Chancellor speech at the AI Adoption Summit

HM Treasury (HMT) has published a speech delivered by chancellor Rachel Reeves at the AI Adoption Summit. The speech sets out how the government is implementing its strategy to accelerate AI adoption and outlines next steps. In particular, the chancellor confirmed the upcoming publication of a financial services AI adoption plan on 14 July, when she delivers her Mansion House speech.

During the speech, the chancellor confirmed the launch of the Advisory AI Growth Lab, a forum which will bring together regulators to provide practical guidance on how current rules apply to emerging AI applications, with an initial focus on legal services. She also announced the introduction of the AI Economics Institute, a research organisation of HM Treasury and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Later this month, the National Cyber Action Plan is due to be published. The chancellor further confirmed that legislation would be brought forward in the autumn to better provide for and enable the safe testing of innovative products and services.

On financial services specifically, in addition to the forthcoming financial services AI adoption plan mentioned above, the chancellor highlighted that the UK's strengths in financial services and digital commerce position it well to lead in the development of agentic payments. To support this, the government will upgrade payments infrastructure, support the development of digital money, modernise payments regulation and enable innovators to test and scale new solutions safely.

Other initiatives mentioned in the speech include the upcoming launch of a tender process for a new national supercomputer, and the UK's long-term AI hardware plan to develop the semiconductor technology behind AI.

In parallel, the UK Financial Conduct Authority published a new blog on AI, confirming that it will publish examples of good and poor practices later this year to support firms in adopting AI safely and responsibly.

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