Tag: digital transformation

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EY: Industrial companies worldwide stunted in emerging technology use

Many companies from a range of industries worldwide are stuck at a trial stage of emerging technologies usage, according to the sixth annual EY Reimagining industry futures study.

The firm surveyed 1,635 enterprises in November 2024, including 9% in the UK, 6% in Germany and 20% in the US. Respondents were drawn from a range of industries, including financial services (13%), cars and transport (13%), energy, mining and utilities (13%), and manufacturing (12%).

The study has a strong 5G and internet of things (IoT) orientation, as it has done in previous years. The lead authors come from the firm’s telecoms, media and technology (TMT) practices, Rob Atkinson, area managing partner for UK and Ireland TMT; and Adrian Baschnonga, global TMT lead analyst.

The press statement that goes with the report says nearly half (47%) of the respondents are investing in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), compared with 43% last year.

Some 43% are investing in IoT, and 33% are investing in 5G technology, suggesting an upward trend from 39% and 27% respectively in 2024.

However, the report finds that businesses struggle to convert technology trials into live deployments. Only 1% of organisations have active deployments of GenAI. And while IoT investment seems to be rising year-on-year, the proportion of businesses with active IoT deployments is in decline, slipping to 16% this year compared with 19% in 2024.

Active deployments of edge computing are also flat year-on-year, at 22%.

CEOs get more into technology selection

The report finds decision-making inside enterprises is spreading out across the C-suite, with 49% of CEOs now involved in emerging technology strategy, including in choice of suppliers. Organisations where the CEO is a key decision-maker are further along, the report found.

Over half (51%) of businesses with CEOs involved in new technology decisions are investing in GenAI, compared with 44% of organisations where the CEO is less involved.

“As well as posing a challenge to unlocking long-term value, a failure to progress beyond the trial phase means businesses risk missing out on the combined impact of different technologies deployed together, an area where four in five (79%) organisations are looking to achieve more,” said Atkinson. “There could also be a danger that too many emerging technologies initiatives will be conducted in isolation, limiting the resulting business benefits.”

The report discovered that respondents are limitedly aware of what IT suppliers have on offer.

Some 73% said they need a better understanding of the changing supplier landscape. EY comments that this reflects “an environment where collaborative ecosystems featuring alliances between different technology providers are becoming the norm”.

More than half (56%) the respondents believe they lack awareness of their technology suppliers’ partners. Less than a third of organisations have high awareness of new mobile technology capabilities such as network application programming interfaces (32%) and network slicing (26%).

“Organisations view ecosystem collaboration as a route to access new skills and capabilities but lack understanding of changing supplier ecosystems,” said Baschnonga. “With many companies under pressure to consolidate vendors, suppliers should prioritise their ecosystem and alliance strategies by concentrating on key partners and adapting their operating models and go-to-market approaches accordingly.”

The report found the ability to scale and integrate different technologies is important to one in four (25%) of those surveyed.

“The intention to focus spending on a smaller number of key suppliers makes it even more important that ICT providers present them as effective ecosystem orchestrators, able to provide end-to-end solutions with the assistance of partners and intermediaries,” said Atkinson. “As part of this, suppliers should take care to underline capabilities that extend beyond their core products.

“While enterprises remain committed to embracing leading-edge technologies like GenAI, IoT and 5G, they are facing challenges in translating their investments into real business value,” he said. “Now is the time for IoT suppliers to reposition themselves as holistic partners to their business customers and help them realise the full benefits of their spending on digital transformation.”

In the report itself, the authors say: “This year’s findings show that organisations across all sectors remain committed to investing in emerging technologies to transform their operations – but that issues around scalability and legacy integration are top of mind. Meanwhile, ICT vendors need to pay close attention to enterprises’ increasing focus on security and growing demand for ecosystem orchestration.”

Businesses dimly aware of datacentre environmental impact

They also pick out sustainability as an increasingly relevant theme for enterprise IT, especially with regard to datacentres. “Sustainability factors increasingly weigh on decisions about emerging technology investments, with organisations more sensitive than before to the potentially ambivalent role of new technologies in the decarbonisation agenda.

Datacentres, the report’s authors comment, are an area of low environmental, social, and governance awareness for businesses. Half the organisations surveyed are unaware of their datacentres’ emissions profiles.

Respondents are looking at a range of GenAI use cases, with no standout preferences, the report found. Some 50% of businesses see cyber security and data protection as a leading GenAI impediment, while 46% said a need to improve data governance to combat risks concerning data accuracy and ethics would be critical to future implementations.

Data governance scores highest among manufacturers (46%) as a GenAI concern, while capturing productivity gains ranks top among EY’s respondents in the consumer (48%) and energy (47%) sectors.

Across all sectors, the most favoured GenAI use cases are software development, customer service and employee training or collaboration. However, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing respondents rated predictive or real-time operations and supply chain management as top-five GenAI use cases.

Upskilling and more collaboration

The report says the two most important changes that organisations can make are employee upskilling and deeper collaboration across business functions.

On a country level, education and employee upskilling is highly ranked by German respondents (36%), while deeper collaboration between business functions leads as an action among Chinese businesses (31%).

Elsewhere, Indian (20%) and Japanese (18%) businesses are most likely to prioritise collaboration with suppliers.

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European and African tech skills programme could increase economic ties

Emerging economies in Africa often have relationships with developed nations through dark colonial pasts, but today, digital tech is connecting previously unexpected partners.

Developed nations looking for growth are targeting Africa as an opportunity, but must offer the countries of the continent something in return, and one programme to transfer IT professionals and knowledge between Africa and the Baltic region is an example that goes beyond filling a skills gap.

As Computer Weekly reported recently, IT professionals in Africa are being connected to tech businesses in the Baltic region as part of a European Commission-funded project, known as the Digital Explorers programme.

Fronted by Lithuania-based think tank Osmos, it aims to address skills shortages in the Baltic tech sector, and increase more business and government engagement between the Baltic nations and African countries.

While countries in the Baltic region, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia lead the world in digital business, they lack people. Estonia, for example, while a leading digital nation, has a population of about 1.3 million.

In contrast, countries like Nigeria are lagging in terms of digital economy, but have large and growing IT talent pools. Nigeria, for example, has a population of about 240 million and growing.

But African countries offer more than a skills pool for Europe to tap, with a huge potential market for its goods and services. It’s hoped connecting people through digital technology initiatives, like Digital Explorers, will initiate cooperation between the two regions.

New skills

It also sees African IT professionals learn new skills that can be used to help the economic development in their home countries.

At the Turing College data science school in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, the Digital Explorers programme has already remotely trained 90 junior to mid-level data analysts from Africa. These trainees then travel to and work in the Baltic region, particularly in its rich tech startup sector. It’s hoped the project will create a model for the wider European Union (EU) region to follow.

Cindy Waweru, aged 24, from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, a policy analyst in the city, was invited by the Kenya Private Sector Business Alliance (Kepsa) to take up a role that blended economics with statistical analysis. She had the option of taking up the role in Kenya or Lithuania, and opted for the latter. “Once I saw the Lithuania option, I was pretty intrigued,” she said.

With a degree in economics and statistics from the University of Nairobi, and experience as a policy analyst, Waweru took up a role at research institute Visionary Analytics in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.

“Originally I wanted to become a policy analyst and this could give me the opportunity to be a global one,” Waweru told Computer Weekly. “I have an IT background and worked initially as a data specialist in the Kenyan government. This was pretty important for the programme.”

She is currently on a six-month placement at Visionary Analytics in Vilnius. After that, she will either be offered a role in Lithuania or take her learnings back to Kenya.

In Kenya there will be opportunities for Waweru to work either in the tech sector or with tech-enabled organisations.

She said her international experience could open up more opportunities for her in Kenya. There is a growing tech scene in the East African country, she told Computer Weekly. “They call Kenya the Silicon Savannah,” said Waweru.

Kenya needs to emulate some of the strategies adopted in Europe, and Waweru said one of the main differences she has learned is the cooperation between nations. “I have noticed with in Europe generally and in terms of the framework and their policies that they operate within all EU member states,” she said. “We have something like that with the African Union, but a lot of the policies are led to the national governments. Something like intergovernmental working would help a lot in Africa.”

Waweru hopes the programme will build a good reputation for African talent and lead to more European countries taking advantage of their skills to fill gaps in their workforces.

But the programme is about much more than tech skills, with future business ties a major goal for both sets of economies.

Ashley Immanuel, co-founder and chief operating officer at Nigeria-based Semicolon, which trains software engineers and other technology skills, is an ambassador of the Digital Natives programme.

Immanuel said she is increasingly engaging with Baltic tech firms and tech ecosystems, as well as others across Europe.

She said the Nigerian digital tech market has evolved quite quickly over the past 10 to 15 years. “There is activity in terms of technology startups, and then of course the digital transformation of established companies,” said Immanuel. “Historically in Nigeria, obviously oil and gas has been present, but also some of the larger corporates like banks and finance firms.”

She said there is a huge population in Nigeria and that “people are anxious to find good jobs”, but added: “There has historically been a gap because the human capital that’s available here hasn’t been aligned to employer needs, especially for leading technology companies.”

Baltic nations

In contrast, the Baltic nations have small populations and a large tech sector.

Immanuel said both regions have challenges and that Baltic employers and tech companies she has met have listed access to talent as one of their challenges.

She said there is a mutual desire to learn from each other, as well as potential for business partnerships and relationships. On her travels in Europe, there is a lot of interest in working with African companies, she told Computer Weekly.

Immanual agreed that diversity of the IT workforce is also important, with the rapid development of technologies such as AI, and that Africa and the Baltics’ relationship can contribute to increased diversity.

Žilvinas Švedkauskas, managing director at Osmos, said it creates “unexpected country partnerships”.

“We built the project around people, digital explorers and their digital journeys,” he told Computer Weekly. “We create connections that set the path for more business-to-business and government-to-government type of engagement between countries.”

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Look to the future: How the threat landscape may evolve next

It’s been quite the half-decade. In fact, it’s hard to know where to start when reflecting on it. The Covid-19 pandemic saw a (forced) mass shift towards hybrid working models, leaving security teams with a new and complex attack surface to secure quickly. Charges made against the CISOs of SolarWinds and Uber set a precedent of legal responsibilities for CISOs when it comes to cyberattacks and reporting. Elsewhere, new regulations are being written into law across the world to protect organisations and consumers everywhere, from NIS2 to the Cyber Resilience Act. Similarly, artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised cyber security, for good and bad. In some ways, AI has become a helpful ally for security teams when it comes to fighting threats, especially as teams are facing a barrage of new and novel threats daily. On the other hand, the uptick in attacks is likely due to the increased use of AI by cyber criminals to speed up and automate attacks. These notable events are just scratching the (attack) surface!

The cyber industry has always been fast paced and security teams are no stranger to change. However, the last five years have challenged the industry significantly, with the unprecedented volume and sophistication of new threats, talent retention issues and burnout rise. As always, these challenges have exemplified the resilience of the industry. We learn from one another and, as a community, we have become more open to speaking of our collective challenges and helping one another. As we head into the unknown once again, it’s critical that we continue to foster a continued sense of openness and community.

I find ‘predictions’ difficult. This feels like using sticks to find hidden wells of water. I have no crystal ball that will reveal the spring of vulnerabilities going to be released upon us in the next five years. But, I have seen some trends over the past few years that have proven hardy and are representative of significant problems that aren’t going away any time soon. These are the best spots I can look to for what lies ahead.

We might see the quantum computing event horizon in the next five years, in which case, all bets are off. I don’t think that that day will be like the vaunted Y2K that was foretold, but will be more problematic over a longer period of time. It will still be a good amount of time before quantum computing is easily accessible by criminal groups in such a way that will make it an everyday threat…governments protecting secrets though, are in a different boat.

I will also make the very spicy take that the AI, at least in the current form using LLMs or things of a similar stripe, is going to sputter and fall flat. We haven’t seen massive increases in uptake by significant parts of the economy for any of the leading companies, despite them shovelling money into the AI furnace by the billions. There are also reports that the current flavour of AI LLMs have reached their limit, with diminishing returns as there are no longer any major corpuses of human-created data and content to consume and use for training. There, I said it. We are nearing ‘peak AI’. Cue sad trombone.

And now for something completely different…

On a much more serious note, I think the major events relating to cyber security over the next five years will be driven largely by geopolitical crises, starting with China.

Between now and 2030 we will see increased aggression by China with some form of conflict both hot and cold, brought on by the possible ‘annexation’ of Taiwan. China has, for some time, been using police actions (and civilian fishing vessels) to encroach on the territorial sovereignty of regional nations including the Philippines and Taiwan. I worry that what happened in Hong Kong will be tried in a similar way, and these methods for attacking territorial water boundaries will continue, using this playbook in Taiwan, with a diminished role for some traditional western powers. If this comes to pass, and unfortunately it seems that’s the direction things are heading, this will be a cataclysmic global event with truly massive implications. Western-based manufacturers of silicon will become parts of the national security apparatus as critical national infrastructure, in a way that they have escaped thus far but are increasingly moving towards.

More critical national infrastructure will fail in larger ways, due to espionage, conflict or both, like we have seen with the actions of Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon, Chinese state-sponsored actors digging into infrastructure like ISPs and telcos and energy companies for use in a future potential conflict and to monitor communications of strategic importance. My fear is that disruption of telcos and other “everyday” critical infrastructure sectors that have not gone as far in their cyber security maturity journey will force governments to assert more explicit control through regulation and direct assistance. And some of this will be long overdue, for in the year 2024, is it really defensible to not require MFA for privileged (or all) users? Or not move away from memory unsafe languages? Or not keep logs on critical system events? These things shouldn’t be acceptable now but I’m afraid it will take an even bigger catastrophe than the cyber crises we’ve endured in the past few years for these requirements to get stated in a sufficiently forceful way that gets some orgs to take note.

Russia will continue its role as global bully, but we will see more cracks emerge when they struggle running out of updates to Windows devices and other western technologies that are no longer available due to sanctions. Russian-based ransomware groups will move in more close alignment with the government and become proxy actors of the Kremlin, even more explicitly than they are now.

Supply chains will get hit, again, and again, and some more. Unfortunately this is a growing trend over the past few years and as we saw with CrowdStrike this year (which wasn’t a supply chain attack…but the disruption of their software caused a global technology event that impacted millions of people, disrupted businesses, cancelled flights, and more) these technologies have become almost irreversibly intertwined with corporate enterprise IT to such an extent that they can cause cascade failures.

Whether the attackers are aggravated aggressor nation-states like Russian and China or neo-organised crime in the form of ransomware gangs, the next years will see disruptions with increasing frequency and magnitude. Eventually there will be a counterforce, deployed by governments, in the form of policy, law and cyber action. My hope for my friends still working in the halls of power in Washington and Whitehall, is that we can mount an effective response to acts of aggression in a way that is proportionate and lasting, not overcorrecting but likewise not wasting an opportunity to help set and enforce some norms around responsible stewardship of user data, technology and public services, as well as norms for conflict in cyberspace that are rooted in our principles and values as a society.

Elliott Wilkes is chief technology officer at Advanced Cyber Defence Systems (ACDS). A seasoned digital transformation leader and product manager, Wilkes has over a decade of experience working with both the American and British governments, most recently as a cyber security consultant to the Civil Service.

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Interview: Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer, NatWest Retail Bank

Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer (CDIO) at NatWest Retail Bank, has had a distinguished career leading technology-led change in some of the world’s biggest financial services organisations. Now, she’s using that experience to drive even more innovation.

After four years as CIO for collaborative technology solutions with Deutsche Bank, Redshaw says she was eager to work for a UK finance house. In late 2018, she found the perfect home at NatWest as head of technology and digital distribution for the personal bank.

“The opportunity was interesting because NatWest was ready for digital transformation but wasn’t naturally sitting in a leadership position at that time,” she says. “The role allowed me to land and think about what to do. I found an organisation that was fundamentally focused on its customers and perhaps had less digital experience in-house.”

After working with her team to deliver technological improvements across the personal bank offline and online, Redshaw moved into the CDIO position in February 2020. “It wasn’t just because I wanted a longer acronym than most technologists,” she jokes.

“We created the role so we could sew together business and technology because, as with many organisations, technology had historically been something that happened over there, and the business did their thing, and then they would give the technologists something to work on. We wanted better integration.”

Embracing digital change

Redshaw says the creation of her CDIO role in 2020 was a public statement that NatWest wanted to create a partnership approach to technology and business: “This is a digital bank in the making, and hopefully, with the results that we’ve seen, we’ve achieved our aims.”

The technological transformation in banking services that Redshaw oversees at NatWest today differs greatly from the finance industry she joined as a software engineer in 1987.

“We didn’t call it digital then,” she says. “I remember the focus was on, ‘How do we use technology to make things quicker, simpler and more secure for our customers?’” She points to work on a security module for the London Stock Exchange and the beginning of the settlement systems CHAPS and Euroclear.

“There was a lot of change where technology was being brought in, but it was more for the underpinning services than for the consumer-facing areas,” she says, before fast-forwarding to the present-day bank. “Over that time, we’ve seen that digital is now in the hands of our retail customers.”

Redshaw says the shift in technological focus also helped prompt her switch to the retail side of banking. After a career driving behind-the-scenes IT changes in major firms, such as Lloyds TSB, Barclays Capital and Royal Bank of Scotland, her current role at NatWest is focused on delivering innovative customer services.

“That’s where the exciting stuff is happening. Yes, of course, we use AI across several areas of the organisation – something like 17% of our models are AI-based now, such as for controlling fraud, financial crime and so on,” she says.

“However, in terms of affecting human beings, digital services are at our customers’ fingertips. If you think about my driver for going into the CDIO role, the customer is where I thought I’d have the most impact.”

Delivering pioneering innovations

As CDIO, Readshaw is directly accountable to the group CIO and retail banking CEO. Responsible for digital operations leadership, she manages 4,500 people across four locations globally and leads the delivery of retail banking technology for Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank North.

Redshaw’s team is digitalising services to make life easier for the group’s customers. Their work is supported by a planned investment of £3.5bn from 2023 to 2025, with more than 70% of spending targeted at data and technology.

NatWest has 10.9 million digitally active retail and business banking customers and 3.5 million use online banking platforms. The hard work continues apace. In 2024, Redshaw led the launch of a retail banking app on Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset.

One of her proudest achievements is the introduction of generative AI (GenAI) into the bank’s conversational assistant, Cora. She says the bank made an early move into chatbots. Cora was introduced in 2017. The technology could answer basic questions, but Redshaw wanted it to do more.

“When I joined in 2018, I realised it was quite a good channel to do something with,” she says. “I had some grand ambitions for her – things like digital avatars having a voice, and all these engaging ways of doing things. I said, ‘Look, I see this particular technology being something we could get moving on’.”

Redshaw saw that, while machine learning technology was progressing at pace, it wasn’t quite ready for the giant leap in digital experiences she envisioned. However, the public release of generative AI models in late 2022 helped turn theory into a practical reality. Working with experts from IBM’s client engineering team to develop the initial proof of concept, NatWest launched its next-generation assistant, Cora+, in June 2024.

Cora+ is a multichannel platform that securely accesses data from multiple sources, including products, services and banking information. The virtual assistant technology is powered by IBM’s Watsonx Assistantand built on IBM Cloud. Estimates suggest the technology is creating a 150% improvement in satisfaction for some customer queries.

“It was the perfect example of an interest in technology, an interest in people, and an interest in delivering business value,” she says. “I feel very excited about how we’ve taken something that just answered questions and moved into generative AI at scale for millions of customers. And it’s only the first step. I’ve got big ambitions for what I want to do with that technology.”

Building strong partnerships

Cora+ uses ChatGPT 3.5 alongside an unnamed GPT large language model (LLM). The second model is trained to judge the output of the first model. While the GPT models play an important role in NatWest’s digital strategy, the organisation is eager to keep an open approach to AI and innovation.

Redshaw says the group wants to avoid being locked into a specific LLM. She wants the capability to swap from large to small language models (SLMs). Organisations can use SLMs to derive outputs from constrained amounts of data that require less computing power, which is important for a big business like NatWest that wants to meet sustainability targets.

“As a result, it was a case of, ‘OK IBM, we like working with you, but we want to be able to switch the language models in and out depending on the business requirement’,” she says. “And they were like, ‘Absolutely’. So, that’s great. We have the same mindset around using the best of everything to get value for our customers safely.”

Wendy Redshaw, Natwest

“This is a digital bank in the making, and hopefully, with the results that we’ve seen, we’ve achieved our aims”

Wendy Redshaw, NatWest Retail Bank

In addition to the work on Cora+, Redshaw and her colleagues are analysing how AI can boost customer experiences in other areas. NatWest has worked with IBM to develop a digital legal assistant powered by GenAI. This tool streamlines contract management and enhances accessibility, especially for neurodivergent users. The tool supports colleagues with compliance checks, producing 20% efficiency gains.

More generally, Redshaw is proud her team completes thousands of releases annually. The department’s focus on micro-projects is as important as delivering large-scale initiatives and helps NatWest hit tight transformation deadlines. Across all projects, IBM acts as a key technology partner, with Redshaw suggesting the nature of the long-term working relationship with the tech giant is like interacting with people on the internal team.

John Duigenan, distinguished engineer and general manager of the global financial services industry at IBM, says shifting to constant innovation, experimentation, and learning is typical of the work his company sees in its most pioneering clients. “We got to work with a trusted partner, and we got to learn together,” he said, referring to IBM’s relationship with NatWest.

“It’s great we co-create approaches to using technology and collaborate on innovation. Our teams blend incredibly well, and we deliver together in new ways. We have an approach that says, ‘We know why this work will matter for all of us because we can measure the impact’.”

Providing new experiences

Redshaw reflects on achievements during the past few years. While the benefits of the digital transformation she’s enacted at NatWest are clear, there’s always an opportunity to do more.

She says the rapid pace of transformation makes it difficult to predict with any degree of certainty what will happen next: “What will the success metrics be in three years? We won’t be judged on the same metrics because digital banking is changing quickly.”

However, she expects to see developments in some key areas. “In the AI space, I expect to see more voice,” she says. “At the moment, Cora listens to our telephony and sends a text, a deep link, or something else that’s required. In the future, I think it’ll probably answer the phone and deal with questions.”

Redshaw also expects progress in text-based answering. Her bank’s research suggests people in financial difficulties often prefer having a guilt-free conversation with a bot rather than a human. “I would expect something in that financial health and support space that uses natural language,” she says.

There’s even the potential for advances in unexpected areas. Redshaw says she’s keen to add Cora to ATMs, something that she was previously told was impossible.

“I’ve now spoken to some innovation engineers, and they’ve said they think it might be possible,” she says. “So, I suspect we will see something like a digital point of presence.”

Finally, Redshaw expects the bank to continue honing its approach to mobile. “People now have their bank in their pocket,” she says. “I imagine we will give more richness and engagement through these devices. Even though our mobile strategy is great, I think it will lean towards more engagement and personalisation during the next 24 months.”

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2025: The year of AI for business – top trends to watch out for

You might not have started thinking about your Christmas shopping yet, but I bet you’ve been thinking about what artificial intelligence (AI) for business is going to look like in 2025. If you haven’t, then settle in with a glass of mulled wine, because now is your chance.

AI has come leaps and bounds over the past few years and is currently one of the biggest opportunities for business growth. With capabilities to intelligently automate admin tasks, take on customer service tasks, and analyse masses of data, the advantages are endless. But there’s still lots of room for development, in ways which will and won’t surprise you.

Stepping into the year of AI for business

Like your list of New Year’s Resolutions, the regulation landscape is constantly changing and adapting to the needs of tech businesses. For AI development to thrive in 2025, there must be a supportive environment ready for it. There’s no denying the appetite for AI, with over 120 bills on AI currently before the United States Congress. These build upon regulations already in place, such as the EU AI Act, which promotes the rapid adoption of trustworthy AI through reduced administrative burdens for SMEs and clear requirements for AI use.

The EU AI Act defines AI systems by their risk rating, splitting them up into prohibited, high-risk, limited-risk, and minimal-risk groups. This is something we could see changing in 2025, with the potential for new legislation focusing on AI classification over risk. This approach would consider criteria such as the intended uses and basic properties of AI systems.

New legislation coming into effect next year will significantly impact how businesses can use AI. Data management is one area likely to see substantial legislative focus, ensuring that AI does not compromise the security and privacy of business and customer data.

AI developments – The weird and the wonderful

As new legislation is rolled out in 2025, it will give businesses and developers more freedom and safety to largen AI’s scope. Many of us will already have AI ingrained into our processes, but what will we be bringing on board next?

  • Leading the way – Microsoft

One company which has been leading the way in AI development in 2024 has been tech giant Microsoft. At its recent Ignite 2024 event, it made several announcements which demonstrate the acceleration of AI in 2025. One of these was that Microsoft Teams will let participants speak in a language of their choice, through its new AI-powered Interpreter feature. Facilitating global communication and collaboration, this is one powerful way in which AI will fuel business growth.

Microsoft also announced the introduction of its AI agents this year. These agents will drive organisational wide optimisation and automation by collaborating with workers, a step forward from the AI assistants we already have. Agents can be trained to know your organisation from top to bottom and can compile details for business pitches and presentations whilst you focus on more valuable tasks.

  • Cutting corners with automation

Like AI agents, other AI systems which rely on trigger-based automation will flourish in 2025. Once the system is notified of a trigger, such as an email being received, it can digest the information and deliver an automated response to the trigger. Automated AI will seamlessly slot into business processes, taking care of admin tasks which frees up time for workers in all levels of the business to spend more time with customers and focus on their long-term needs.

The rise of automated AI poses a need for focus on responsible usage. Automation means that AI could be exposed to confidential data, and without the right protection measures in place, could learn that data and share it without authorisation. Legislation will play a key role in ensuring the responsible and ethical use of AI, but responsibility lies with business leaders as well to make sure that AI adoption goes hand in hand with education. Its important to understand that we will always include a human in the loop and full observability of these interactions with AI.

AI-powered systems might be forging new opportunities for businesses, but they lose their value and customer trust if inaccurate. To prioritise the accuracy of the models AI systems are trained on, we will see a shift in the New Year on how this process works. Grounding an model in accurate, secure data is extremely important. The better he data the more accurate the responses will be. Developers may synthesise their training data on large language models, and then train the AI system on a small language model.

This will approve the accuracy of the AI system, but as it adds degrees of complexity, it also poses the risk of potential bias or incorrect activity, such as the AI hallucination concept. When AI produces information like it is fact without any data to back it up, it’s a sign that something has gone wrong with the training data. Whilst 2025 will be a big year for the development of training models, businesses need to be aware of how their AI systems are being trained to avoid bias and unethical practice.

Not just a New Year’s Resolution

The huge amount of investment in 2025 is just one of many signs that AI isn’t a fleeting New Year’s Resolution. Companies like OpenAI and Microsoft have made a long-term commitment to investing in AI development, because they know we’re still unlocking its full portfolio of capabilities. Even if they’re not profiting off AI right now, it’s undoubtable that the future is rich. But this isn’t just a game for the big players, small businesses will also be staking their claim by adopting and investing in AI.

With the developments we’ll see next year in automation, robotics, and training data, it’s certain that there’ll be a flurry of businesses who haven’t explored AI yet looking to adopt. To make the most of the new developments, don’t wait until New Year’s Day to get started, reach out to the experts now to help your business get AI ready.

Chris Huntingford is the newly-promoted director of AI at ANS, a digital transformation provider and Microsoft’s UK Services Partner of the Year 2024. Headquartered in Manchester, it offers public and private cloud, security, business applications, low code, and data services to thousands of customers, from enterprise to SMB and public sector organisations.

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Are you on the naughty or nice list for responsible AI adoption?

Over the past year, artificial intelligence (AI) has proved its worth as a long-term investment for businesses. It brings a range of perfectly wrapped presents to the table, making a significant impact on productivity, efficiency, and automation across business functions. With almost 40% of companies worldwide already using AI in some form, it’s undeniable that it has the capability to revolutionise business operations.

For example, Santa’s workshop would benefit from AI adoption in automation of its supply chain orders, faster and more accurate analysis of wish list data, and tracking of items that have made it into his sleigh.

To ensure he makes the most of AI’s benefits, Santa will have brought it on board with ethical guidelines and responsible practices in mind. But have you? Whether you’ve already adopted and want to make sure you’re using AI responsibly, or you’re yet to adopt and are looking to integrate ethical standards into your plan – time’s running out to get onto Santa’s nice list before Christmas.

Getting into the good books with responsible adoption

Adopting AI responsibly isn’t just about avoiding risks, it’s also a way of setting the stage for sustainable growth, efficiency, and innovation. If you jump on the AI bandwagon without building a solid foundation and outlining a clear strategy, a myriad of risks can await your business. Data breaches, ethical challenges, and financial losses are all risks businesses face if they ignore the importance of responsible adoption.

The most effective way of adopting AI to mitigate these risks is a responsible one, and it’s not as easy as plugging in your Christmas lights. Smart and strategic choices are the key to protecting business data and aligning AI initiatives with business goals.

Santa’s top tips for adopting responsibly

Like writing a Christmas shopping list, AI adoption can be too daunting to start for lots of businesses. With so much information out there, where are you meant to start?

The key is pushing fear to the side and making any type of start, even if it’s small. Those who start now and invest in AI will stay ahead of the curve. But like Rudolph and his crew, the AI gap is real, and businesses who don’t get on board now will be left behind. So, what do you need to consider to adopt AI responsibly?

  • Make sure your data shines like a bauble

Squeaky clean data is crucial to getting reliable insights from AI. Getting AI ready means prepping business operations for AI systems to easily slot in, so business data needs to be accurate, void of bias, and ready for action.

The same way you wouldn’t send Santa a disorganised wish list, you wouldn’t give AI messy data. Making sure data is up to date, without errors or duplicates, is critical to ensuring your AI delivers real value. This comes hand-in-hand with assessing your internal resources, and making sure your infrastructure can handle the scale and power of AI demands. More flexible Cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure can help business scale AI cost-effectively.

  • Embrace elf-level organisation

Training is a key part of onboarding AI. Do you think Santa’s elves are expected to wrap presents without being trained first? Preparation for AI use is essential to allowing your employees to understand its benefits and using it effectively.

As it affects every team in the business, not just the IT department, the entire workforce needs to be prepped for AI adoption. Whilst this can seem like a costly task, investing in your people is how AI will create valuable results. Change management is a key component to preparing workforces for the changes you need to adopt AI. Fostering a culture of readiness and continuous compliance is key to ensuring it becomes an asset.

Knowing your business objectives and making sure your AI strategy aligns with and contributes to them is key to maximising its capabilities. Whether improving customer experiences, automating repetitive tasks, or personalising services is your business goal, use AI to drive that strategy.

Prioritising AI applications that solve real problems as well as boosting productivity is key to boosting business growth. Do you need help with recommending products to your customers to increase sales? This is a tangible problem AI can solve for you. Like following a gingerbread recipe, baking a strategic AI plan will produce the best goods.

Santa’s secret weapon – Responsible AI

Long-term success is the outcome of adopting AI through responsible practices and with ethical guidelines in mind. High-quality data aligned business goals, and a prepped workforce are the key to thriving rather than falling behind.

If Santa’s already on board, why aren’t you? After all, it’s how he gets his presents from the North Pole to under your tree.

Get onto the nice list this Christmas – start small, think big, and stay responsible.

Kyle Hill is chief technology officer at ANS, a digital transformation provider and Microsoft’s UK Services Partner of the Year 2024. Headquartered in Manchester, it offers public and private cloud, security, business applications, low code, and data services to thousands of customers, from enterprise to SMB and public sector organisations.

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How AI can help you attract, engage and retain the best talent in 2025

As we move into 2025, the landscape of human resources (HR) is heading for a significant transformation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionise workforce collaboration, efficiency, and talent management.

For HR leaders, harnessing the power of AI will be essential to attract, engage, and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive market.

Enhancing HR performance

AI is reshaping and revamping HR by automating routine and mundane tasks such as interview scheduling, data entry, and CV screenings. This automation allows HR teams to focus on strategic initiatives that add real value to employees, such as developing diverse cultures, offering tailored development programmes, and increasing engagement.

AI-powered analytics can identify workforce trends, predict employee turnover, and suggest to retain top talent. These insights enable HR leaders to make data-driven decisions to support a high-performance culture, ultimately improving employee engagement and organisational performance.

Just look at Unilever, which uses AI to streamline its recruitment process. By using AI-driven assessments and video interview analytics, Unilever has significantly reduced time-to-hire while enhancing the candidate experience. Additionally, AI can streamline performance management by providing continuous feedback and personalised development plans. This shift towards real-time performance management fosters a culture of continuous improvement, where the team receives timely feedback and support to achieve their goals, leading to higher engagement levels and better retention rates.

Talent attraction and retention

As the demand on sourcing talent with scarce skills continues in 2025, attracting top talent needs innovative strategies. AI can play a pivotal role in enhancing the candidate experience. Imagine AI-driven chatbots engaging with candidates in real-time, answering their questions and providing personalised information about the company and the role. This immediate engagement can significantly improve the candidate experience, making the organisation more attractive.

AI can also help create a more inclusive hiring processes by eliminating unconscious biases from recruitment. AI algorithms can analyse job descriptions to ensure they are free from biased language and assess candidates based on objective criteria. This is an incredibly important step to support organisations in attracting and growing a more diverse and inclusive workforce, which is crucial for driving innovation and business success.

Retaining your team is equally important as attracting it. AI can help HR leaders identify early signs of people’s disengagement or dissatisfaction. For instance, AI-powered sentiment analysis can monitor employee communications and flag any negative sentiments, allowing HR and managers to intervene proactively. By addressing issues before they escalate, organisations can improve the satisfaction, happiness and ultimately retention of the team.  

AI can also facilitate personalised employee development. By analysing skills, performance data, and career aspirations, AI can recommend tailored development programmes and career paths for each individual. This personalised approach to development can help people feel valued and supported.

Upskilling your team in the New Year

24% of all workers are worried that AI will soon make their job obsolete. HR leaders have a crucial role in addressing these concerns and ensuring their teams are ready for AI integration. Providing training and the right tools to integrate AI smoothly is essential. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and responsible AI use, HR can drive greater efficiency and empower the entire workforce.

AI is more likely to enhance roles rather than replace them, and HR leaders should embrace AI ethically and transparently. This involves being clear about how AI is used, ensuring data privacy, and maintaining a human touch in all interactions. By doing so, HR can build trust and create a positive environment where AI is seen as a tool for empowerment rather than a threat.

2025 – the future of AI in HR

As we approach 2025 and beyond, the integration of AI in HR will continue to evolve. Future trends may include more sophisticated AI-driven talent management systems, enhanced predictive analytics for workforce planning, and even more personalised employee experiences powered by AI. HR leaders who stay ahead of these trends and continually innovate will be well-positioned to lead their organisations into the future.

Looking to the New Year, AI will play a pivotal role in enhancing HR functions, making them more efficient, strategic, and employee centric. By leveraging AI to attract, engage, and retain top talent, organisations can stay competitive in a rapidly evolving job market. HR leaders who embrace AI responsibly and proactively will be well-positioned to drive their organisations forward, creating workplaces that are both productive and fulfilling for their team.

Toria Walters is chief people officer at ANS, a digital transformation provider and Microsoft’s UK Services Partner of the Year 2024. Headquartered in Manchester, it offers public and private cloud, security, business applications, low code, and data services to thousands of customers, from enterprise to SMB and public sector organisations.

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Schwarz Group partners with Google on EU sovereign cloud

Google has partnered with retail giant Schwarz Group to deliver what the pair claim is truly secure and sovereign cloud-based collaboration for German and European regulated industries.

Through the partnership, Schwarz Group’s StackIT, the cloud provider for the retailer, which operates as an independent company offering sovereign cloud capabilities, will provide client-side encryption of customers’ Google Workspace data.

StackIT said customers’ data will remain resident within the European Union (EU), with full redundancy offered by backups hosted solely in its European datacentres to meet customer demands around data protection, data residency and data resiliency.

“Germany and the EU have until now lacked enterprise-grade cloud collaboration solutions that fully address the sovereignty requirements of regulated industries, including ensuring all data is secured and backed up on local soil with absolutely no opportunity for access by foreign nations or platform providers,” said Rolf Schumann, co-CEO of Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of the Schwarz Group.

“Our partnership and new offering with Google Cloud will fill this gap with an entirely new business model.”

Client-side encryption means Google has no access to customers’ data. According to Schwarz and Google, this safeguards the sovereignty of not only Schwarz Group, but also all customers who value the independence of their operations, giving them full confidence that their data is always in their control.

“This new partnership will enable the companies of Schwarz Group to combine its leadership in digital transformation with Google Cloud’s strengths in productivity, collaboration and security, enabled by our cutting-edge AI,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “Together, we are opening up a world of new, sovereign opportunities for European organisations to innovate and build on our joint solutions, accelerating a new era of innovation.”

Through the partnership, Google Cloud’s security will be integrated with those of XM Cyber, Schwarz Digits’ hybrid cloud security company. This integrated offering will then be distributed to customers via the Google Cloud Marketplace.

According to Google and Schwarz, this integrated security will help German and European organisations, particularly those in highly regulated industries, raise the bar on their enterprise and multi-cloud security. In addition, XM Cyber’s Continuous Exposure Management will be embedded into the sovereign Google Workspace office productivity suite offered to European enterprises.

“This partnership changes the game for regulated industry players in Europe by removing the sovereignty and security concerns that often hold back more ambitious adoption of the cloud for productivity and collaboration,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “Our alliance with companies of Schwarz Group will enable entire industries in Europe to deliver digital innovation with security and compliance at its core.”

Schwarz Group is Europe’s largest retailer, and the fourth-largest in the world. The company plans to transition its global office workforce to Google Workspace. The partnership with Google, according to Schwarz Group, enables critical workplace data to be protected against third-party access including foreign government institutions, and also transferred to alternate service providers if needed.

“Switching to Google Workspace is an important step for us out of legacy and into innovative, efficient and future-proof cloud-based collaboration,” said Christian Müller, Co-CEO of Schwarz Digits. “Google Workspace is the most secure and reliable productivity platform in the industry today, and we expect our organisation-wide migration to have significant flow-on benefits to all areas of operations from simplifying IT management to rendering our point-of-sale workflows significantly more efficient.”

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Nationwide Building Society backs HPE GreenLake for hybrid cloud push

Nationwide Building Society is drawing on HPE’s private cloud capabilities to help deliver on the next phase of its multi-year hybrid cloud strategy.

The company, which has more than 17 million customers in the UK and employs 18,000 people, is in midst of a hybrid cloud-focused digital transformation project, geared towards improving the online experience for its customers.

As previously reported by Computer Weekly, this work, which began in 2018, has seen the firm use public cloud technologies, such as those offered by Amazon Web Services, and embrace the use of DevOps-style software development methodologies within its teams.

The project has also seen Nationwide adopt different cloud technologies based on what is best for that particular type of data or workload, which is why the company is now adding the HPE Greenlake private cloud setup to its supplier mix too.

“Nationwide’s hybrid cloud strategy is vital to our ability to compete and means we can continue to meet the needs and expectations of our customers – HPE GreenLake cloud is a core component of our hybrid cloud strategy,” said Paul Walsh, director of infrastructure and service delivery at Nationwide.

“With them, we’re building a cloud platform that will further improve our resilience and agility, enabling us to provide even better levels of service and deliver new capabilities to our developers faster than ever before.”

Specifically, Nationwide will use HPE GreenLake management services to automate and orchestrate its infrastructure management workloads and deliver infrastructure-as-code, the company said.

“This [will] enable [Nationwide] to focus on innovation, value-add activities and gain better control over application builds and security,” said the company, in a statement. “Faster release cycles will accelerate the time to market, providing consistent customer experiences across all digital platforms.”

The HPE GreenLake cloud setup will also provide Nationwide with an overview of its energy consumption and emissions, so that it can take proactive steps to reduce its environmental footprint, the company added.

Matt Harris, senior vice-president and managing director for the UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa at HPE, said the complexities of the deployment highlight why taking a public cloud-only approach would not work for a company like Nationwide.

“Nationwide’s modernisation journey showcases the effectiveness of HPE GreenLake cloud, with the storied institution transitioning from complex, legacy technology to a modern, future-proofed hybrid cloud operating model where a one-size-fits-all public cloud could never be the only answer,” said Harris.

Nationwide is not the only financial services company tapping into HPE GreenLake to deliver on its hybrid cloud strategy, as Barclays Bank also set out plans in September 2024 to ramp up its use of the technology for that purpose.

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Computer Weekly announces the Most Influential Women in UK Tech 2024

Sheridan Ash, founder and co-CEO of Tech She Can, has become the 13th person to be named Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Woman in UK Tech.

Launched in 2012, the Computer Weekly list of the 50 Most Influential Women in UK Tech started as a list of 25, expanding to 50 in 2015, and now seeing hundreds of nominations each year.

The list was originally created to showcase the amazing women in the technology industry, shining a light on the sector’s role models who may inspire the next generation of women in tech.

As well as the 2024 longlist of more than 700 nominated women, and our list of Rising Stars, there are also new entrants to our Hall of Fame, launched to acknowledge those who have made a lifetime contribution to the UK’s technology sector.

This year’s winner, Sheridan Ash, launched Tech She Can to teach girls and young women about technology careers and subjects to inspire them to choose this path in the future.

Until 2023, Ash led technology innovation at PwC UK, and is currently co-CEO and founder of the charity Tech She Can. She was a board member of the Institute of Coding for four years and, in 2020, received an MBE for services to young girls and women through technology.

Tech She Can is an award-winning charity with more than 240 member organisations, which together work with industry, government and schools to improve the ratio of women in technology roles. It provides initiatives and pathways into tech careers across all the different stages of girls’ and women’s lives.

At PwC, Ash led change in the technology workforce, pioneering initiatives that saw the percentage of women in tech more than double to reach 32%.

Timperley is a freelance consultant and co-founder of Tech North Advocates, a private sector-led collection of tech experts who champion the technology sector in the north of England.

In 2021, she co-founded advisory firm Growth Strategy Innovation, which helps to grow startup and scaleup organisations. She is now innovation director for Oxford Innovation, which helps organisations develop ecosystems for entrepreneurs and innovators, in turn boosting local areas.

Timperley was named a Computer Weekly Women in Tech Rising Star in 2017 when, until 2021, she was a board member of FutureEverything. She previously co-founded Enterprise Lab.

Turner founded Angel Academe, a pro-women and pro-diversity angel investment group focused on technology, and is currently CEO of the group.

Until 2023, Turner was also an advisory board member of tech recruiter Spinks, and in 2007 co-founded consultancy Turner Hopkins, which helps businesses create digital strategies.

Previously, Turner was an external board member and chair of the investment committee for venture capital fund the Low Carbon Innovation Fund and a board member of the UK Business Angels Association, the trade association for early-stage investment.

Hunter founded Coding Black Females in 2017 to help black female software developers meet each other and network. Alongside her work at Coding Black Females, Hunter is a software developer.

She is an advisory board industry representative in the University of Essex Online’s computing department, technical director at SAM Software Solutions, and technical director at full-stack and front-end training organisation Black CodHer Bootcamp.

Previously, Hunter was lead software engineer at Made Tech, and held roles such as senior software developer, lead Java developer, app developer and technical consultant at various firms. She was named a Computer Weekly Women in UK Tech Rising Star in 2020.

Before her time as an MP, Niblett had a long career in technology, having roles such as industry sales leader at DXC Technology and head of alliances, channel and ecosystem in EMEA at 1E.

Now, alongside her role as an MP, she’s founder of the Labour: Women in Tech group, which campaigns to reach equal gender opportunities in the technology industry. She’s also the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on FinTech and the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum (PICTFOR), as well as the chair for the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies and a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.

An entrepreneur and co-founder, Brailsford joined Code First Girls as CEO in 2019, where she works to encourage more women into the tech sector by providing software development skills and education.

Prior to her work at Code First Girls, she co-founded and was CEO of performance management firm Frisbee, which was part of venture capital fund Founders Factory. Until summer 2024, she was was a board member for the Institute of Coding, where she focused specifically on diversity and inclusion. She is also a self-employed commercial and strategy consultant.

As part of her role as partner and head of digital for Europe at Oliver Wyman, O’Neill leads digital transformation and new proposition launches at companies all over the world.

Alongside this, she is also a strategic partner at FutureDotNow, a board trustee for Girlguiding and special adviser to the founder at The Youth Group.

Sillem worked for the Royal Academy of Engineering for 12 years before being appointed its CEO in 2018. Previous roles at the academy include deputy CEO and director of strategy, director of programmes and fellowship, and head of international activities.

As well as her work for the academy, Sillem is a trustee of EngineeringUK and the Foundation for Science and Technology, and CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

Lakhani founded Century Tech as a teaching and learning platform focused on subjects such as artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive neuroscience, big data analytics and blockchain, where she is also CEO.

A frequent public speaker, she has previously been a member of the UK’s AI Council, a board member for the Foundation for Education Development, a board member for Unboxed 2022, and a non-executive director for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

She is a digital patron for Cottesmore School, and has appeared on the BBC’s AI Decoded news segment. She was awarded an OBE in 2014.

Mary McKenna is a huge supporter of entrepreneurship and startups, holding several roles as an adviser and investor. Her social enterprise, AwakenHub, where she is co-founder, is focused on building a community of female founders in Ireland.

As well as being an expert adviser for the European Commission, she is an entrepreneurship expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, and a trustee for CAST, among many other board memberships and non-executive directorships.

Thorne is co-CEO of Tech She Can, a charity aimed at increasing the number of women in the technology sector, as well as a venture partner at Deep Science Ventures and a diversity and inclusion advisory board member for the Institute of Coding.

She has a background in the education sector, previously holding roles as director of innovation strategy for the University of Surrey and executive officer to the vice-president (innovation) at Imperial College London.

Williams is CEO of inclusion campaign FutureDotNow, which aims to ensure people are not left behind by the growing skills gap caused by digital adoption. She is a member of the UK government’s Digital Skills Council, and chair of the Good Things Foundation.

Prior to her current work, Williams spent more than 20 years at BT in a number of different roles, including programme director for sustainable business, director of tech literacy and education programmes, and director of digital society. Until 2024, she was a member of the board of trustees for Transport for London.

With a background in law surrounding telecoms, the internet and media, Wright now uses her expertise as director of not-for-profit The Institute of AI, as well as partner at Harbottle & Lewis, heading up the tech, data and digital group.

She has worked in the tech sector for over 20 years. Her team at Harbottle & Lewis is comprised of 66% female and 66% ethnic minority members.

During 2023, she worked with the OECD, WEF and the ITU to build a reputation in relation to the regulation of AI. She is also working with the Ditchley Foundation, considering whether the collaborative approach in relation to telecoms can work for AI regulation.

In her 30 years at KPMG, Mehta has had many responsibilities, including building the firm’s focus on trade and investment, and helping scaleup clients to access financial support.

She is now chair of the organisation, and in 2022 was awarded an MBE for services to UK trade and investment and supporting female entrepreneurs.

An expert in diversity, inclusion and community building, Farooq co-founded Muslamic Makers in 2016 as a networking group for Muslims in tech, design and development.

As well as a freelance diversity and inclusion consultant, Farooq is a scout for Ada Ventures with special interest in edtech, healthtech and fintech, and until March 2024 was a community manager for Big Society Capital.

She has an extensive background in digital and AI in both the private and public sectors.

Taylor co-founded TechReturners, where she is currently CEO, to give skilled individuals who have had a career break the opportunity to connect with firms and help them back into mid-level to senior-level tech roles.

She is also co-founder of The Confidence Community, which aims to provide resources, training information and events to give people more career confidence. Taylor is co-founder of community WIT North and co-founder of ReframeWIT.

She recently founded community platform Voices in Tech to help connect speakers with event opportunities.

Dawes has headed up Ofcom since 2020 following her previous role as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as many other roles across the Civil Service.

She has previously been a trustee at Patchwork Foundation, which aims to encourage under-represented young people to participate in democracy, and a non-executive director of consumer group Which?.

Award-winning entrepreneur Avril Chester is currently the CTO of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, her most recent in a series of roles heading up technology in organisations. In 2018, she founded technology charity platform Cancer Central to help support people with cancer.

Martin has a history of working as a test consultant at firms such as Barclays, Sony, the UK Home Office, Shazam and Sky, and is currently a startup adviser and founder of her own coaching and consultancy firm.

Prior to this, she was head of quality at Adarga and is currently chair for the BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing, and until January 2023 was the vice-chair of the BCS LGBTQIA+ tech specialist group.

Amanda Brock’s role at OpenUK sees her leading the sustainable and ethical development of open technologies in the UK, including technology such as open source software, hardware and data.

She also sits on the boards of both the Cabinet Office Open Standards Board and US cyber security firm Mimoto, is an advisory board member of several firms, as well as acting as a judge for the CIO 100 Awards.

Moore has been at Apps for Good since 2019, originally as director of education, products and events, then as chief operating officer (COO), before becoming CEO in 2021.

Her career background has been heavily weighted towards education, having been international education programme coordinator for London 2012, and volunteering as governor at the Harris Academy Ockendon and Sixth Form.

Tanaka is currently part of the programme team for All4Health&Care, a community launched during the pandemic to connect digital healthcare providers with the public sector. She is also the head of the CMO Office for NHS Black Country ICB, and is on the community support committee for BCS.

Previously, she has been a fellow, independent audit for AI systems for ForHumanity, and BCS Women membership secretary.

Calista has a history in both technology and the public sector.

Alongside her role at Labour Digital, she is head of policy and public affairs at UK scaleup Vorboss, and she co-founded network Women in Tech Policy.

She volunteers as an adviser for digital citizenship charity Glitch, and is a policy board member for OpenUK.

With experience in cloud at companies such as Salesforce and IBM, Kelisky started her role at Google in 2022 well-equipped with the skills needed to run its cloud division.

Alongside this, Kelisky is on the board of directors for Calnex Solutions, and is a member of the board of directors for the Women in Telecoms and Technology networking group.

Lila Ibrahim became Google DeepMind’s first COO in 2018, looking after teams in disciplines such as engineering, virtual environments, programme management and operations.

Prior to this role, she was COO of online skills platform Coursera, and has also acted at general manager for emerging markets platforms in China at Intel.

Philpot has a background in both sales, and learning and development, which she uses in her role as the vice-president of global sales enablement at Getty Images. She has held various roles both in and outside of sales at many notable firms, such as Shell, Mars and GSK.

As well as being a board member for the TLA Black Women in Tech group, she is a member and speaker for the Sales Enablement Directive.

Hodson has an extensive background in the technology sector, and has had roles such as managing consultant at EY and general manager at Siemens Business Services responsible for public sector, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing.

More recently, she was vice-president for global sales, marketing and operations – field transformation at Microsoft, before becoming chief executive of IBM in UK and Ireland at the beginning of 2023.

She’s also a board member and deputy president of TechUK, and holds several non-executive directorships.

As managing director of Jomas Associates (Engineering & Environmental), Savage specialises in geotechnical and environmental engineering.

She is also passionate about topics such as women in engineering and social mobility, and is on the UK government’s SME Business Council.

With a long history of CEO positions, Kirkby has experience in running companies with a background in telecoms, and in February this year took over as CEO of BT Group. Her past CEO roles have included TDC group, Tele2 and Telia, and she is also a non-executive director of Brookfield asset management.

Barclay has been with Microsoft for more than 10 years, holding several roles including director of SMB, general manager of small and mid-market solutions and partners, COO, and CEO in the UK.

In November 2024, she became president of enterprise and industry for Microsoft in the UK. She is chair of the industrial strategy advisory council for the Department for Business and Trade, volunteers as a board member for the British Heart Foundation and, until recently, was a non-executive director at CBI.

Oniwinde Agoro founded BYP Network in 2016 to help black professionals network and have easier access to jobs, after a trip abroad confirmed the challenges young black people face in getting jobs both in and outside the UK.

Until 2024, she was board trustee for volunteer organisation Getting On Board, and has received several awards and accolades, including Forbes 30 Under 30 and Financial Times Top 100 BAME Leaders in Technology.

Wallace heads up diversity and inclusion, partnerships and people change at Sky, and one of her focuses in this role is designing and delivering the people strategy for technology within the firm.

Outside of this, Wallace was a member of the advisory board for recently disbanded Tech Talent Charter, and volunteers as a cub and scout assistant.

Scullion is a serial founder, having founded dressCode, a not-for-profit that encourages young women in Scotland to consider a career in computer science, and co-founded the Ada Scotland Festival, which aims to use collaboration to close the gender gap in computer science education in Scotland.

These endeavours stem from her being a computer science teacher passionate about encouraging more children to take the subject. Alongside this work, she is a volunteer for the Scottish Tech Army, a not-for-profit aimed at using tech for good.

Earlier this year, Tulip took on the role of chief growth officer at software engineering consultancy Conquer Technology. In 2018, she co-founded community-led initiative Women In Leeds Digital, which encourages and helps minority groups to consider a career in technology.

Tulip is also chair of the regional productivity forum in Yorkshire, Humberside and the North East for the Productivity Institute, ambassador for Leeds as a digital city at Leeds City Council, and managing director at &Then Consulting.

Moore co-founded data analytics and AI firm Panintelligence in 2010 with the aim of helping firms properly organise their data to more easily adopt AI. She became CEO in 2018.

Alongside this, Moore also founded low-code tech community No Code Lab and gender equality community Lean In Leeds. As well as a position as chair for Lifted Ventures, Moore is an Ada Angel for inclusive venture firm Ada Ventures.

As global director of identity at Sky, Moore is responsible for leading the firm’s identity management projects. Prior to this, she held several roles as a project manager, and was previously the head of infotainment group technology for Vodafone.

As well as being a member of the board for Tech Talent Charter, she is the co-founder of female tech leaders community Lift as we Climb.

Maria Axente is the head of AI public policy and ethics at PwC in the UK, where she combines her skills in analytics and ethical AI policy development to ensure AI is developed with humans in mind.

Previously, she was the artificial intelligence and AI-for-good lead at the firm, responsible for advising clients on responsible use of AI, and ensuring ethical development of PwC AI operations, products and services.

She’s a vice-chair for the data, analytics and AI leadership committee at TechUK, and in the past she has been an advisory board member for the APPG for AI, and adviser for the PHI for Augmented Intelligence.

As CEO of Nash Squared, White heads up the global firm which provides IT recruitment, technology solutions and leadership services out of 36 offices across the world.

White has a long background in the tech sector, having previously held roles as CIO and director of IT, as well as completing a degree in computer science.

Bentinck was named a Computer Weekly Rising Star in 2014, and has co-founded several organisations, including Entrepreneur First, a firm that supports European technology startups, and not-for-profit coding training programme Code First Girls.

She is on the Computer Science Department Industrial Liaison Board for Imperial College London, is a board trustee for Generation and is the author of startup business book How to be a founder.

Hirt joined Innovate Finance in 2015 as the industry body’s head of community, before eventually becoming its CEO six years later. She now heads up the organisation, aiming to drive innovation and transformation in the fintech sector to make it more inclusive.

She has worked around the world in a variety of roles, including acting head of corporate relations for Chatham House in the UK, head of membership for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, and head new hire trainer for an English language training programme in Japan.

Davis is the co-founder of diversity career platform Diversifying, and founder and CEO of recruitment organisation BAME Recruitment and Consulting.

She is chair of the board of directors for Pop Up Projects and a board trustee for charity Over the Wall, both aimed at changing young people’s lives for the better.

Davis has previously held roles in talent acquisition in the STEM sector, at telecoms firm BT, and as part of a short-term project at an aerospace, aviation, F1 and motorsport organisation.

The first female to head up GCHQ, Keast-Butler moved into the director role last year after serving as deputy director general of MI5. With a long career in security and defence, her previous roles have included overseeing the upkeep of functions that support MI5’s operational activities and the launch of the UK’s National Cyber Security Programme.

As well as her work as senior EUC engineer, infrastructure and cloud engineering at the London Stock Exchange Group, Opong is a freelancer and STEM adviser and a board trustee for The Blair Project Foundation.

Until recently, she was part of the City of London Corporation volunteer advisory group for equality, diversity and inclusion, and was previously an advisory board member for Neurodiversity in Business, and a mentor at the TechUp mentor programme for Durham University.

Opong was a contributor for Voices in the shadows, the book of black female role models created by the 2022 Computer Weekly Most Influential Woman in UK Tech, Flavilla Fongang.

Munby has a long history of working in government, and became permanent secretary leading the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in February 2023.

She has also been partner, leader of strategy and corporate finance practice in UK and Ireland at McKinsey & Company, where she led the firm’s work on productivity across the UK economy.

Crosswell is managing director of consulting firm Exadin, as well as chair for the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology. She holds several other non-executive directorships in firms such as Freemarket and the Centre for Policy Studies. In 2021, she received an OBE for services to the financial services sector.

Graham has been the CEO of not-for-profit the ScaleUp Institute since 2015, and has an OBE for services to UK business and economy.

As well as being a visiting professor of entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University, Graham holds various non-executive and advisory roles.

As CEO of Salesforce in the UK and Ireland, Bahrololoumi is responsible for the workforce in these regions across all industries and functions, and is particularly focused on ensuring its customers are ready for digital transformation.

She sits on several boards, including for Seeing Is Believing Coventry Place, Movement to Work and Cancer Research UK Corporate Partnerships, and is an independent non-executive director on the TSB board.

In 2023, she was awarded a CBE for services to the information technology sector.

Naming the technology sector her “familiar territory”, Gardner has an extensive background in the technology sector, having held roles such as first line support at Fujitsu, senior supply chain administrator at Technicolor and project manager at the BBC as a member of the BBC’s Design and Technology Business Management Unit HQ Team.

Now, she’s a business operations analyst as part of the technology arm of News UK, and is a board trustee of food and hygiene bank Necessities UK.

Cardell has been at the Competition and Markets Authority since 2013, first as general counsel, then as interim CEO, and now as CEO.

Prior to her time at the Competition and Markets Authority, she was a legal partner for the markets division of energy markets authority Ofgem, and in her early career spent 11 years at law firm Slaughter and May, working her way from trainee solicitor to partner.

Sinel founded Teens in AI and Acorn Aspirations to help young people who want to solve real-world problems using technology such as AI, virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

She has won awards for her work, including CogX 2017 Award in Using AI for Social Good Projects, and is currently an education taskforce committee member for the All Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, and a business mentor at Microsoft for Startups.

Before working on Acorn Associates and Teens in AI, Sinel was a consultant for several firms, including the British Council, NGOs, Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Ethiopian Cultural Heritage Project. 

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