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Mayor's plan to jumpstart AI revolution in the West Midlands announced during Tech Week

The Mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker, has outlined plans to make the region a national leader in the UK’s artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

By Beverly Rademacher
Published

The ambition to jumpstart AI development in the region, WM Artificial Intelligence Missions (WM AIM), has been launched during Birmingham Tech Week – the UK’s largest regional tech festival where the future of AI as a catalyst for growth and innovation has been a key focus.

Mayor Richard Parker (second right) and Dan Cartter, SCC's director of innovation (left) with Rose Palacios and Callum Woodford, who are AI and innovation consultants at the global headquarters of IT service provider SCC.
Mayor Richard Parker (second right) and Dan Cartter, SCC's director of innovation (left) with Rose Palacios and Callum Woodford, who are AI and innovation consultants at the global headquarters of IT service provider SCC.

The Mayor said: “I want the West Midlands to become the top global destination for AI, and the AIM is our opportunity to kickstart conversations and create an ecosystem in which this sector can thrive.

“I’m asking businesses, entrepreneurs, educators and research companies what they need to come and operate in the region, and I will respond to that by providing the skills, space, speed and support they require.

“The benefits of AI development should reach everyone. This is about making sure no one is left behind and that every community benefits from our AI and tech-driven future.” 

WM AIM sets out to ‘jumpstart’ AI development to help reshape the way people work, learn, live and grow - and it ties into the West Midlands Digital Roadmap and the Mayor’s Growth Plan which aims to create a new era of prosperity with 100,000 good jobs in fast-growing industries like digital and AI technology.

It has three key aims - the first of which is to position the region as an AI ‘testbed’ – making it quicker and easier for new AI solutions to be tested across health, transport, social care and fast-growing sectors like advanced manufacturing.

It also aims to boost business productivity through adoption of AI with a dedicated West Midlands knowledge hub to support businesses to better understand the potential of AI as well as helping to build the most inclusive AI-ready workforce in the UK, equipping people with the skills to benefit from AI in their work, homes and communities.

The Mayor recently announced £10 million of investment to create an AI Academy and a commitment for every resident to have access to free, practical AI training - to help upskill unemployed people.

The West Midlands has one of the fastest growing tech sectors outside London, with 144,000 employees across 2,400 companies, plus world class universities and a young diverse population with 1.5 million residents under 25. It's believed this can create the perfect environment for the AI and tech sector to boom in the region.

It's also hoped that making the West Midlands AI ready will encourage tech-led industries to move to the region - like businesses such as Atos, a leading provider of AI-powered digital transformation, whose new flagship AI development hub in Solihull was announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves at the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham this week.