London’s AI surge at risk from skills crunch, Amazon warns April 30, 2025 London businesses are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) faster and more comprehensively than the rest of the UK, but the capital’s acute digital skills shortage risks limiting the broader economic gains from this progress. New research from Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed exclusively to City AM that 67 per cent of London-based businesses have now adopted [...]
Supply, skills and sustainability: futureproofing procurement for the UK April 30, 2025 UK procurement professionals face a range of challenges in the next few years, from global political and economic uncertainty to recruitment and making the most of technology. Procurement in the UK is changing. The wider environment, with political uncertainty coupled with economic volatility, makes for a challenging landscape. Procurement is increasingly tasked with striking the [...]
Construction firms lose hope but businesses are ‘showing resilience’ April 30, 2025 Construction firms have grown despondent about their business prospects despite signs of resilience across the UK economy, a new survey has found. The sector is key to the housing secretary Angela Rayner’s plans to build 1.5m homes by 2030 though early signs suggest the ambitious target will not be met. Construction saw a bigger drop [...]
AI use rising in legal services, but public trust remains low April 29, 2025 While AI’s potential to reduce costs and improve efficiency is making waves within the industry, both public and legal professionals remain cautious about fully embracing the technology, especially for legally complex issues. A recent survey by Robin AI found that only 10 per cent of people fully trust law firms, with only 30 pert cent [...]
How AI-powered compliance could fight financial crime April 25, 2025 The financial services sector is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the rapid advancements and accessibility of artificial intelligence (AI). No longer an experimental concept for the future, AI is being deployed at scale today, fundamentally changing how every financial institution operates globally. The rise of generative AI, in particular, has spurred adoption, with around [...]
London startups bag £2.69bn in VC funding in 2025 so far April 17, 2025 London-based startups attracted £2.69bn in venture capital (VC) in the first three months of the year, marking a robust start of the year despite a fall in deal volumes. According to KPMG’s latest venture pulse report, while deal count dropped from the previous quarter, the overall value of funding reached nearly 90 per cent of [...]
The UK’s cyber blindspot lies with its SMBs April 16, 2025 Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the UK are facing an escalating cyber security crisis, experts have warned. According to Hugues Foulon, chief executive of Orange Cyberdefense, cyber attacks on SMBs have surged by 53 per cent, yet only 21 per cent of SMB chief executives are aware of their cyber risks. This alarming [...]
Former Google CEO warns AI may soon ignore human control April 16, 2025 Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) was advancing so rapidly that it may soon no longer need human guidance to evolve. Speaking last week at an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project – a think tank he founded – Schmidt described how AI systems were beginning to [...]
FCA to rip 140 pages out of handbook in deregulation drive April 16, 2025 The UK’s financial watchdog has vowed to rip scores of pages from its handbook as it slashes red tape in a drive to boost growth. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said as many as 140 pages will be removed from the lengthy handbook, as it opened a consultation on scrapping data collection requirements. The move [...]
Exclusive: EY reveals Brits embrace AI at home, not at work April 15, 2025 The UK public is increasingly embracing artificial intelligence (AI) in their personal lives, but barriers to adoption are stopping workers from using the technology at work, according to a new study. EY’s new global AI sentiment index, shared exclusively to City AM, found that while 70 per cent of UK adults had used AI in [...]