Safely harnessing the power of AI to drive sustainable economic growth

Key insights

• Effective use of AI could generate additional growth of around 3.4 percentage points, equivalent to £490bn added economic outputs, but realising this potential depends on building public trust through clear accountability, robust assurance frameworks, and specialist regulatory capacity that currently does not exist at scale. 
• The UK's established approach to goal-based regulation – proactive and enabling rather than reactive – positions it to lead globally in creating a trustworthy AI ecosystem, but only if supported by sustained investment in cross-sector skills and institutional capability. 
• A distributed National Institute for Safe AI, clustering expertise from across the UK rather than centralising it, could provide the sector-agnostic tools, tailored regulatory guidance, and professional development needed to assure safety while unlocking economic growth.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our critical national infrastructure presents the UK with a profound challenge and a generational opportunity.  Working at the intersection of AI and safety assurance, I see daily the immense potential of AI to enhance performance and efficiency across energy, transport, healthcare, and many other sectors. More specifically, a recent report by the University of York with Quacquarelli Symonds and Public First shows that effective use of AI could generate additional growth of around 3.4 percentage points - equivalent to £490BN. Yet this promise is threatened by skills shortages, together with risks from the use of AI that could erode public trust and threaten our collective safety. Thus, the question is not if we adopt AI, but how we do so responsibly and safely.

This includes using AI to augment, rather than replace, human capabilities as noted in the above report. The report also identifies 1,400 occupations that underpin the eight growth sectors in the National Industrial Strategy, noting that 80% of these require at least degree-level qualifications. Thus, delivering growth requires a continued focus on tertiary education, but it also requires building genuine trust in technology developers, regulators, and the public – which, in turn, requires clear accountability and a framework for assurance. Here, perhaps the biggest gap we face is the lack of specialist regulatory capacity to address the concerns posed by AI – a deficit that is already slowing safe adoption and could allow deployment without the necessary risk controls. And that is my focus here.

Reframing Safety, Embracing Partnerships 

Safety must be reframed from a compliance burden into a competitive advantage. This requires a fundamental shift in mindset, one rooted in cross-sector partnerships that are not just performative but foundational. To bridge the gap between the challenges of AI and the need for actionable governance, we must fully embrace the triple helix model – a dynamic and deep collaboration between government, industry, and academia – but also draw in civil society as AI-based systems must ultimately serve the public good.

The UK’s long-established approach to goal-based regulation – pioneered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and now codified in the new Autonomous Vehicles Act, for example – is the perfect foundation for this. Supporting the goal-based approach will benefit the UK by creating a proactive, enabling, and trustworthy AI ecosystem, which will enhance the delivery of the National Industrial Strategy across all eight growth sectors and ultimately support economic growth. Further, AI has a global impact, and the greatest benefits would come from putting the UK in a position to both influence and harmonise approaches internationally.

A National Strategy Built on Clustered Expertise: The National Institute for Safe AI

I believe that a key enabler of achieving the benefits of AI is establishing a National Institute for Safe AI. This Institute would be specifically tasked with focusing on ‘practical AI’ systems and their impact on critical national infrastructure, acting as a vital complement to the AI Security Institute (AISI).

Crucially, this Institute must not be a single monolithic entity, but a hub that actively clusters strengths from different regions of the UK to create a unified national capability. Practically, it would need to provide resources, thought leadership, and credibility in safety assurance and verification. To be successful, the Institute would require partnerships with a range of bodies, e.g., universities and key non-governmental organisations, to address the full spectrum of risks and develop an integrated approach to identifying potential solutions.

So, as the saying goes, ‘my starter for ten’ on framing the Institute’s priorities would include:

• Sector-Agnostic Innovation: Developing common methods for assessing safety and resilience and creating UK-owned tooling to provide assurance as a service.
• Sector-Specific Adaptation: Providing tailored guidance for regulators across a range of domains, initially transport, energy, and health, due to their importance and the level of activity in these domains.
• Education and Mentoring: Delivering continuous professional development, supporting secondments, and cultivating the necessary skills across regulators and industry.

This investment is urgent. AI is already impacting our infrastructure, regulators are appealing for help, and industry is seeking more rapid evolution of regulatory frameworks. The potential risks – from autonomous vehicle fatalities to UK Air Traffic Control outages to misdiagnosis or mistreatment of patients – are all too credible, and the cost of inaction is enormous, as it will hinder the beneficial adoption of AI. Exploring collaborative models, such as a National Institute, is a timely and definitive step needed to ensure the safety and resilience of the UK’s critical infrastructure while facilitating much-needed economic growth.

This thought leadership article is part of WIG's Members' Perspective series, featuring real-world insights and examples of how our members from business, government and civil society are tackling shared policy challenges through cross-sector collaboration for the UK's long-term economic growth and prosperity. 

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