Britain's tech industry should adopt a pragmatic approach to Sovereign AI that actively backs British AI businesses, giving them clearer routes to scale, win contracts and compete internationally, while retaining control over critical capabilities, according to the head of the UK's AI trade body.
Speaking after a parliamentary roundtable at the House of Lords, Tim Flagg, Chief Executive of UKAI, said the UK's competitive advantage lies in pairing strong domestic capability with openness: ensuring UK firms are not locked out of their own market, while remaining deeply integrated into global AI supply chains.
The UK's competitive advantage lies in pairing strong domestic capability with openness. We need to ensure UK firms are not locked out of their own market, while remaining deeply integrated into global AI supply chains.
Tim Flagg, Chief Executive of UKAI
The roundtable, hosted by Lord Clement-Jones, brought together policymakers, industry leaders, academics and investors to examine what sovereign AI should mean in practice, from data and compute infrastructure to procurement, skills and governance.
Rather than trying to compete on scale, or build self-sufficiency, participants agreed that sovereignty should be defined by control and resilience: ensuring that critical AI systems, data and services cannot simply be switched off, compromised or made inaccessible due to external dependencies.
