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Future-proofing Gloucestershire

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The economy of Gloucestershire will see significant change over the next few years.
Person Using A Laptop

KPMG’s recent report on Generative AI suggests that the technology will impact around 40% of UK jobs, with about 2.5% of tasks across the economy directly affected. They also estimate that there could be £31bn GDP uplift to the British economy if we get adoption right and have the right strategies.

According to the UK government, dedicated UK AI firms grew revenues by around 9% year-on-year, but AI-related employment in those firms jumped 34% in a single year to over 86,000 roles nationally. PricewaterhouseCoopers states that workers with AI skills now command about a 56% wage premium globally (only a year ago that premium was 25%).

Gloucestershire must be ready and benefit from this change. This is in the context in which Gloucestershire County Council is proud to unveil the next phase of its digital strategy—an ambitious plan to harness technological change so that our county’s citizens and businesses can prosper in a fast-changing world.

GCC will continue to work with infrastructure providers to ensure that we have best-in-class mobile and broadband infrastructure reaching all corners of our county both in the rural and urban areas.

GCC will continue to work with local organisations on its ambitious and vitally important digital inclusion program. It is critical that all Gloucestershire’s citizens have access to technology and are confident using it.

A new, exciting digital innovation program will bring together leading digital thinkers in the county to guide our digital strategy so that we can support our businesses in the adoption of current and new digital technologies and market our world-leading digital and cyber security industries globally. Grants and training will be made available to our small and medium sized businesses so that they can embrace digital technology to ensure their businesses thrive. Our digital think tank will have a watching brief to identify technological changes as they happen and feed out knowledge across the county via GCC.

Cllr Julian Tooke, Cabinet Member for Business, Economic Development, Planning and Infrastructure, said: “Everyone knows that digital technology has transformed the modern world but not everyone has benefitted equally from it. Via the AI revolution, we also know that, for our county, there will be new opportunities and threats for which we must be ready.

“The next stage of our digital strategy supports our communities and businesses now whilst also ensuring that we have the knowledge and preparedness to take on the future.”