King's hosts dialogue on the UK's deep-tech AI sector

Organised by Innovate UK, this event connected higher education, industry, investment, and policy voices for a day of dialogue and collaborative exploration to identify how the UK can remain globally competitive in next-generation AI infrastructure and applications. The London session was preceded by sessions earlier in September in both Oxford and Cambridge.

The event's opening address was delivered by Professor Elena Simperl, Co-Director of the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

The first panel explored how the relationship between private investment, business and academia can unlock frontier AI in the UK. Panelists stressed the importance of strong, proven concepts, robust intellectual property (IP) protection, and solid business plans. Universities remain critical for supporting knowledge transfer, safeguarding intellectual property, and sharing expertise within the AI ecosystem.

Moving from a focus on the private to the public sector, the second panel provided attendees with an insight into current opportunities and priorities from government funders, with representatives from the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), Innovate UK and Digital Catapult. The discussion centred on programmes that enable AI-driven innovation in infrastructure domains such as supply chains and transportation, as well as the development of hardware and computational frameworks.

The day also consisted of a series of round tables to identify blockers to enabling AI in the UK, highlight market opportunities from unlocking value from non-language data, and outline multidisciplinary opportunities for unlocking novel frontier opportunities. The contributions will help shape Innovate UK's approach to the UK's deep-tech AI ecosystem.