The uk's technology advantage and what this means for entrepreneurs

The UK’s core innovation assets

The UK has a number of core innovation assets driving its success. As highlighted during our event by Priya Guha MBE, Partner at Merian Ventures, these include strengths in “talent, amazing companies in cutting-edge technologies, and capabilities at a research and funding level.” That has given investors the confidence to put their capital into UK tech, with $21.3 billion raised by startups here in most recent figures – more than double that of France and Germany.

Those assets and the investment into them have manifested in significant scale – including what Daniel Doll-Steinberg, co-founder of venture investment platform EdenBase, described as “the world’s most advanced AI company [DeepMind, now part of Google] and quantum computing company [Cambridge Quantum, now part of Quantinuum]” – both founded in the UK before being acquired in the US.

These two success stories are representative of an extraordinarily fast-growing technology sector, which includes 168 unicorns – with eight UK cities home to multiple: Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester, Nottingham, and Oxford.

Beyond AI, the UK ranks second globally to the USA in quantum technologies, with more than 160 companies active in the sector contributing £1.7 billion in GVA to the UK economy – demonstrating the depth of our innovation ecosystem and real potential for entrepreneurs in the space to become world leaders.

Building AI-ready teams 

To achieve that leadership position, it is fundamental that we evolve our approaches to talent – ensuring we develop the necessary skills to work alongside AI. Peter Yeung, Chief Information Officer at Optimizely, shared his advice for building future-ready teams: “It’s not about AI replacing people. It’s people who know how to use AI that will replace those who don’t”.

That insight expands on the position of Ash Ramrachia, co-founder and CEO of Academy – who wrote in our Business Insights Report that we need a complete shift in how we approach hiring and education. His position is that it’s necessary to move away from a model that rewards credentials and technical expertise that AI can either already – or will soon be able to replicate – towards a potential economy; one where we identify people based on their ability to work alongside AI, and apply capabilities like emotional intelligence and creativity that machines cannot replicate.