Amazon Web Services has set its sights to help 100,000 people in the UK gain skills for artificial intelligence (AI) before 2030. The company published research which suggests that at least one business adopts AI every minute. The AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance will expand geographically to support the skills push. This alliance was launched in 2023 to assist 380,000 students from America, Egypt, and Spain to acquire the skills required for entry-level cloud jobs and AI.
As confirmed at the AWS Summit held in London on 30 April 2025, the initiative will now be extended to the UK in support of the UK’s push to become a leader in AI. John Davies, AWS’s managing director for worldwide public sectors UK, Germany, and international organisations, told Computer Weekly that the government understands the potential of AI for the UK economy based on its recently released AI Opportunity Action Plan paper.
The government has spoken about the potential for [AI to generate] PS45bn of operational efficiency savings. However, what is often lost in the discussion is the way that this will be realized.
Growing demand for AI skills
AWS Summit coincided the publication of the AWS unlocking the UK’s AI Potential Report, which sheds light on the potential barriers to accessing skills for businesses looking to adopt AI. The report, which was compiled by Strand Partners, states that AI literacy will become a requirement for nearly 50% (47%) of all new UK jobs in the next three-year period, based on feedback from 1,000 businesses who participated in the research.
Currently, however, only a little under a third of the businesses who participated in the study said that their workforce is adequately prepared from a skill perspective for AI to become more prevalent throughout their organisation.
Only 12 months ago, I wrote about the incredible potential of generative AI. Today, we’re witnessing real, incredible [developments]. Alison Kay, AWS The once impossible is now possible.
The report stated that “over half (55%) large enterprises reported using the technology consistently, up from 41% the previous year. However, their AI use is surface-level and they are focused on basic productivity gains.” The report stated that many startups embrace AI wholeheartedly by integrating it into “the centre of their business strategy”and using it “to develop new products and transform their industries”.
The research revealed that 59% startups had adopted AI. 36% of them committed to developing new AI products and services compared to 25% of large enterprises. The report warns that if this gap is not addressed a large number of businesses, especially large enterprises, could miss out on the transformative benefits AI can bring.
“Given that enterprises are responsible for 48 percent of UK turnover, it could prevent the UK fully realising the economic and productive edge that AI can unlock.”
Governments and enterprises, on the other hand, are more likely be entrenched with legacy tech, and may have more complex IT estates, which makes it difficult for them to move quickly to AI as a start-up could.
Despite this, it is important that the enterprise sector does not fall behind. Davies continued, “We are at a point of inflection where these things [AI] have become reality. 52% of companies are now using AI and this is a significant increase.” “This is faster than digital mobile telecoms early in the 2000s. It’s the fastest technology growth we’ve ever witnessed.
For this reason, AWS AI skills is not only aimed at techies but also people with a wide range of job roles and functions.
AI for everyone
“Addressing cloud skills gaps was very much a targeted initiative aimed at IT professionals, while AI is a everyone thing,” said Davies.
What is encouraging, he said, is that people are already curious about using consumer-grade generative AI tools to assist with everyday tasks. “I don’t think it hurts,” he said. “It shows that people are willing to use it.” “It’s important that we think beyond the IT profession and include doctors, lawyers, and social workers in our thinking. That’s what we’re trying to do with Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance.” He gave the University of East London, for example, which will offer students optional, elective AI modules as a complement to the degree courses that they have signed up for.
If you were studying law you could [an elective AI module]and when you think of the opportunities [having AI skills] will open up for people to surface case precedents in that field, for example, the non-IT ones have the most potential.
Accelerating AI Adoption
Alison Kay, vice president and managing director of AWS for the UK and Ireland, highlighted how startups are utilizing AI to their advantage.
“Just a year ago, we discussed the extraordinary potential of [developments]and today, we are not just talking about potential, but we are witnessing real, wonderful[developments],” she said. Kay continued by referencing the work UK-based AWS client Sonrai Analytics does with AI to accelerate research in the life sciences industry.
Research timelines have been shortened by 50%, error rates by 80% and each experiment [the company does] saves over $20,000 per experiment. Gerard Loughran from Sonrai Analytics spoke to Computer Weekly during the summit. He said that it’s fair to say enterprises in the healthcare and medtech sectors are slower to adopt technology. He said that some of the hospitals, medtech and biotech companies he previously worked with did not adopt cloud technology in the 2010s. “This was for good reason,” he added. “A lot biotech and pharmaceutical companies we work with are full of highly qualified biologists, mathematicians, and individuals who have a deep understanding of cancer and disease types. But they don’t have the same investment in cloud, datacentre, and other technical engineers.” This creates an opportunity for companies like Sonrai, which can fill the tech skills gap to help large healthcare organizations thrive and excel in this AI era. “A lot is our work is to remove the engineering complexity so that they can focus on the science,” said he.
New roles, opportunities and innovation
Scott Marcar is the group CIO at NatWest Bank. He told Computer Weekly that the banking industry is a good example of a vertical that has been using AI for a long time.
There’s nothing novel about banks using AI. Marcar said that AI has been embedded in banks since a long time. “Think about how the market works, the trading, or the way we price risk,” for example.
Most of [NatWest] is embedded with AI in some form or another, and I would say that we are fairly advanced in generative AI. According to the Evident AI index we are ranked 18th worldwide.”
AI has become a powerful tool for people. Scott Marcar, NatWest Bank (19659043)
He said that the bank already has “hundreds” of AI use cases and is “investing substantial amounts of money in OpenAI”.
The bank has also rolled-out Microsoft Copilot to their staff and has its “safe-wrapped version” of ChatGPT, called AI-Den, that is available to tens of thousand of its employees. Marcar continued, “Also around 26% of the Java code we use today is generated by AI. This is an impressive statistic given that we’ve been using it for only six months.”
I’m pretty certain that every role that we have today [by AI]will be fundamentally changed, but I think we’re also going to see lots of new opportunities, and innovations.” He said that he believes the UK can be a leader in AI and become an international centre for AI expertise.
With the country’s history [in this field]and things like DeepMind we have a history of great things. I think we have a responsibility to take full advantage of this.
NatWest does its part by teaching all of its 70,000 staff how to use AI. “It is a wonderful tool to have at your fingertips.” “Everyone should use it,” he said. “Because in reality, there will be two types roles in the world – those who use AI and others who don’t. And those who do not will be left behind quickly.”
