Following on from the updated Industrial Strategy announced in January and plans to boost the growth and support of Britain's artificial intelligence (AI) sector, the UK government outlined a brand new digital strategy to combat growing skills gap fears across the country. A Digital Skills Partnership with government, businesses and charities will see the creation of more than four million free digital skills training opportunities in the UK and includes education commitments from the likes of Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Google. Speaking to Silicon, several tech industry professionals have offered their reactions to the news, providing an insight into what the industry is thinking. "The Government's Digital Strategy is an exciting and welcome prospect at a time when UK businesses are facing a significant threat from digital disruption. To gain a competitive advantage, businesses should consider how they can use new technologies like artificial intelligence, even at this relatively early stage," she said.

The UK government is going to lead a "major review" into what artificial intelligence means for the country's economy as part of its long-awaited Digital Strategy. Officials at the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) say its review will look at how the government and firms can work together to "back the technology" in the coming years. It is claimed, based on figures from Accenture, that AI could add £654 billion to the UK's economy by 2035. While research from the think tank Reform has suggested 250,000 public sector jobs administration jobs could be replaced by chat bots, artificial intelligence, and automation by 2030. The review will be led by the University of Southampton's computer science professor Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesenti from BenevolentAI.