A summit held at the House of Lords during London Tech Week has sounded the alarm over a looming “skills cliff edge” in the UK workforce, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the economy and redefine job roles across industries.
Chaired by Steven George-Hilley, founder of Centropy PR, the summit brought together thought leaders from across the tech, legal, financial and cybersecurity sectors for a wide-ranging discussion on the challenges and opportunities presented by AI.
The consensus? The UK risks falling behind international competitors unless it urgently accelerates efforts to build an AI-literate workforce, safeguard data integrity, and adopt ethical guardrails in AI deployment.
Achi Lewis-Dhaliwal, AVP UK, EMEA & India at Absolute Security, warned that AI is dramatically escalating the scale and sophistication of cyber threats, particularly for data-rich sectors such as financial services.
“The financial services industry houses vast quantities of sensitive data that is constantly subject to threats from malicious cyber actors, especially with the rise of AI-powered attacks,” he said. “These discussions must be grounded in real-world cyber risk scenarios if we’re to future-proof UK critical infrastructure.”
Leigh Allen, Strategic Advisor at Cellebrite, highlighted how AI is already proving transformative in digital forensics, stating: “AI is a critical enabler in unlocking digital evidence and significantly reducing investigation times, greatly aiding police forces and combating national security threats.”
She added that combining AI with ethical access to digital evidence is key to creating safer communities and stronger digital justice systems.
James Tuttiett, Sales Director UK & EMEA at FDM Group, pointed to a strategic disconnect across UK industries: “There’s a lack of a united vision and strategy when it comes to AI. Most organisations are still experimenting—there’s no ‘one size fits all’ yet—but what’s clear is that integration is imminent.”
He stressed that as automation reshapes careers, more emphasis is needed on teaching “how to ask the right questions of AI—not just accept the answers.” Understanding prompt engineering, he added, will be vital to preparing a resilient and agile workforce.
Arkadiy Ukolov, founder of Ulla Technology, flagged the data privacy risks surrounding popular AI tools that send user data to third-party providers for model training.
“When it comes to sensitive meeting discussions or client information, this creates significant risk of data leakage. Ethics must be at the centre of House of Lords discussions if we want AI that serves society rather than undermines it,” Ukolov said.
Stuart Harvey, CEO of Belfast-based analytics firm Datactics, urged policymakers to focus not just on AI adoption but on data quality itself.
“In the rush to adopt AI tools, many organisations overlook the foundational issue of fragmented or inaccurate data. Without high-quality, reliable datasets, AI models will produce unreliable or even damaging outputs,” Harvey warned.
Chris Davison, CEO of NavLive, showcased the positive applications of AI, such as using real-time 2D and 3D building modelling to enable sustainable construction.
“By creating accurate real-time spatial data across the lifecycle of a building, architects, engineers and construction professionals can save significant time and money,” he said. “This is where AI can power real economic growth.”
