House of Lords AI Summit highlights ‘relentless’ cyber threats facing UK

The discussion, chaired by Steven George-Hilley of Centropy PR, brought together experts to address key industry challenges, including the digital skills shortage and AI’s potential to enhance compliance and accelerate digital transformation across key areas of the UK’s economy.

The debate highlighted the growing role of AI in reshaping traditional job roles and powering “a new wave of relentless cyber threats” which could damage British businesses.

Key speakers, including Richard Cuda of Kasha, discussed the role AI and digital technology can play in helping entrepreneurs launch their own business.

Leigh Allen, strategic advisor at Cellebrite, said: “In a world where police forces are under increasing strain to combat crime and national security threats, AI technology represents a key enabler in unlocking digital evidence and significantly reducing investigation times.”

Financial crime

Dr Janet Bastiman, chief data scientist at Napier AI, commented: “Financial crime is one of the biggest threats facing the UK’s economy right now and in AI we have the answer. AI-driven anti-money laundering solutions have the capacity to save UK financial institutions £2.2 billion each year, helping to bolster compliance processes, improve the accuracy of transaction screening and monitor transaction behaviour to more effectively identify criminal networks.”

Linda Loader, software development director at Resonate, observed: “AI has the potential to significantly enhance operations in the rail industry by enabling faster and more efficient services. This must be underpinned by quality data to drive innovative solutions that prioritise security and robust protection. By exploring smaller AI use cases now, we can build a solid foundation and understanding for more extensive and secure transport applications in the future.”

Chris Davison, CEO of NavLive, stated: “By using cutting-edge AI and robotics technology to create automated 2D and 3D models of buildings in real-time, we can make retrofits and brownfield developments more efficient and contribute to sustainable building practices. NavLive saves architects, engineers and construction professionals time and money by providing accurate real-time spatial data across the lifecycle of a building.”

AI experimentation 

Richard Bovey, chief for data at AND Digital, explained: “The AI winners are the businesses that have invested the most in AI experimentation, underpinned by years of strong data foundations. Meanwhile, SMEs are quickly watching a widening AI gap. All is not lost, though, Investing in data and modern tooling can stop the slide, helping businesses to keep pace and preventing a significant competitive disadvantage from taking over.”

Arkadiy Ukolov, co-founder and CEO of Ulla Technology Ltd, concluded: “As AI adoption continues to skyrocket, we must ensure that privacy and data security remain a critical component of development. Most of the popular AI tools send data to third party AI providers, which may use client data to train models. This is unacceptable for sensitive meeting discussions and confidential documents as it opens them up to data leaks. Placing safety and ethics at the centre of the discussion is the only route we can take forward as AI evolves.”