AI: The UK's technology advantage and what this means for entrepreneurs

The UK is the third largest AI market in the world, last valued at over £72 billion and part of a wider $1 trillion tech market. Investors are bought into the opportunity, with AI companies here having raised more than double their competitors in France and Germany – putting the UK in a position to be Europe’s dominant AI power.

That success and how entrepreneurs capitalise on it was at the heart of our latest Coutts Business Insights Programme event – Unlocking AI: From hype to business value – where speakers explored what we need to turn this competitive advantage into exponential growth. 

1. AI growth is a national story

The world’s most advanced AI and quantum computing companies respectively were born in the UK, while eight cities across the country are home to multiple unicorns

2. World beating quantum success

It’s not only AI driving growth for the economy. There are more than 160 active quantum companies in the UK, second globally only to the US and ahead of China.

3. Potential is set to matter more than credentials

To maximise the growth of emerging technologies, we need to prepare the next generation of talent to lead and work alongside them – valuing human potential over skills that AI can already replicate.

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.

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.

With AI investment in the UK on track to grow exponentially over the next decade, the question for entrepreneurs isn’t whether to act, but how quickly they can position themselves alongside the businesses that are currently leading this transformation. The entrepreneurs who recognise this and build an AI-ready team won’t just benefit from the UK’s competitive advantage; they’ll help to create it. 

For more insights like these and to find out about future events, register your interest in the Coutts Business Insights Programme.