Rimma Perelmuter

AI for Services 2025: Unlocking Future Innovation Opportunities in UK Professional & Financial Services | prepared by Whitecap Consulting in collaboration with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council This report presents a strategic roadmap for harnessing artificial intelligence to drive innovation, #competitiveness, and #productivity in #theUnitedKingdom’s professional and #financialservicessectors. Developed through the Next Generation Professional & Financial Services Programme, and backed by Whitecap Consulting, UKRI, and ESRC, the study evaluates the sector’s readiness to adopt #AI, the #opportunities it presents, and the systemic barriers that must be addressed to fully leverage its transformative potential. The report identifies that AI adoption across the UK’s £240 billion professional and financial services sector is uneven but accelerating. Surveying over 500 #firms, it finds that while 63% of large institutions have implemented #AI solutions for #riskmanagement, #compliance, or #customerservice, only 28% of #SMEs report active experimentation—highlighting a stark innovation gap. Key areas of opportunity include automated document processing, algorithmic compliance monitoring, real-time #frauddetection, and the augmentation of professional advisory roles. The report also projects that targeted AI adoption could unlock up to £20 billion in productivity gains over the next decade, contingent on strategic investment in digital infrastructure, workforce upskilling, and ethical governance. Importantly, the analysis reveals a growing consensus around the need for sector-specific AI standards and collaborative ecosystems to foster trust and interoperability. In conclusion, AI for Services 2025 frames #artificialintelligence not simply as a technological tool, but as a foundational enabler of long-term resilience and global competitiveness for the UK’s knowledge-intensive service economy. The report calls for coordinated policy action, increased public-private R\&D investment, and a sector-wide commitment to inclusive innovation to ensure that AI capabilities are diffused equitably and responsibly across all segments of the professional and #financialservices landscape.

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NEWS: Jadu partners with London Borough of Hillingdon to deliver AI enbaled digital self-service. "This move places Hillingdon at the forefront of local government innovation, using modern tools to design services that are accessible, integrated, and proactive. From digital payments to case automation and developer enablement, the council is investing in capability, not just technology." https://lnkd.in/eYyNBZpn #localgov #digital #selfservice #ai #jadu

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Had a quick chat with Charlie Taylor in The Business Post, alongside Abeba Birhane, Sean Blanchfield and Alan Smeaton, on whether the public can trust AI firms. There's no shortage of hot takes out there on the hypothetical or existential risks - not least from Sam Altman et al themselves - but it is vital to distinguish the hypothetical from the real (i.e. things for which we have evidence) and focus accordingly (be more Karen Hao, in short!) There is a time and a place for naval gazing to be sure, but the impacts of AI on capitalism, power and labour displacement are very real.

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This week’s AI policy update. First, new views: advancing the UK’s leadership on frontier AI governance This week, Imogen Stead, AI policy manager, and Jess Whittlestone, senior adviser, both at the Centre for Long-Term Resilience, published their thoughts on the UK’s role in global AI governance. In the piece, Imogen and Jess argue that the UK has significant AI soft power, particularly in frontier AI safety and security, which can be used to strengthen and differentiate its voice in the international AI conversation. Aiming to move the policy conversation beyond either regulatory standard-setting or AI investment power, they set out three additional pathways to impact for the UK. These include: strengthening AISI’s international engagement, advancing international alignment on risks and mitigations, and influencing the behaviour of frontier companies. It’s an excellent, thoughtful article well worth reading. See Imogen’s post for more here: https://lnkd.in/e2ZuxaNu? and link to the full piece in comments. Next, highlights: UK AI policy Diego D., Head of AI policy at HM Treasury, has shared a few key takeaways from a busy year in AI policy. In his post, he highlights: - Procurement reforms so the UK government can buy British AI - A wider entrepreneurship and innovation package to help companies scale and stay in the UK - Alongside this, the launch of four new AI Growth Zones this year and a new AI strategy for science, backed by £137m, to accelerate AI adoption in R&D See Diego’s insightful post for a summary of the announcements made over the last year here: https://lnkd.in/eTbFqq4j? Last, if you don’t already follow: Rachel Adams Rachel, the author of the excellent book The New Empire of AI, has launched a new Substack, Fragile World. In the Substack, Rachel asks what work we need to do to translate AI's potential to solve intractable problems like disease into tangible change. It’s an ambitious and challenging topic, which Rachel points out, is often hindered by treating the question as a technical rather than a political problem. For anyone interested in AI’s impact on justice and global inequality, it will become an essential space for dialogue and debate. See Rachel’s latest post here: https://lnkd.in/e3Xv_Ki8?, and the link to her new Substack is in the comments. That wraps up my AI policy updates for this year. See you in January 2026. 

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𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱? 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘁. This Wednesday I'll be speaking at Joining Forces for Blockchain Standardisation — organized by INATBA - International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications and the European Commission 🇪🇺 📅 18 March 2026 | Online | Free registration 👉 [https://lnkd.in/edqvbEaM] I'm joining three sessions: 🔹 AI × Blockchain for Auditability & Provenance (10:40–11:20) With David A. (CSIC), Joseph Karis (Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation (CYS)), Gabi U. (Halborn) and Alastair Marke (Blockchain & Climate Institute) 🔹 Innovation Management (13:40–14:20) With Belen Suarez Lopez — Chair of the INATBA - International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications Board (ISO - International Organization for Standardization, CEN and CENELEC), Johan CLAIRE — Chair ISO TC 279, Cesara Pasini (CEN TC 389, ISO TC 279) and Zakaryae BOUDI (Tokenized Economies Institute) 🔚 Closing Keynote (16:50–17:00) With Christiana Aristidou and ismael arribas The question I keep coming back to: we're deploying AI at scale — but who is accountable for what it produces, and how do we prove it? Blockchain doesn't solve AI. But it provides something AI urgently needs: an immutable, auditable trail of data provenance. Getting that to work at scale requires standards. That's exactly what this event is about — aligning ISO TC307, CEN-CENELEC and the EU regulatory stack (AI Act, Data Act, eIDAS 2). From Alastria Blockchain Ecosystem and ISBE - Infraestructura de Servicios Blockchain de España, we've been building the infrastructure to make this real in Spain and across Europe. See you Wednesday 👇 👉 Register: [https://lnkd.in/edqvbEaM] #BlockchainStandards #AIxBlockchain #Auditability #INATBA #EuropeanCommission #Alastria #ISBE

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I am delighted to share that that The British Library has selected Preservica as their #DigitalPreservation Repository, a key component of their modern Digital Library strategy.  The British Library's digital collection is unique for both its massive scale and diversity, spanning millions of digitized books, sound recordings, newspapers, manuscripts, patents, and 3D models. This Digital Preservation Respository serves as an invaluable resource to support high-scale research, democratizing public access to the UK's national heritage, as well as supporting other UK Legal Deposit Libraries to preserve millions of digital books and journals. We are honored to be supporting the The British Library on this long-term commitment to their vital digital collections, ensuring sustainability, security and long-term viability for generations to come.

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