Financial services is the most important sector to the UK economy, responsible for 10% of our economic output and employing 2.3m people.

The UK is also at the forefront of AI development and regulation in Europe with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hosting the world’s first ‘AI Safety Summit’ in November 2023.

UK Finance is the main trade body for financial services in the UK representing over 300 firms including the largest retail and investment banks (like Natwest, UBS and Nationwide), payment providers (including Visa, Stripe and Mastercard) and newer fintech businesses.  

To coincide with the upcoming global summit we worked with UK Finance to help secure Prof Dame Wendy Hall FRS - Regius Professor of Computer Science and co-author of the UK’s AI Strategy to take part in their Digital Innovation Summit.

We also delivered new economic modelling and policy work to create a new ‘white paper’ for UK Finance on the potential of AI for the sector, the policy impediments and risks to manage.

Our work showed that the adoption of AI in UK financial services could add between £24bn and £34bn to their economic value over the coming decade. That figure is around 20% of the sector’s current GVA or the equivalent of the entire value-added of the air transport sector. This work was used to engage with a range of key political stakeholders including the Prime Minister’s adviser on artificial intelligence.

Our work on AI policy and financial services has now fed into UK Finance’s ‘Manifesto’ which will be used in political engagement and lobbying efforts with key political figures in the run-up to the next general election.