British shoppers turn to AI as London high street sales falter January 7, 2026 As our beloved high streets grapple with rising business costs, decaying consumer confidence and yet another bout of tax uncertainty, AI agents are reshaping how consumers shop. A report published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) warns that that so-called ‘agentic AI’, a quasi-autonomous form of artificial intelligence, could shift from novelty to norm within [...]
2025 was set to be the year of AI agents. It was not. January 6, 2026 At the end of 2024, just over a year ago today, tech behemoth and OpenAI boss Sam Altman predicted that AI agents would completely upturn the workplace before year end. AI agents are software programmes which break down any given task into smaller, more manageable steps, allowing them to devise and execute them with little [...]
Who still gets hired in the 2026 workplace? December 28, 2025 Britain’s labour market has probably never felt more precarious than it does now, as the struggling economy and the rapid rise of AI take effect. Redundancies are at their highest since the pandemic, unemployment has risen to 5.1 per cent, and entry-level opportunities, the traditional stepping stones for grads and young workers, have all but [...]
AI to answer your 101 calls, leaving 999 calls to humans December 9, 2025 “It’s not unusual for us to see 5,000 calls in 24 hours,” chief superintendent of the Thames Valley police department, Simon Dodds, told City AM. “Prioritising 999 over everything else is a real challenge”. That pressure has pushed his department, as well as the Hampshire & Isle of White Constabulary, to use AI agents. Their new [...]
Investors flee UK stocks as Budget jitters echo Liz Truss fiasco November 18, 2025 Fund managers are ditching UK stocks as the fastest pace since Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng panicked markets with the 2022 mini-budget. Global investors have dramatically reduced their risk to UK equities as the Labour government’s second Budget edges closer, where a hefty batch of tax rises are expected to be on the horizon. Rachel [...]
Britain has 18 months to pick a lane, or lose the lead in AI October 17, 2025 US–UK momentum and fresh American capital give Britain a another shot at establishing AI leadership. The job now is execution: choose a stack lane, make services AI-first, attract global talent, and move faster safely, says Puneet Jindal The UK has a rare chance to turn new investment into real AI leadership – not through glossy [...]
Salesforce: Trust is ‘critical’ when it comes to AI October 16, 2025 Trust has become key when it comes to businesses using AI. As Salesforce’s Brent Hayward, head of competitive intelligence, told City AM: “I don’t think there’s any more valuable thing. If you’re in the business of working with other businesses or customers, then trust… It is the foundational level”. Hawyard insisted that this trust ‘layer’ [...]
Salesforce cosies up to OpenAI and Anthropic amid sluggish sales October 15, 2025 Software giant Salesforce is doubling down on its partnerships with AI heavyweights OpenAI and Anthropic to bolster its flagship AI platform, ‘agentforce 360’, as uptake remains modest. At this week’s Dreamforce conference, chief executive and co-founder Marc Benioff announced: “We’re so thrilled to have our relationship with OpenAI”. “You guys are becoming a critical part [...]
Salesforce rolls out new AI tools amid escalating job concerns October 15, 2025 US tech behemoth Salesforce unveiled ‘agentforce 360′ on Tuesday, its latest generative AI platform built to automate repetitive tasks, as concerns around AI’s impact on jobs continue to swirl, and the company itself navigates workforce reductions. Salesforce executives framed the platform as a way to augment rather than replace human workers, providing tools that allow [...]
Cisco: Only 16 per cent of UK firms ready to deploy AI safely October 14, 2025 Britain’s race to embrace AI could stumble before it starts, as new research from tech giant Cisco has revealed that just 16 per cent of UK firms are adequately equipped to scale AI safely across their operations. The company’s ‘AI readiness index’, City AM can reveal, shows a sharp divide between businesses racing ahead and [...]