Exeter academics speak in House of Lords on future of UK’s AI strategy
University of Exeter academics have spoken in the House of Lords about how the UK can respond to the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
At an event organised by the Digital Policy Alliance, Professor Alan W. Brown and Professor Zena Wood from the University of Exeter Business School’s INDEX research centre addressed the challenge for institutions, organisations, governance arrangements and regulatory frameworks to evolve at the same pace as AI in order to harness its capabilities.
Professor Brown, who is a Professor in Digital Economy, said: “The UK has rightly focused considerable attention on the development and adoption of AI. But our ability to realise its potential will depend on something equally important: whether our institutions, organisations and governance arrangements can adapt as quickly as the technology itself.”
Chaired by Lord Kulveer Ranger, the session brought together academics, industry and policy experts to focus on the concept of Responsive AI, a framework for thinking about how governments and organisations can build the capacity to adapt continuously to technological change.
The framework identifies four interconnected challenges:
- Regulatory agility: Developing policies and governance frameworks that can respond to rapidly evolving AI capabilities and regulatory requirements.
- Technological evolution: Ensuring organisations can assess, adopt and integrate emerging technologies without becoming locked into outdated systems or approaches.
- Societal expectations: Maintaining public trust through transparency, accountability, meaningful oversight and engagement with the communities affected by AI.
- Organisational learning: Building the leadership, skills, structures and cultures needed to adapt as AI changes the nature of work and decision-making.
A central message of the session, which was attended by Peers, was that successful AI adoption requires not just investment in technology but also demands changes in leadership, organisational capability, institutional governance and public policy.
Professor Wood’s involvement reflects Exeter’s wider expertise in data, digital technologies and their implications for organisations and society, including through the Defence Data Research Centre, which is a core component of Exeter’s Defence, Security and Resilience network.
The session concluded by stressing that the UK’s ability to benefit from AI will depend not just on developing or accessing advanced technologies, but on building the adaptive capacity to deploy them effectively, responsibly and at scale.
