The UK government has announced a £32m investment in 98 AI projects that promise to cut train delays, speed up the delivery of medicines and reduce supply chain emissions. This comes days after it was revealed that £1.3bn earmarked for AI supercomputers had been scrapped.
Among the companies to receive financial support is 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 enter the workplace, ultimately speeding up essential infrastructure projects.
Another company that has received investment is Anteam, an AI-powered logistics company. The organization is developing a system that will search for existing delivery routes from hospitals, pharmacies, and retailers to which new medication orders can be added. By making deliveries more efficient, the technology will reduce prescription delays and decrease vehicle emissions.
The winning projects are located across the country, from Southampton to Birmingham and Northern Ireland, and support more than 200 companies and research organisations in so-called “high growth” industries.
SEE: UK AI startup funding: Alan Turing Institute identifies huge gender disparity
Minister for Digital Government and Artificial Intelligence Feryal Clark said in a press release: “AI will deliver real change for workers across the UK, not only growing our economy but also improving our public services.
“That’s why our support for initiatives like this will be so crucial – backing a range of projects that could reduce train delays, give us new ways to maintain our vital infrastructure and improve patient experiences by making it easier for them to get their prescriptions delivered.
“We want technology to drive growth and change across the board, and I am confident that projects like these will help us realise that ambition.”
Other projects to be funded include:
- An autonomous system from 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 motor designs in electric vehicles.
- Robok Limited's SeeGul artificial intelligence tool, which finds opportunities to improve efficiency in companies that operate warehouses and storage facilities.
- A real-time pricing and market trend analysis tool for fashion retailers that makes pricing secondhand clothing faster and easier, from Kelp Technologies.
WATCH: UK allocates £100m to AI chips
The projects are being funded by UKRI’s Technology Mission Fund and delivered through the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme, which connects companies with additional training and expertise.
The investment is welcome news, as limiting AI innovation in the UK could have a significant economic impact. A recent Microsoft report found that adding five years to the time it takes to implement AI could cost more than £150 billion.
There is also evidence that the UK tech sector is currently stagnating. Research has revealed that the number of new tech companies founded in the UK has suffered its first “marked decline” since 2022. In Q2 2024, there were just 12,318 new tech additions, compared to 13,802 in Q1 – a decrease of 11%.
The government says the funding shows how it backs up claims made in last month's King's Speech that it will “pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies”.
In fact, 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 drive growth and improve our public services.”
