed me the equipment and techniques that they are using – using AI to isolate where the clot is in the brain in a micro-second of the time it would have taken otherwise. Brilliantly saving people’s lives. Shortly after that, I had an incident where I was being shown AI and stethoscopes working together to predict any problems someone might have. So whether it’s health or other sectors, it’s hugely transformative what can be done here.
Last Monday, I was in Scotland launching the Strategic Defence Review of the government. This was a review I commissioned soon after we came into power to tell me what are the risks we face as a country in this new era? What are the challenges? What are our capabilities? And how do we make sure that, as we go forward, our capabilities match the risks and challenges we face as a country.
In that, tech and AI were absolutely central. Over the last three years or more, during this awful conflict in Ukraine—I’ve been back to Ukraine on a number of occasions in that period to have in-depth conversations with President Zelensky to make sure our support is in the right place. But I was really struck, on the trip before last—probably about six or seven weeks ago—by the extent to which technology and AI are now having a direct impact in that conflict. In three years of conflict, the way that war is being fought has changed profoundly.
So I wanted that hardwired into our Defence Review—a sense of how AI could be driving change. There are so many examples across government. I’ve set the challenge to all of my teams: show me how they can use AI—not just in the output of government, not just in partnership with yourselves and others in the delivery of services—but also in the very way we do government. How can we transform what we do?
There are certainly examples of that. I spoke to a social worker in Downing Street at one of our receptions. She explained to me, with a smile on her face, just how AI is slashing her paperwork and her caseload. She talked me through how she’s now doing her work. What she said was that this was helping her transform her work—because she could concentrate on the human element of it. She could use AI and tech to help with the parts that could be done more quickly. And from that, I’ve always said: AI and tech make us more human. It may sound like an odd thing to say, but it’s true—and we need to say it. Because, some people out there are sceptical. They worry about AI taking their jobs. But I know from audiences like this, this debate has been had many times. We need to push past it. But people worry: will it make their lives more comfortable? Even for businesses, the pace of change can feel relentless. I know you all get that. But when it comes to harnessing the power of this technology, I believe the way we work through this together is critical. And that means partnership and partnership is at the heart of everything we do in government—working with you. You are the entrepreneurs who will drive this country forward. Our job as partners is to create the best possible conditions for you to succeed. That’s why events like this—and the conversations we have in the margins—are so important. Because we can only create the right conditions if we’re having that conversation. You’re able to put your fingerprints on what we’re doing.
Just look at the raw facts. This industry supports over 2 million jobs. That’s incredible. Or take this statistic: in 2023, our AI sector grew 30 times faster than the rest of the economy. That is incredible. So this is about what we’ve achieved. It’s about who we are as a nation. What signal do we want to send to the rest of the world? The signal I want to send is this: a Britain that, after years of chaos, is a stable partner for investment. A Britain that believes the future should be shaped by our values. And that in this volatile world, is proud, unashamed, open for business.
I think—and hope—you can see that in our approach to trade, in the new deals we’ve done just in the last few months. We’re determined to create new markets—whether that’s in India, the US, or Europe. You can see it in our openness to investment as well. On that front, I’m really pleased to welcome what I see as yet another vote of confidence in Britain today: the announcement that Liquidity will base their European headquarters right here in London. That’s a £1.5 billion investment into our economy. It means better access to finance for entrepreneurs right across the country. It’s a vote of confidence in our AI Opportunities Action Plan as well. We put that plan out at the beginning of the year. We’re really proud of it—50 recommendations, all of them accepted by the government. At the heart of it is partnership in action. It shows our ambition to be the best state partner for tech entrepreneurs anywhere in the world. That’s the bar. That’s the ambition I’ve set.
So I can also announce today that we’re committing an extra £1 billion of funding to scale up our compute power by a factor of 20. You know how important that is— a huge increase in the size of Britain’s AI engine. It means we can be an AI maker, not just an AI taker. More importantly, it means we have the digital infrastructure we need to make sure AI improves our public services. Because we do have a defining mission in that plan—a responsibility, if you like—to harness this unprecedented opportunity and use it to improve the lives of working people. This is a shared mission. We’re a mission-driven government. But this is a shared mission. Because social fear I was talking about a moment ago—trust me, I think that is the challenge for adoption. It’s a far greater challenge than the regulatory barrier, although that can be a challenge too. But it’s an area where government can help—where we can do our bit in this partnership.
Take planning, for example, which is a huge priority for this government. We are going to build more labs, more data centres—and we’re going to do it much, much more quickly. Our Planning and Infrastructure Bill going through Parliament right now is a real game-changer. Each of you in this room knows how important it is to change our rules on planning, infrastructure, and the regulatory environment—and how that can drive growth in building homes – what a difference that could make. Again, the human that sits there with the tech and the AI—because the security of having an affordable home is hugely important. I come from a working-class background, and at times we struggled as a family to make ends meet. But we owned our home, and that gave me a sense of security—a base camp, if you like—on which I could build my life, my opportunities, and my aspirations. I want that to be there for everyone in the country—that base camp. And AI can help on this.
This is how we explain and lead people down this transformative path. And in that way, in pushing forward, we’ve developed a powerful new tool. We’ve done this in-house, and I’m really proud of that—that as a government, we’ve taken on the challenge and developed something in-house, just to prove that governments can innovate. We use that word all the time, and some people don’t associate it with government—but we have. We’ve developed what we call Extract. It’s being trialled in councils in Exeter, Westminster, Nuneaton and Bedworth. It takes old, handwritten planning documents and put them into digital form in seconds. Jobs that would otherwise have taken hours and hours—done in seconds. A hundred planning records per day, and the usual average up till now is five. So, you can see—it’s a huge productivity boost and we want to roll that out. It doesn’t just show that the government can innovate, it also means faster planning decisions, which I think comes as a relief to many people in this room and beyond—both in AI and in British business more broadly. And of course, it’s money-saved for councils, so they can spend their money on other things. It turns into more growth and more opportunity.
But most of all, it speeds up the future that we need. AI innovation making a difference for working people. The same, of course, is true across the public realm. We’re looking at how AI can speed up discharges from hospitals—hugely important. I’ve looked into this in our hospitals. Getting people out the back door more quickly—AI can help with that. Same with the asylum backlog, how can AI and tech help us deal with that? Or teachers—helping them personalise lessons for their pupils. Again, using their time better, making them more human. Giving them that interaction so that every child gets the best possible chance in life. What a difference personalising what they do can make to so many children.
In every case, you can show AI innovation making a difference for working people. But to truly succeed in this mission then one of the biggest parts, and you’ll all have heard this many, many times in the conversation about AI, tech, growth and investment and business. It always comes back to this point: skills. It is one of the key concerns in any business in technology—actually, in any business pretty much across the board—one of the great worries for working people, and the same for any parent, is always: What does this mean for my children? What does it mean for their future? So today, I am really delighted to announce what is a step change in how we train homegrown talent in AI. A partnership with 11 major companies to train 7.5 million workers in AI by 2030.
I would also like to thank NVIDIA for partnering on a new pipeline. Jensen is here with us for the “in conversation” we’re so grateful for that partnership. That allows us to expand their lab in Bristol, and that will make a huge difference to opportunity and jobs in the South West. We’re also going to bring the full powers of government with a new tech-first training programme. That’s up to 1 million young people trained in tech skills—that will be so crucial for their future. That’s a £185 million investment, embedding AI right through our education system, starting in our secondary schools with subjects like computer science. At universities, a new scholarship programme for high-flying students—supporting the best and brightest personally, so they can focus on their research on the next frontier.
So from school all the way through—and on top of that, extra support for small businesses, along with their student leavers, so they can recruit the technology skills they need. And this—trust me—is a package that should make a massive difference to the aspirations of working people.
At the end of the day, that is what this must be about. I want young people in the poorer parts of my constituency—and I’m thinking in particular of a place like Somers Town, between Euston and King’s Cross, where there’s so much of that tech and entrepreneurial AI belief—I want the children in Somers Town to look out of their classroom windows and feel “yes, I can be part of that success. This could belong to me.”
That’s why the work we’re doing in schools, universities and colleges is so important—to make them feel they’ve got a role, they’ve got aspiration, they’ve got a future. They can’t aspire to do something unless they can see it, feel it, and understand what it is. In this country, the technology needs to be built in our brain. Just to give a short example of that—praising tech companies for investing in Somers Town. I’ve thrown this challenge out many, many times: how do we make the children in the poorest part of my constituency aspire to work in your centre? And Google AI opened a campus in Somers Town. They’ve taken up that challenge. It is tremendous. I went there for the opening—it’s right next to the school where I envisage those students who wouldn’t necessarily have seen their future in tech. And now that campus is right next to their school they can see it every day and they can feel it.
That’s a really good example. Thank you to the tech sector for stepping up to that challenge. But now we need to go further. By the end of this Parliament, we should be able to look every parent the eye, in every region in Britain and say – look what technology can deliver for you. We can put money in your pocket; we can create wealth in your community; we can create good jobs and vastly improve our public services and build a better future for your children. That is the opportunity we must seize, that is what my Plan for Change will deliver. And today, I think we’re taking another big step towards it.
So thank you very much for being here and thank you for letting me have the privilege of opening today. Thank you.