Explore every episode of the podcast AI in the UK

In a break from the regular schedule, Niels Footman grills co-host Matt Wilkinson about his new book, The Buyer in the Loop.

Matt discusses how buyer personas, which could traditionally only offer a snapshot in time, are made into dynamic, responsive personalities with the infusion of AI.

How do they work? Do they really improve sales results? And, as elsewhere, are we in danger of offloading our marketing thinking to AI tools?

Matt answers all these questions and more. Plus the usual round-up of the week's UK AI stories in Quick Hits.

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• The UK government gets serious about domestic AI procurement, just as one of UK AI’s leading lights gets poached by Anthropic. What does this mean for UK AI?

• While a leading UK think tank notes an increasing loss of control of AI agents, OpenAI reportedly makes it harder to track what AI agents are doing. Just what is going on?

Plus all the week's quick UK AI hits...

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Hot on the heels of OpenAI, Anthropic and the AISI, among others, reporting rogue agents, the National Cyber Security Centre has rushed out safety guidance for UK companies looking to use AI agents. Is now the time to get really worried?
• Developers in the UK are planning to build their own gas-fired generators to power two huge data centres. Could this be the real environmental cost of the rush to build out our data infrastructure?

Plus all the latest quick hits for the week...

This week, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• Some of the UK's biggest data centres are taking shape in Scotland with the government providing 80% debt guarantees. Do the sums, and environmental concerns, add up?

• The Medical Research Council has announced a new AI-backed research facility in Cambridge that promises to help speed up the drug validation process. But the big prizes may have already slipped away.

Plus all the week's other UK AI news...

On this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• In a major shake-up, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis has stepped back from his CEO role at Google DeepMind to become Google's chief scientist. What's really powered this move? And what does it mean for London's fabled "Knowledge Quarter"?
• Armed with a potentially disruptive technology - but not, yet, any products - UK startup Olix has raised £230m in its latest funding round. What chance does this promising AI chip company have?

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Hot on the heels of OpenAI and Anthropic revealing major security breaches by their agents, the UK’s AI Security Institute announced a rogue agent of its own. How concerned should we be?

• NScale, the UK’s aspiring data centre champion, has raided Silicon Valley to acquire a machine-learning software platform. Will it create a full-stack AI behemoth?

In moves that have both confounded and delighted the tech industry, Andy Burnham has made the AI minister a Cabinet role (and kept Kanishka Narayan in place) while abolishing the department tasked with driving the government's AI policies.

Just what is going on?

And CuspAI, an AI-powered "search engine for materials", has landed a £334m series B funding round. A ringing endorsement of the UK's push towards "applied AI"? Or an inflated bet on an untested business model?

Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss these issues and the other big stories in UK AI this week...

This week, Matt and Niels talk to Chris Jeyes, a criminal barrister of more than 20 years standing and now the founder of Lextrapolate, an AI training, governance and strategy consultancy for the legal profession.

We discuss:

- How AI is changing the legal landscape already

- Why lawyers keep using "hallucinated" research

- How aspiring lawyers can learn the ropes in the age of AI

- How a business built on the billable hour is preparing for the future

On this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• UK tech investment enjoyed its strongest start to the year for four years, with AI accounting for nearly three-quarters of VC funding. How can the UK sustain this level of success?

• As Rachel Reeves pushes the financial sector to make AI training mandatory, we ask: why is there such a big gap between the UK’s cutting-edge AI development and enterprise adoption?

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• The UK government's defence review has earmarked £5bn for the development of autonomous drones. Just how big a deal is this?
• How much water do UK data centres actually use? We dig into a complex and opaque issue feeding an increasingly polarised debate.

In this week's episode, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• The UK is set to get its seventh PM in 10 years. Just how is AI policy likely to change under an Andy Burnham government?

• Demand for AI specialists is surging in the UK, with half of London companies saying they lack the requisite expertise. But even if they can find them, do UK firms know how to deploy AI specialists?

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• New studies show that Brits are fast AI adopters but profound agentic sceptics. Meanwhile, 50% of productivity gains are lost to "botsitting". How can we make sense of it all?
• The US government's ban of Anthropic's Fable 5 sent shockwaves around the AI world. What does it mean for the UK specifically?

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• The government hosted its first AI Adoption Summit on Monday and the future of work was at the top of the agenda. Amid major job cuts and ambitious upskilling schemes, what might the future hold for jobs in the UK?
• One of the UK’s top science integrity researchers says AI is producing fake science on an industrial scale. Hyperbole? Or a long overdue wake-up call? 

Plus, all the week's latest AI news from the UK...

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Yet more DeepMind alumni score major funding rounds for AI startups. But what exactly do Inherent and Orbital do?
• A key advertising body predicts UK spend on agentic advertising will balloon to £18bn by 2030. Do these punchy predictions hold up?
• And with UK banks denied advance access to Anthropic's Mythos model, OpenAI steps in to the breach. How important is the Anthropic snub?

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Three+ years into the AI revolution and UK law firms are still getting tripped up by hallucinations. Why is this still happening?

• Sit down for this one: a new report from the Ada Lovelace Institute says that much ballyhooed predictions of AI-driven public sector efficiencies aren’t going to plan. Are the humans or the AI to blame?

• One UK security agency says we aren’t ready for agentic AI, while another announces plans to deploy it. It's more sensible than it sounds...

In this week's episode, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• The UK blows past its datacentre energy forecasts and the threshold at which resistance and regulation kick in. Trouble ahead?
• Touting AI as a workforce multiplier, AI literacy giant Multiverse hits a $2.1bn valuation. How convincing is its pitch?
• DeepMind spin-off Isomorphic Labs raises $2bn in latest funding round. British success story or another loss to global giants?

On this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman sit down with Keith Swain, Managing Director of Solveway Apprenticeships, one of the first providers authorised to deliver the government's new Level 5 AI Leadership units.

We discuss:

• What the 30-hour levy-funded modules actually cover — and what they leave out
• The shadow AI problem: why governance training matters when staff are already using tools their employers haven't sanctioned
• What SME leaders are really asking for, and whether the programme delivers it
• Why the people already inside your business may be your best AI resource

On this week's AI in the UK, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Are AIs with warm personalities more prone to peddling misinformation? A leading UK research institute think so...

• The fallout from Mythos continues to hit the UK, but the NHS and financial services are seeing very different risks

• Almost 50% of London workers could see some of their tasks automated, according to a new report. But just how alarming is this really?

In this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• A DeepMind cofounder has landed a $1bn seed round for his London start-up. Could Ineffable AI propel the UK to the frontier AI big leagues?
• Ex-PM Rishi Sunak has seen the AI future — and it doesn't involve National Insurance contributions.
• Can UK data centres achieve lift-off through NScale and BT?

In this week's AI in the UK, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• Anthropic has produced a model apparently so fearsome, the Bank of England governor cited it as a security risk in a recent speech. How real is the threat to the UK?
• OpenAI walks away from a multi-billion pound UK data centre, then signs a London office lease (as, incidentally, does Anthropic) just days later. So for frontier AI, is the UK pivotal or peripheral?
• A Bristol startup discovers that selling an AI as a woman who'll never ask for a raise is not, in fact, the marketing win of 2026.

In this week's episode, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• UK pension funds finally back a British AI company, just as the government quietly cuts the tax relief that funds startups in the first place
• OpenAI freezes its UK data centre investment. Meanwhile, the government casts come hither eyes at Anthropic. Is that a strategy or a consolation prize?
• Oxford researchers built an AI that spots heart failure five years before it happens — by seeing something the human eye physically cannot

In this week's episode, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• In the UK and around the world, a growing number of cases appear to show clear mental health risks associated with the use of AI bots. But is AI actually inducing mental health issues or merely exposing them where they already existed?

• School teachers in England are voicing growing concern about AI use by pupils – while increasingly using it themselves. How can AI’s huge potential be used to benefit our teachers, students and education system?

In this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Eight months into a showcase partnership with OpenAI, the government reveals it has undertaken "zero" joint projects so far. Who's to blame?
• AI disinformation is a central factor in ever more "crisis events". Can our regulators finally get past the consultative stage and implement robust measures?
• The Financial Conduct Authority has awarded a three-month trial to US firm Palantir to analyse vast swathes of UK financial data. Cause for concern or smart adoption in a sector in urgent need of better fraud-detection tools?

In this week's edition, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• The UK government wants to fast-track national grid connections for AI datacentres. Sensible strategic move or misuse of public resources?
• Can Rachel Reeves’ new sovereign AI fund keep UK AI companies in British hands? (And does it matter?)
• With online fraud hitting record levels in the UK, do we need an entirely new paradigm in the age of AI?

On this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Nscale, a fast-growing UK-based AI infrastructure firm, has bagged $2bn in a series C funding round. But are its achievements justifying the hype?

• The UK is attempting to tackle some of the AI talent gap – are regional hubs and voluntary charters the answer?

• Backed by the UK’s National Wealth Fund, AI self-driving software firm Oxa has raised $100m. Can this long-promising tech finally deliver on its potential?

In this week's episode, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• The UK legislative battle over using copyrighted content to train AI models is heating up. But with frontier model research depending so heavily on data mining, how much can the UK really defend copyright?
• OpenAI has chosen London to be its biggest research centre outside the US. A big leap for British AI or just window dressing?
• Three announcements suggest Britain is building its own AI-powered biology cluster. Can the UK turn its academic brilliance into major commercial success?

This week, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• OpenAI and Microsoft are the latest big names to support international research by the UK's AI Safety Institute. But in the grand, multi-billion-dollar scheme of things, how much does their work matter?
• New research shows that just 16% of UK businesses are using at least one AI technology. Huge wake-up call or a misreading of what's actually going on?
• UK autonomous vehicle pioneer Wayve's new funding round takes valuation to more than $8bn. Can it triumph in London's coming driverless taxi wars?

On this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Significant funding for three UK startups suggests a future where “physical world” AI solves problems that LLMs can’t. But have we been here before?

• One of the UK’s most brilliant AI minds nears a $1bn funding round for his “superintelligence” startup. Could this catapult the UK into the ranks of the frontier AI nations?

• Drawing on experience forged during the dark days of Covid, two UK data scientists are plotting a path for the future of synthetic data. But how much real insight can this actually generate?

On this week's episode, AI consultants Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Big Brother Watch strikes a blow for civil liberties in the UK, as the campaigning organisation wins a case against the Met’s use of AI facial recognition technology.

• The UK takes further steps towards cementing its reputation as a global centre of AI safety. But does it have the scale – and the moxie – to solve tomorrow's problems?

• And ElevenLabs becomes the UK’s most valuable AI firm with an £8.6bn valuation. What chance a UK IPO?

On this week's show, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• The UK’s AI minister has been very visible on social media this week, talking of "vibe shifts" and extolling a 75% success rate in the government’s AI action plan. With its talk of upskilling 10m UK workers and punchy-sounding investments, we ask: is the AI action plan really all that?

• A new NHS initiative offers the hope of big improvements in lung cancer treatment – but could it all be undone by bias?

• A new funding round has lifted the value of AI-powered video-generation company Synthesia to $4bn. A rousing UK success story or a missed opportunity to exit?

In this week's show, Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

• Financial regulators are comfortable with AI rules but parliamentarians disagree. Who's right?
• From restoring speech to faking intimacy, UK innovators are taking very different approaches to AI.
• As UK leaders present very different visions of the future of work in the age of AI, how prepared are we for what's next?

This week, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• In the latest installment of “what were they thinking?”, an AI hallucinated football match costs a chief constable his job.

• While Silicon Valley optimises for confidence, Cambridge is engineering doubt — and regulators may prefer it.

• Forget chatbots — the UK is quietly betting that the real AI money is in mud, microbes and manufacturing.

This week, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• UK AI firm Faculty lands a $1bn exit. Great news for the founders — but how positive is it for UK tech?
• UK CFOs are suddenly bullish on AI. What’s driving the change in mood?
• In Cambridge, primary school lessons on training AI models raise concerns about a new digital divide.
• Facing mounting AI uncertainty, the Law Society calls for clearer regulatory guidance.
• Ofcom launches an urgent inquiry into Grok-generated sexual images on X. But if push came to shove, what could the regulator do?
• Can AI help HMRC close the £40bn tax gap without alienating the UK’s army of sole traders?

In this, the very first episode of 2026, Niels Footman and Matt Wilkinson discuss:

• UK tech investment had a solid year, with AI notably buoyant. But is funding now only for the tiny or the huge?

• NHS trusts are using AI to forecast A&E pressure this winter. Can AI prevail over the NHS's formidable capacity bottlenecks?

• By a North Korean margin, UK creatives have rejected the government's proposed AI copyright opt-out. What now for intellectual property?

• One in three UK adults say they are using AI for emotional support. The potential benefits could be huge — but so are the dangers.

• Stars in their AIs: celebrities including Daniel Kaluuya, Jack Whitehall and Maya Jama have started an investment fund whose focus includes AI startups.

As one of our presenters reflects on an enormous life change, we discuss:

- Two chunky funding rounds for UK AI startups hint at a more assertive role for the British Business Bank.

- The UK Research Institute announces plans to shower £12bn of investment over strategic sectors — including AI and video games — over the next four years. But should the government be in the business of picking national champions?

- As DeepMind broadens its partnership with the UK government, might there be lessons for other foreign-owned, UK-based tech companies?

- With a new survey showing 30% of NHS GPs are now using gen AI in their clinical work despite a lack of comprehensive regulation, we ask: is this reckless? Or actually more ethical?

- To wrap up the year, we laugh in the face of naysayers and outline why, just maybe, 2026 could be a banner year for UK AI.

We'll be back in 2026. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone!

Having blown past the notorious fourth episode at which 50% of podcasts supposedly fail, we discuss:

- As two UK startups land substantial funding rounds for GEO/AEO-related tech, we ask: might this be an area of strength for the UK? And how proven is AEO anyway?

- Two new UK academic reports highlight the mental-health threats of misused chatbots — and the government seems to be listening.

- A new report suggests that power consumption by UK data centres could rise five-fold by 2030. Is more nuclear the answer?

- New research from Shoosmiths and FT Longitude indicates that UK firms are adopting AI far faster than they're implementing relevant governance. Just how big a problem is this?

This week, hosts Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

- What does the UK budget mean for AI? (Prepare to be underwhelmed)

- A new report from the National Foundation for Educational Research suggests 3m "lower skilled" jobs could be displaced by AI, but the net effect over the next 10 years could actually be 2m job gains. So what's going on?

- Reasons to be cheerful? Traditional UK strengths — defence, life sciences, professional services — might provide AI opportunities for the country.

- A new NHS initiative using AI in colonoscopies gives a whole new meaning to "deep research".

- Some punny AI news: can AI do dad jokes?

This week, hosts Matt Wilkinson and Niels Footman discuss:

- Ahead of the Budget, the UK government announces a broad range of AI investments, "AI Growth Zones" and regulatory changes — but is it all close to ambitious enough?

- UK's big pharma firms using AI to accelerate medical discoveries

- The perils of AI-issued financial advice

- Why Paul McCartney and the people of Kingston Upon Thames are equally irate about AI creations

Welcome to the first episode!

This week we cover:

- Who are we and why are we doing this?

- The prompt launch of ChatGPT 5.1 in the UK and why other tools can take ages to get here

- Early stage optimism v public market scepticism

- CIPD data on AI's effect on the jobs market

- Could AI be boosting Nimbyism?