“The countries which harness AI will not only lead the race to cure diseases, discover new materials and create trillion-dollar companies… but also build far more powerful militaries. Put simply, AI is now the engine of economic power and hard power. And the future is coming at us fast… not in the next few decades but the next few years.”
The UK government made a major statement of intent in late April when Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall, delivered a speech at the Royal United Services Institute that reframed artificial intelligence not just as an economic opportunity, but as a matter of national security.
For public sector buyers and suppliers, it’s a speech worth examining carefully, because the policy direction it sets out will shape how government buys and deploys AI for years to come.
Sovereignty without isolationism
The central argument Kendall made was nuanced. ‘AI sovereignty’ does not mean severing ties with global technology providers or retreating behind national borders. Instead, she defined it as reducing dangerous over-dependencies and building genuine resilience, ensuring that Britain retains meaningful leverage over the technologies underpinning its vital infrastructure.
This is an important distinction. The UK will continue to work with international partners and global technology companies, but the government has decided that in an uncertain geopolitical world, simply relying on dominant US or Chinese AI platforms is not a sustainable or safe strategy. Britain needs skin in the game.
Backing British AI
“If we retreat from progress we retreat from the world, leaving this powerful technology to be exploited by other nations to their advantage and our disadvantage.”
The first practical commitment flowing from this vision is a decisive push to back British AI companies, particularly in sectors where the UK already holds genuine competitive strengths.
This builds directly on the UK’s new Sovereign AI Fund, launched just two weeks before Kendall’s speech. The Fund commits £500 million to a package of support for British AI startups, including:
- Access to supercomputing infrastructure
- Fast-tracked visas for international R&D talent
- Legal fee support for companies choosing to incorporate in the UK
The message to the tech sector is clear: the government wants world-class AI companies to be built here.
For suppliers to the public sector, this matters because it signals a government preference for homegrown solutions when they are available. AI vendors and technology consultancies with a strong British footprint will be well-placed to benefit from this policy direction.
Setting AI standards
The second major thrust of Kendall’s speech was about international standard-setting. Rather than allowing the US and China to write the rules governing how AI is deployed globally, the the government is actively working with a coalition of “middle-power” nations – including Germany, Canada, Japan, and Australia – to shape global best practice. Britain chairs an international network of AI Security Institutes, which will publish guidance on evaluating AI models at its next meeting. The ambition here is not merely technical: it is geopolitical. The UK wants to be a rule-setter, not a rule-taker.
For organisations operating across borders, or working with international clients, this growing framework of AI governance standards will increasingly define what responsible AI deployment looks like in practice.
Other UK initiatives
One of the most concrete announcements from the speech was a commitment to develop a UK AI hardware plan, focusing on chips and semiconductor technologies across the full AI stack. This plan, to be published in June, will focus on developing existing AI chip design capabilities in the UK.
Alongside the sovereignty agenda, practical AI deployment in government services is accelerating fast. An AI assistant called GOV.UK Chat is set to roll out to users of the GOV.UK app during 2026, with a wider website release planned once further testing is complete.
The government’s AI Commercial Strategy, which was published as part of the AI Opportunities Action Plan in January 2026, remains the operational guide for how departments will procure AI tools. Crucially, it prioritises buying from the market first before investing in building bespoke solutions in-house. For specialist technology suppliers and consultancies, this is good news.
The opportunity for suppliers
Britain’s direction of travel is unmistakeable. As the public sector moves from pilot AI projects to real deployment at scale, the government wants capable, trustworthy suppliers – most of all British ones – to help deliver it. Suppliers who can demonstrate expertise in AI integration, data governance, and responsible deployment are well positioned to benefit from the government’s push to develop our AI sector.
