Liz Kendall Speaks On Why AI Is At The Top Of Britain’s Economic And Security Agenda

Yesterday, Liz Kendall delivered a keynote speech at the Royal United Services Institute where she spoke about artificial intelligence, Britain’s technology ambitions, national security and the country’s position in a much more competitive global tech market.

If there was one thing made obvious throughout the speech, it is that AI is now being treated as a far more serious topic by government, with conversations being about more than just chatbots.

The Technology Secretary spoke about AI as something connected to Britain’s economy, defence and global influence. In her view, countries that get this right will have more control over their own future.

She told the audience that Britain cannot afford to sit back while AI becomes more powerful.

“The countries which harness AI will not only lead the race to cure diseases, discover new materials and create trillion-dollar companies … but also build far more powerful militaries. Put simply, AI is now the engine of economic power and hard power. And the future is coming at us fast… not in the next few decades but the next few years,” Kendall said during her RUSI speech and this message ran through the whole event.

Kendall also referred to Britain’s existing strengths. She said the UK already has a $1 trillion tech sector, world leading universities and research institutions, plus organisations such as the AI Security Institute.

Why Is The UK Talking About AI Sovereignty?

A big theme of Kendall’s speech was “AI sovereignty”, a phrase governments have been using more often as countries think about who controls computing power, semiconductors and AI systems.

Kendall was careful to say this does not mean Britain shutting itself off.

“This government believes AI Sovereignty is not about isolationism or attempting to pull up the drawbridge and go it alone,” she said.

“We will continue to use the best technology and welcome inward investment because that’s what our public services and economy demand.”

Instead, she described sovereignty as Britain having more control over technologies linked to national priorities.

“For Britain, AI sovereignty is about reducing over dependencies and increasing resilience in key national strategic priorities, as the Prime Minister has rightly argued,” Kendall said.

“So we secure greater control and greater leverage over the issues that matter most.”

She also announced the government will develop a UK AI hardware plan. This is intended to secure Britain’s capability in chips and semiconductor technology, which power AI systems.

What Happens If Britain Gets Left Behind?

Kendall repeatedly returned to what she sees as the risk of doing too little.

She rejected calls to pause AI development and said slowing down would damage Britain’s interests.

“If we retreat from progress we retreat from the world, leaving this powerful technology to be exploited by other nations to their advantage and our disadvantage,” she said.

“The choice isn’t between a world that has AI and one that does not. It is a choice between a world where we shape our AI future, based our own interests and values, or where we are left at its mercy and whim.”

She also said 70% of global AI compute is controlled by just five companies, showing how concentrated the sector already is.

Kendall said Britain should support more domestic AI companies and work more closely with international partners, especially what she called “middle power nations”.

What we got from the speech was that AI is now being discussed as infrastructure, national security and economic policy all at once.

Greg Hanson, Group Vice President and Head of EMEA North, Informatica from Salesforce explains why the dual emphasis on UK AI hardware and international collaboration will help the UK strengthen its AI foundations. “Building world-class AI infrastructure will come down to discipline and control.

“The dual emphasis on investing in UK AI hardware and working closely with international partners on AI standards will help the UK strengthen its AI foundations.

“But one of the biggest challenges is that AI is still surfacing unpredictable outputs and eroding trust. For AI to genuinely fuel growth, organisations need trusted context for every AI recommendation or action. That means clarity that the data generated by AI is accurate. And the ability to track exactly how and when each AI output was generated.

“Trusted context also enables organisations to manage the sovereignty of their data by understanding where data should reside and apply governance to it. With this, they can limit access to only those who should have access to view.  Without trusted context built upon a metadata system of record, it’s very difficult for organisations to effectively manage data sovereignty and access controls.”

Oliver Shaw, CEO of Orgvue says, “£500 million sounds significant, but in AI terms it is modest. The UK is not going to outspend US hyperscalers on frontier models, so the smarter move is to focus on where it can genuinely lead: safe, trusted and specialised applied AI that solves real-world problems.

“That starts with backing the UK startups and scaleups already building valuable AI solutions, rather than letting them be locked out by slow procurement and oversized barriers to entry. If the government wants to strengthen sovereign capability, it should make it much easier for smaller British technology firms to work with the public sector and defence, where demand can do more to build the market than a headline fund ever will.

“With around £26 billion already spent across the public sector on technology, the bigger opportunity is to use that budget more deliberately opportunity is to use that budget more deliberately to support adoption, open up clearer routes for innovative UK firms, and help proven technologies scale.”