From Digitizing Government to Making AI Work for Britain

Tuesday, 12 May 2026 at 13:00

Can the UK deliver on its AI aspirations? Two Exeter professors reflect on a decade of UK digital transformation — and what the lessons mean for Britain's AI future

Event details

Date: Tuesday 12 May 2026

Time: 1300 - 1345 (BST)

Location: Event hosted online via Teams

This webinar brings together two of the UK's leading thinkers on digital transformation and AI policy for a timely and candid conversation. Professors Alan Brown and Mark Thompson co-authored Digitizing Government (2014) — a book that helped shape the Government Digital Service and the UK's decade-long digital reform agenda. Now, with Alan's new book Making AI Work for Britain freshly published, the two reunite to ask: what did we get right, what did we get wrong, and does any of it matter for AI?

The session is structured around three interlocking questions:

Lessons from digital transformation — what the GDS era taught us about public sector technology, procurement, and institutional change.
What is different about AI — why AI is not just another digital wave, and why the stakes for the UK are higher than they have ever been.
Making the UK's AI ambitions real — how to avoid 'pilot purgatory', build a smart-buyer model, and ensure the UK's adaptive path leads somewhere worth going.

The session concludes with an open Q&A. All attendees will be invited to submit questions at registration.

Speaker Biographies

Professor Alan Brown - Professor of Digital Economy, University of Exeter Business School

Alan Brown is Professor of Digital Economy at the University of Exeter Business School and Research Director at the Digital Policy Alliance. He is AI Director at the Digital Leaders Network, reaching over 65,000 digital and technology professionals across the UK. His new book, Making AI Work for Britain (London Publishing Partnership, 2026), argues that the UK has the skills and institutions to lead on AI — but must act now to close the gap between aspiration and delivery. Alan is a former IBM Distinguished Engineer and European CTO, and has authored six books on digital transformation and AI leadership.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alanwilliambrown

University profile: business-school.exeter.ac.uk (username: ab1116)

Professor Mark Thompson - Professor of Digital Economy, INDEX, University of Exeter Business School

Mark Thompson is Professor of Digital Economy in INDEX (Initiative for the Digital Economy at Exeter). A former UK government policy adviser, he is widely recognised as one of the architects of digital service redesign in the UK public sector, including the foundational 2009 Thompson Report. He has sat on two Cabinet Office Advisory Panels and the National Audit Office Digital Advisory Panel, and acted as Senior Adviser to the Scottish Government. He is a board member of Tech UK and co-authored Digitizing Government (2014) with Alan Brown and Jerry Fishenden.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mark-thompson-0715a2

University profile: business-school.exeter.ac.uk (username: mt579)

To register for this event, please do so via the following link https://shorturl.at/o7fOj

Organiser

University of Exeter Business School

Location

Event hosted online via Teams