UK Government Invests £13 Million in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics Projects

UK Government, last week, announced their £13 million investment in 40 artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics projects to increase productivity and improve customer service in the professional services sector.

The Government announcement further added, "the investment will support collaborative industry and research projects to develop the next-generation of professional services"

One of the projects is in the anti-fraud sector that helps in enabling the UK accountancy, insurance, and legal services industries to transform how they operate. Intelligent Voice Ltd, Strenuus Ltd. and the University of East London will combine AI and voice recognition technology in artificial intelligence software that will detect, interpret emotion and linguistics to assess the credibility of insurance claims.

Insurance fraud cost the UK £3 billion in 2017 and costing consumers an extra £50 per policy, according to the announcement.

Few other notable project examples that received funding are, an online “bot” project that answers legal questions online using artificial intelligence, an artificial intelligence enabled image analysis tool to assess flood-damaged areas and software that guides businesses to cut expenditure, suggesting new deals on gas, water & electricity bills by analyzing accounting data.

The projects are part of £20 million Next Generation Services Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and administered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to support the development and adoption of AI and Data technologies that will transform the UK’s services industries

UK Business Secretary Greg Clark said, "Artificial intelligence and data are transforming industries across the world. We are combining our unique heritage in AI with our world beating professional services to put the UK at the forefront of these cutting-edge technologies and their application. We want to ensure businesses and consumers benefit from the application of AI - from providing quicker access to legal advice for customers, to tackling fraudulent insurance claims, these projects illustrate our modern Industrial Strategy in action. We’re investing record levels in research and development so that every part of the UK can benefit from the industries and high-skilled jobs of the future."

The announcement said that £13 million comprise of awards that were made across 2 competitions that includes £7 million awards to 36 smaller projects looking specifically at applying artificial intelligence (AI) & data techniques and another £6 million was awarded across four large collaborative projects addressing sector-wide challenges across supply chains or regulators.