The U.K. government has announced a £32 million investment into 98 AI projects that promise to cut train delays, speed up prescription delivery, and reduce supply chain emissions. This comes days after it was revealed that the £1.3 billion earmarked for AI supercomputers had been scrapped.
The companies receiving financial backing include V-Lab, which is developing a virtual reality platform that simulates construction sites and scenarios. This can be used to safely train new staff before they go on-site, ultimately accelerating essential infrastructure projects.
Another firm that has been awarded investment is Anteam, an AI-driven logistics company. The organisation is developing a system that will search for existing delivery journeys from hospitals, pharmacies, and retailers that new medicine orders can be added to. By making deliveries more efficient, the technology will reduce prescription delays and cut vehicle emissions.
The winning projects are based across the country, from Southampton to Birmingham and Northern Ireland, and support over 200 businesses and research organisations in so-called “high growth” industries.
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Minister for Digital Government and AI Feryal Clark said in a press release, “AI will deliver real change for working people across the UK — not only growing our economy but improving our public services.
“That’s why our support for initiatives like this will be so crucial — backing a range of projects which could reduce train delays, give us new ways of maintaining our vital infrastructure, and improve experiences for patients by making it easier to get their prescriptions to them.
“We want technology to boost growth and deliver change right across the board, and I’m confident projects like these will help us realise that ambition.”
Other projects receiving funding include:
- An autonomous system by Hack Partners that can monitor, manage, and identify defects in rail infrastructure, working to reduce delays and cancellations.
- A 3D-generative AI tool from Monumo that can improve the sustainability of designs for motors in electric vehicles.
- Robok Limited’s SeeGul AI tool, which finds opportunities for efficiency improvements in businesses operating warehouses and storage facilities.
- A real-time pricing and market trend analysis tool for fashion retailers that makes pricing secondhand clothing appropriately quicker and easier, from Kelp Technologies.
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Sue Daley, Director of Tech and Innovation at techUK, told TechRepublic in an emailed statement: “Only by investing in the adoption and use of AI technology, we will be able to fully realise its potential. The UK is home to hundreds of companies that can provide AI solutions that support our digital economy and wider society. This fund, boosting nearly 100 high-growth projects across the UK’s many regions, can offer considerable return on investment for the UK economy and boost our competitiveness, while supporting those innovators that are putting AI into action.”
The projects are being funded by the UKRI Technology Missions Fund and delivered through the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme, which connects the companies with additional training and expertise. The UKRI Technology Missions Fund is a long-term investment and separate to the £1.3 billion that was shelved last week, but the announcement of the new projects comes at a good time nonetheless. A recent Microsoft report found that adding five years to the time it takes to roll out AI could cost over £150 billion.
There is also evidence that the U.K.’s tech sector is currently stagnating. Research has revealed that the number of tech startups being founded in the U.K. has suffered its first “marked decline” since 2022. There were only 12,318 new tech incorporations in the second quarter of 2024, compared with 13,802 in the first quarter — an 11% decline.
The government says that the funding shows how it is backing up the claims made in last month’s King’s Speech that it will “pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies.”
Indeed, last month, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle said in a statement that he was “putting AI at the heart of the government’s agenda to boost growth and improve our public services.”