Britain’s tech industry should adopt a pragmatic approach to sovereign AI that actively backs the country’s AI businesses, 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 (pictured), 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.
He is calling for clearer routes to scale, win contracts and compete internationally, while retaining control over critical capabilities and continuing to work with global technology partners.
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.
The discussion highlighted the UK’s opportunity to chart a distinctive path on AI, one that avoids replicating the hyperscale model or overly rigid regulatory approaches, and instead builds on British strengths in research, trusted institutions, open innovation, regulation, standards and ethical governance.
However, the group also warned of a growing gap between ambition and delivery. In particular, risk-averse procurement practices and default reliance on overseas providers were seen as unintentionally sidelining UK capability, limiting scale-up opportunities for British AI companies and weakening long-term national resilience.
Participants emphasised the need for pragmatism: focusing on smart technical and policy choices, including efficient and open models, secure and low-carbon compute, trusted data access, and governance frameworks that embed privacy and safety by design.
Above all, there was consensus that sovereign AI will only succeed if the fundamentals are addressed: investment, skills embedded in decision-making, credible pathways for UK companies to scale, and sustained attention to data, infrastructure and power.
“Sovereign AI is no longer an abstract idea about owning everything end to end, it’s about whether the UK retains real control over the AI systems it depends on, ensuring they are both resilient and secure,” said Flagg.
“What came through clearly was the opportunity to support British businesses to build and scale homegrown solutions, not competing on scale, but delivering innovation. The UK can lead in building a more responsible AI, collaborating with global partners who share our principles to build services that consumers can trust.”
The roundtable forms part of UKAI’s ongoing work to develop recommendations for the Government on responsible and competitive British AI, positioning the UK as a global benchmark for responsible AI sovereignty that combines innovation, trust and democratic accountability.
Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at Check Point Software, said: “The insatiable demand for AI adoption brings with it huge opportunities, but also substantial cyber risks. That’s why it’s vital that the UK’s sovereign AI strategy must have security protocols built in by design rather than as an afterthought.
“There’s no doubt that AI will be key to unlocking economic growth, but this can only happen with the right guardrails in place to prevent data leakage and hackers from compromising systems.”
Dmitry Tikhomirov, VP, technology solutions at EPAM, said: “The race for widespread AI adoption is underway, yet many businesses still lack a cohesive plan for effective implementation of this crucial technology.
“Becoming AI-native is about much more than one-off projects, it’s about developing clear goals for improving every aspect of the organisation, from the back office to front facing customer services. It also requires business leaders to work with technology experts, so that deployments are aligned with key goals, including driving efficiencies and improving operations for the long term.”
Raj Abrol, CEO, Galytix, said: “Britain is home to some of the world’s finest AI talent, with the next generation of UK scale-ups set to dominate the global market. Home-grown AI is also crucial for turbocharging the country’s economy, creating jobs and opportunities for businesses to thrive by harnessing agentic AI capabilities to compete with larger global players.
“In an increasingly complex world, with rising risk and ever-changing regulations, the technology is also crucial for empowering smarter decision-making, supporting strategic risk-management in the banking sector.”
‘Beggars belief’: Budget accessed 25,000 times before publication