Cloudflare, the cloud services firm supporting thousands of platforms online, said it saw millions of exploitation attempts following the emergence of a PHP critical vulnerability disclosure on Wednesday.
The firm saw thousands of attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities in the 10 hours prior to the public disclosure of the vulnerabilities.
“That jumpted to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post announcement, hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and millions now,” CEO Matthew Prince said on Wednesday.
PHP is a critical technology behind many commonly used website platforms, including WordPress. The vulnerabilities, called PHP2Shell, reached a severity rating of 9.2 out of 10.0. The vulnerability can theoretically alllow threat actors to remotely execute code without authentication.
“With 70 percent of the Internet affected, the impact of PHP2Shell cannot be overstated,” researchers at Wiz wrote
PHP had planned to release fixes in a coordinated disclosure of the vulnerabilities, but instead released the updates Wednesday after the flaws were leaked.
The exploit was discovered with the help of AI, researchers at Wiz wrote – “The vulnerable code had been there for more than a decade – what AI changed was the ability to understand the weaknesses and turn them into a working exploit.
“With frontier AI models and the right tools, a single researcher completed in a week what previously would have taken a world-class team months of work.”
The PHP issue forced many high-profile sites to be taken temporarily offline to ensure circumvention of the exploit – PHP is now urging organisations to use the issued updates across their PHP code to secure them against the vulnerabilities.
While PHP is an underlying part of much of the internet’s digital infrastructure, is this vulnerability cause of alarm?
“We need to find the signal in the noise here. AI discovering vulnerabilities isn’t new. This scale of vulnerability isn’t unheard of either – Heartbleed, Apache Struts, and Log4j were similarly impactful, although perhaps not as wide-ranging,” Richard Meeus, senior director of security technology and strategy EMEA at Akamai Technologies said.
“What’s new here is how AI is working as an accelerant – both in vulnerability discovery, and vulnerability exploitation. It’s vitally important that businesses which believe they may be impacted patch their sites as soon as possible or virtually patch using their Web Application Firewalls, and consider going offline until this can be achieved.”
Still, while this may not be cause for total catastrophe, cyber firms are being put to work:
“Cybersecurity has always been a race against time, but because PHP is pervasive across business technology and its supply chain, organisations face the huge task of identifying every potential point of exposure,” Valentino De Sousa, Accenture’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Lead, EMEA, said.
“The immediate challenge for organisations isn’t just patching the vulnerability – it’s establishing where PHP is running in the first place. It can be embedded in applications and third-party products where organisations might not immediately expect it, so many are assessing their exposure while trying to fix it.”
“AI is fundamentally changing the pace at which long-standing vulnerabilities can be uncovered and investigated. In this case, security researchers predicted the flaw first, but it took AI-based approaches to identify exactly how to trigger it, demonstrating how the window to understand exposure and respond is tightening. That means organisations need to know what is running across their technology estate and have a robust ‘lifeboat’ plan to keep critical operations running while vulnerabilities are addressed. Both are becoming just as important as the speed of patching.”
The stock market is also reacting to the renewed global attention to cyber – firms like Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Okta, Rapid7, and JFrog have seen their stocks jump as governments and companies rally to secure their websites and infrastructure.
Chris Dimitriadis, Chief Global Strategy Officer at ISACA, reflected on what this all means for UK organisations and their supply chains: “A single vulnerability can trigger a global domino effect across borders and industries within hours. What we’re seeing with PHP is a stark reminder that the global economy runs on complex, interconnected digital systems, and that hidden security weaknesses in them are now being found at unprecedented speed with the help of AI.
“But the real concern isn’t just the vulnerability itself. It’s what it reveals about our preparedness. Cyber resilience isn’t something organisations can switch on when a crisis hits. They need to understand where they are exposed, recognise their technology dependencies and have the right people, processes and controls in place to respond quickly and effectively.
“Technology will never be completely free of vulnerabilities. The real test is whether organisations have the governance, expertise and operational readiness to prevent a security flaw from becoming a much bigger crisis. Most of all, that means investing in the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, who can use AI to find and fix weaknesses faster than attackers can exploit them.”
Large enterprises say they spend an average of 28% of their software budgets on upgrades, migrations and licensing changes they would not have actively chosen, according to new research from Origina published in a report with Thinkers50.
The research also found that 95% of IT leaders say their organisation has paid for a vendor-driven upgrade in the past three years that it believed would reduce performance, reliability or business value, and more than half (53%) have done so more than once.
The Software Tax, What does it cost, and who benefits?, the report built on the survey, links this pattern to how little practical ability these leaders have to refuse upgrades and changes
once a system is embedded in the business.
The most recent of these vendor-driven changes cost respondents’ organisations an average of $12.87 million, and the impact reaches well beyond the IT budget. Innovation was the budget respondents most often said was hit, with hiring and security close behind.
When asked about the last time an AI or data program was slowed, paused or canceled, 34% of respondents said vendor-driven costs had a major contribution to that decision; 56% said it had a moderate one.
The survey of 2,018 senior IT decision-makers in the US and UK, conducted by Censuswide, shows how little room buyers have.
Nearly eight in ten (78%) agree that their primary vendor, rather than their own organisation, sets the timing and terms of change.
About three quarters (76%) say they have very little real leverage in negotiations with major vendors.
Eighty per cent (80%) say moving away from a major software vendor would cause significant business disruption.
Tomás O’Leary, CEO and Founder of Origina and co-author of The Software Tax, said, “When the alternative to an unwanted upgrade is losing support of any systems the business runs on, saying yes is often a rational response. That’s exactly the problem.
“The market has left some of the most experienced technology leaders in the world with little room to refuse, and that cost shows up in budgets, in engineering time and in innovation that never gets funded. We want to make that cost visible so customers can
start to take back control of it.”
People and hardware are affected too, according to respondents. Some 84% say senior engineering talent “always” or “often” spends time on vendor-driven upgrades rather than building future capability.
Ninety-one percent report they have scrapped functional hardware in the past three years purely to meet a software vendor’s support deadline, losing an average of 1.65 years of useful hardware life.
“At the scale we were operating, a single upgrade cycle could occupy some of our strongest technical people for the better part of a year,” noted James McGlennon, former CIO of Liberty Mutual and a member of Origina’s board.
“That’s not a one-off cost, it’s a recurring drag on capacity, and every year it repeats is a year those people aren’t working on the initiatives that actually differentiate the business.”
IT leaders surveyed also back changes to the rules. More than nine in ten (91%2) would support legislation giving enterprise software customers protections comparable with those in long-term residential rental relationships.
And 82%1 support software-support requirements similar to those placed on hardware manufacturers under EU rules on hardware repairability.
OpenAI disclosed that one of its models – GPT-6.5 Sol – had stolen money from crypto wallets during a training task.
Back in June, the model, which was released to paid ChatGPT users in July, was tasked with updating a crypto trading application and publishing smart contracts to an Ethereum test network.
However, publishing smart contracts requires a fee that OpenAI did not provide its model with.
To carry on with the task, the model stole from crypto wallet addresses using known recovery phrases.
The OpenAI model did question itself if stealing was “ethically” right, but reasoned that it had been “abandoned” in the task due to a lack of funds. It also reasoned that the found funds were actually value-less, as in, they had no real monetary value. Therefore, the model decided that it was justified in using the stolen tokens.
The ChatGPT maker said that the test instructions did not give permission for the AI model to spend funds from an account the model found.
“This case shows that a model can substitute its own judgment about likely harm for the account holder’s permission, then act on that judgment without authorisation,” OpenAI said.
The model did have to seek out compatible contracts for its task, and OpenAI said that its attempts to find these did not provide an option that would finish the deployment.
The model did not disclose how it was able to pay for the necessary tokens to developers.
Going forward, OpenAI said that it had put in extra safeguards to avoid similar incidents in the future, specifically to prevent live internet access for these cases.
The case brings up similar fears raised by other instances of OpenAI models disobeying orders or using internet access to hack or steal.
The case does raise importnat questions on why OpenAI gives its experimental models impossible tasks or tasks without the necessary tools to complete them. It also raises questions on what is expected from AI models trained to complete tasks, and why they were ever given access to the internet in training scenarios.
We’ve just released a snapshot of our agenda for two stages of DIGIT Expo 2026, Scotland’s largest technology showcase, featuring speakers from Microsoft, Multiverse, IBM, Skyscanner, Adobe, FanDuel and Wayve.
Scotland’s largest annual enterprise technology event returns to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) on November 19th, bringing together IT leaders, digital innovators and technology professionals for a full day of talks, workshops, networking and technology showcases.
The stacked agenda will focus on a range of themes permeating the collective consciousness and stimulating the entire tech sector from Scotland and beyond, from real-world use cases for advanced AI agents to maximising user value amid transformative technology and expectations.
Stage 1 will focus on the ever-changing world of AI, specifically providing pioneering uses and practical advice for maximising its value.
Kirstine Dale, chief AI officer at the Met Office will provide an inside look at how the UK’s weather service is implementing AI across its forecasting provisions, highlighting how the technology can be masterminded with live data to monitor future of our weather in a changing climate.
Expo will not fall for the AI hype, however, as Julia Shelly, director of AI transformation at Multiverse, will discuss the reality of AI adoption in the UK and beyond.
Beyond business value, the event will bring us back to the foundations of technology, with Skycanner’s McKinely Hyden, director of commercial analytics, re-centering the value of data-driven AI applications.
Stage 2 will bring in key themes around leadership, skills, future-proofing, and business value to the fore.
The business value of AI will be discussed by an esteemed panel featuring Abi Reynolds, senior research strategies at Microsoft, as well as in a feature talk with Lucy Pitticas-Rothwell, head of product operations at FreeAgent.
Arnold Clark’s Davie Gow, chief technology officer, will discuss the ever-looming skills crisis associated with emerging technologies, providing insight on future-proofing both employees and job roles.
For emerging leaders, a panel discussion featuring both public and private leaders in tech will explore the transition from practitioner to leader in the modern tech ecosystem.
Finally, David Archer from FanDuel will question what’s on everyone’s mind when it comes to AI reliance – is it making us dumb?
Expect all that and even more speakers to be announced as well as exhibitors providing insights into their advanced products and services from IT, cybersecurity, and AI.
The event will feature networking opportunities with other leaders in Scotland and beyond – get your free ticket now to join the conversation and stay ahead of advancements with insights from key players at the forefront of the tech ecosystem.
Fierce demand for AI skills surged by 51% in just six months to nearly 100,000 vacancies across the UK, according to new Accenture analysis. While hiring for AI skills is accelerating nationwide, London accounted for 70% of all AI-related vacancies, highlighting the scale of the UK’s regional AI divide.
Accenture’s Tech Talent Tracker indicates that demand for AI skills grew faster than any other technology discipline analysed and helped drive a 21% increase in overall technology job listings across the UK. Growth was fuelled by rising demand for AI and technology skills, with cities outside of London recording the biggest increases. Over the past six months, demand for technology skills grew fastest in Manchester (35% – up to over 30,000 roles), followed by Bristol (25%) and Birmingham (17%).
While regional hubs gain momentum, London has a stronghold on vacancies requiring AI skills, posting nearly six times as many AI-related job listings as Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Liverpool combined. The broader technology jobs market also boomed with London-based businesses listing over 250,000 technology vacancies going up by 24% in six months – eclipsing all other UK cities.
The supply of technology skills is similarly concentrated, with two-thirds of the nation’s technology talent pool working in London, representing approximately 1.75 million professionals. By contrast, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, and Liverpool collectively account for just 13% of the technology talent pool.
Sam Holmes, Accenture Managing Director and Talent Reinvention Lead in the UK, said: “London’s strength as a global technology hub is undoubtedly a success story and has helped establish the UK as a serious player in AI. But as organisations race to recruit the skills needed to realise value from AI, the concentration of AI jobs and talent in one place presents a longer-term challenge for the UK’s growth ambitions.
“AI is not just the preserve of technology companies based in the capital. Businesses across every sector and region of the UK will need AI skills to remain competitive and unlock new sources of productivity and growth. Creating more opportunities for people to develop these skills across the country will be essential if the UK is to realise the full potential of AI, ensuring its benefits are felt in every corner of the country.”
AI is not diminishing demand for developers
While AI is the fastest-growing area of technology hiring, the research suggests demand is also rising for many of the skills businesses need to deploy and support AI effectively, and protect against its threats, with vacancies in engineering and DevOps up 11% to almost 100,000, data analytics up 19% to nearly 90,000, and cybersecurity up almost 20%.
Rising demand for technologists, including cybersecurity professionals, developers and data analysts, across the entire of the UK created over 1.3 million job listings over the past year.
The findings indicate that AI is reshaping technology roles rather than reducing demand for them. As businesses move from AI experimentation to embedding it meaningfully into their operations, a combination of engineers and data expertise are becoming increasingly important in building and integrating the systems that underpin it.
AI hiring surge increases pressure to reskill the workforce
Professionals with AI skills have the highest share of entry-level talent of any technology discipline analysed. More than four in ten professionals with AI skills have fewer than six years’ professional experience, including almost a quarter with two years’ experience or less, suggesting a stronger early-career presence in the UK’s AI talent pool compared to any other technology discipline.
At the same time, the broader technology workforce remains weighted towards experienced professionals, with cloud, digital ethics, engineering and developer talent pools containing the highest proportion of experienced professionals. The findings suggest organisations may increasingly look to build AI capabilities through training and reskilling from a broader base of technical expertise, alongside specialist hiring.
The research also suggests organisations across UK cities may face increased competition for AI skills. AI accounts for a greater share of hiring demand than of the local technology talent pool in every city analysed. The gap, which measures the difference between the share of AI-related hiring demand and the share of professionals with AI skills at the time of analysis, exists across all UK cities, but is most pronounced in Newcastle (+6.0)*, Manchester (+5.1) and Liverpool (+5.1). By contrast, it was lowest in cities with established data and research institutions, such as Oxford (+1.0) and Edinburgh (+1.9).
Sam Holmes added: “Much of the focus is helping young people build successful careers in technology, but the challenge is broader than the pipeline alone. As organisations become more mature in how they use AI, demand is growing for the engineers, developers and data specialists needed to deploy and scale it effectively.
“Far from reducing the need for talent, AI is increasing demand for a wider mix of technology skills. Competition for AI expertise is already intensifying, meaning organisations will need to invest in developing talent alongside recruiting it if they are to keep pace with demand.”
Recent research by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology found that 31% of UK businesses are not confident in storing or transferring personal data securely.
This is demonstrated by new data analysis by cyber security experts at Bridewell, which revealed that over 26,000 data breaches as a result of human error have been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) since 2020.
The Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator for upholding data privacy, has enforcement powers ranging from monetary penalties, enforcement notices, reprimands and even prosecuting individuals and organisations for serious data protection breaches.
Between 2020 and 2025, the top five causes of human-error-related data breaches have been data emailed to the wrong recipient, data posted or faxed to the wrong recipient, failure to redact information, failure to use bcc and the verbal disclosure of personal data. Between 2020 and 2025, human-related breaches rose from 3,847 to 5,496, a 43 percent increase.
The biggest cause by far is emailing data to the wrong recipient, with 11,214 breaches reported since 2020. These incidents have risen from 1,519 in 2020 to 2,459 in 2025, an increase of 62 percent.
This is followed by data being incorrectly posted or faxed to the wrong recipient. Between 2020 and 2025, 4,750 incidents of this nature were reported. Failure to redact information was reported in 3,353 incidents, while failure to bcc was reported in 2,060 incidents. The verbal disclosure of personal data was reported in 1,826 incidents.
The data shows the health industry has the most incidents as a result of human error, with 5,054 reported between 2020 and 2025. The exposed data included personal identifiers, criminal convictions or offences, health data, and economic and financial data, highlighting the risk of this sensitive information falling into the wrong hands.
The local government and education and childcare sectors were also responsible for a high number of incidents. Organisations in the education and childcare sector reported 4,180 data security incidents, while the local government sector reported 3,457.
Many damaging data breaches in recent years started with information being shared in error. In one case, an official from the Ministry of Defence inadvertently exposed a spreadsheet with data containing personal details of nearly 19,000 applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. A Defence Committee report released in July found that the breach stemmed from several failings, including a reliance on inappropriate tools, weak operating procedures, insufficient training and an inadequate culture of data protection.
The data also shows how quickly organisations report these breaches. Of the 26,364 incidents with a recorded reporting time, the largest share (10,077, or 38 percent) were reported between 24 and 72 hours after discovery, while 6,770 (26 percent) were reported in less than 24 hours.
This shows that a majority (64 percent) were reported within 72 hours, the deadline set under UK GDPR for notifying the ICO of a reportable breach. However, more than a third (36 percent) fell outside this window: 5,165 incidents (20 percent) took between 72 hours and a week to report, and 4,352 (17 percent) took more than a week.
Missing the 72-hour window can come with serious consequences. Organisations that report late must justify the delay to the ICO, and failing to notify properly can lead to fines of up to £8.7 million or 2 per cent of global annual turnover, depending of global annual turnover, dependent on which is higher. Delays also harm the people affected, leaving them unaware their data has been exposed and unable to protect themselves by changing passwords or alerting their bank.
“The scale of these incidents highlights how challenging it is for organisations to support employees in handling personal data safely,” Chris Linnell, Associate Director of Data Privacy, said.
“Many data breaches often don’t stem from malicious behaviour, but rather from simple mistakes in busy working environments.
“It’s important for organisations to ensure employees understand their responsibilities and have the practical skills, clear processes, and the right tools to minimise risk.
“Regular, scenario-based training that reflects day-to-day work is also likely to offer greater value than annual e-training sessions, as they help employees recognise risks in context and handle personal data with confidence.
“However, training alone is not enough. Organisations should also simplify and automate processes as much as possible to reduce complexity while still maintaining the integrity of the data. Technical controls such as data loss prevention policies, recipient validation checks, encryption, and ‘nudge’ technologies can provide timely prompts that encourage employees to pause, sense-check their actions before sharing information.
“Finally, a well-tested incident response process and a strong no-blame reporting culture are essential. When employees feel confident that they will be supported rather than criticised, organisations are more likely to identify incidents quickly, limit their impact, and learn from them to prevent future occurrences.”
There’s just one week to go before our second ever CymruSec descends on Cardiff City Stadium.
On October 22nd, hear from top tech leaders from Microsoft, NBCUniversal, and Unilever, gain insider knowledge on the Welsh cyber landscape, and rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the cybersecurity circuit in Wales.
The event is focused on improving awareness and best practice through shared learning; highlighting emerging threats, new research, and changing adversarial tactics, whilst examining practical ways to improve resilience and response.
The day will feature Welsh cyber leaders – from digital forensics insights from University of South Wales lecturer Beth Jenkins, to public sector defence posture from Ryan James, the CISO for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. Delving further into the Welsh cyber ecosystem, a panel featuring leaders from Women in Cyber Wales and AI Wales will delve into emerging threats and bracing defences.
For a global perspective, the summit will feature top cyber minds from companies like BT, ManageEngine, Microsoft, and Unilever. From emerging AI risks to mitigating human error, the day will encompass the full spectrum of the modern cyber threat landscape, providing invaluable insights for CISOs of multinational organisations straight down to SMEs and public sector organisations.
Ray Manash, Head of Business Development & Customer Success (IAM), ManageEngine
Liz Cochlin, CTO, Sero
Sarah Howard-Smith, CISO, Zonal
Jaymie Thomas, CTO & Co-Founder, AI Wales
Carrie Jones, Principal Associate, Capital Law
Clare Johnson, Head of Capability, ITSUS Consulting & Founder, Women in Cyber Unlimited
Beth Jenkins, Digital Forensics Lecturer, University of South Wales
Adam Hopes, Solutions Engineer, Barracuda Networks
Lee Stephens, Director of Security Advisory Services, BT Group
Stephen Crowther, Technology & Analytics Director, SMF
Luke Pulvirenti, AI Coordinator, Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit
Patricia Rodrigues, Sr Cloud Security Engineer, Admiral Group
Ryan James, CISO, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
Charlie Sinclair, Cyber Culture & Human Risk Senior Manager, Unilever
There is still time to register for your free ticket to join us for a packed day of conference talks, Q&A discussions, and networking in the Welsh capital.
NVIDIA announced a five-year compute donation valued at $250 million to strengthen the United Kingdom’s agentic safety and security research capability.
The commitment will provide $50 million in compute access annually to support agentic safety and security research across the UK. The majority will support the wider UK. AI safety and security research community, with a proportion supporting work with the British Open-Ended Learning and Discovery Lab (BOLD), the Science of Fundamental AI Research Lab (SOFAIR) and Imperial College London.
Compute provided through the initiative will be dedicated to agentic safety and security research.
The program will connect complementary areas of UK research, including in AI safety and security. BOLD, led by the University of Oxford, is developing approaches that help AI systems learn, adapt and operate alongside people. SOFAIR, led by UCL, is exploring new open source AI architectures and more accessible ways to develop and deploy AI. Imperial’s work will include safety engineering and robotics.
“AI capability and safety must advance together,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
“The UK brings world-class scientific rigor to this essential engineering challenge. With this $250 million commitment, NVIDIA will put accelerated computing in the hands of UK researchers to develop, test and strengthen safeguards for increasingly powerful AI. This is how the UK turns research leadership into real-world solutions — and scientific progress into a future that benefits everyone.”
UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said: “This commitment is a vote of confidence in our world-leading strength and expertise in AI research — and, in particular, frontier AI safety that is becoming ever more important as AI’s capabilities develop.
“NVIDIA’s donation will help Britain’s AI innovators access the resources they need to bring their ideas to life — and, in the process, help build a distinctly British AI future that is safe, secure and that serves people’s best interests, objectives that will be central to the UK’s G20 presidency.”
NVIDIA will fund compute access through UK-based NVIDIA Cloud Partners, with infrastructure hosted in the UK. This will support the UK compute ecosystem and provide a domestic platform for research. Provider selection, technical architecture and commercial terms are to be agreed.
NVIDIA will fund compute access through UK-based NVIDIA Cloud Partners, with infrastructure hosted in the UK. This will support the UK compute ecosystem and provide a domestic platform for research. Provider selection, technical architecture and commercial terms are to be agreed.
As part of the wider initiative, research programs will focus on secure agents, open-model security and real-world threat mitigations. The work will support secure sandboxes, reproducible research and safety assessment benchmarks, including research conducted using NVIDIA OpenShell™ open, secure runtime software and the NVIDIA Sentry reference design. Findings are intended to inform safeguards across the wider computing ecosystem.
The commitment builds on NVIDIA’s collaboration with the UK’s research community, including on the University of Bristol’s Isambard-AI supercomputer, powered by NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips.
Techscaler, the Scottish Government’s programme for creating, developing and scaling tech startups run by CodeBase, is funding Scottish founders to attend two major investor events this month – the Blue Earth Summit in London and InvestHer Summit in Paris. Both summits will provide Scottish founders with the opportunity to raise their international profile, build investor relationships, and accelerate international growth.
Blue Earth Summit 2026 takes place at Woolwich Works, London from 14 to 16th October. One of Europe’s largest gatherings for sustainability-led businesses and investment, the summit will see over 5,000 attendees, including 1,000 investors, discuss the future economy, from climate and nature to business and capital.
The Techscaler cohort attending Blue Earth Summit, which will be led by Techscaler Entrepreneur in Residence Claudia Freigang, includes:
Amandeep Kalra, CEO and Co-founder of GreenFlip, an AI platform modelling residential heat loss and solar to unlock net zero retrofits and cut fuel poverty.
Pavel Grachev, Founder of Heat21, a startup that recycles waste heat from green compute mining into building hot water, driving decarbonisation and energy flexibility.
Efemena Boro, Director at Borku UK, a digital marketplace driving economic inclusion by connecting African and Caribbean businesses with customers across the UK.
Kyle Smith, CEO and Co-founder of Konductor, an operations platform for distributed portfolios, helping owners generate more, work faster, and protect their assets.
Alicja Dzieciol, CEO and Co-founder of SilvBio, which provides circular, peat-free growing substrates with a 90 per cent lower carbon footprint to eliminate harmful peat use.
Adarsh Bhardwaj, Co-founder of Regeno, which designs plug-and-play wind turbines delivering clean energy faster, removing barriers with a system that’s easier to buy, install and operate.
Kartikay Dhingra, Co-founder of Maricene, which creates seaweed-based biofuel using marine yeast to create scalable, lower carbon energy without relying on freshwater or arable land.
InvestHer Summit 2026 takes place in Paris between 27-28th October, with the global action summit aiming to get one million women entrepreneurs funded by 2030. The summit programme is split between access to capital and market, panels, fireside chats, and breakout sessions.
Jennifer Forbes Iannolo, VP of Business Acceleration at CodeBase, said: “InvestHer is built for founders who are actively raising. Through direct investor access, a marketplace to drive commercial leads, and dedicated on the ground support, women founders get a structured route to capital and international partners who are ready to back ambitious companies.”
The Techscaler cohort participating in the summit includes:
Clare Daly, CEO and Founder of Dynamigo, which nurtures learning potential through an education technology (EdTech) platform offering personalised learning experiences and real time feedback.
Natalie Garry, CEO and Founder of danceSing, which combines movement, music, and mindfulness to improve wellbeing for older adults.
Eve Wildman, Founder and CTO of RIPCELL, a tech startup for sustainable solvent recovery and metal recycling.
Lesley Thomson, CEO and Co-founder of Nudge Innovations, which designs real world solutions for reuse.
Jennifer Forbes Iannolo added: “Whether the goal is connecting with climate-focused investors at Blue Earth Summit or, for women founders, closing a raise at InvestHer, both routes put founders directly in front of people who can accelerate their growth.”
Techscaler also has a Singapore programme commencing on 24th October, and a Hong Kong programme taking place from 14th November. At the end of September at CodeBase in Edinburgh, founders selected for the Singapore programme joined alumni from previous cohorts at a roundtable with Nik Mehta, British High Commissioner to Singapore.
An international group of scientists – including leading figures in AI – have signed a letter urging for the regulation of advanced artificial intelligence models by a new international body.
The scientists, which including AI leaders Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, are calling for a new organisation to standardise containment strategies and incident reporting for AI systems with advanced AI capabilities.
The letter, signed by around 400 scientists, comes after several high-profile incidents of breaches by new AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta.
The newly propose organisation would aim to set containment standards for the AI industry in an effort to prevent such instances of breaches.
It would also establish a register of security events perpetrated by AI models, which would eventually be made public, the scientists said.
The letter urges that voluntary commitments – such as the ones made by top AI firms to the White House – on AI safety are not enough to secure frontier AI models or ensure their testing is truly safe and secure.
Specifically, the letter proposes that frontier AI models should be completely compartmentalised from external networks, and should be under the review of independent oversight, in order to avoid past mistakes in sandboxing which allowed AI models to infiltrate and breach different external systems.
It urges organisations currently testing cyber-capable AI models to adopt high-assurance containment standards.
The letter comes as the UK’s AI Minister warns that heightened AI cyber capabilities – or merely the testing of new AI models – would “likely” breach the UK’s cyber defences at some point.
Kanishka Narayan warned that a UK government cyber breach was “likely, if not inevitable” in the wake of OpenAI’s AI model hacking of the Australian government’s health system.
He gave his own message to AI developers: “Listen when your scientists warn of serious dangers. Investigate unexpected behaviour. And if you cannot adequately control the risks, do not release the system.”
UK venture capital firms raised $6.9 billion across 31 new funds in the third quarter of 2026, the strongest fundraising quarter on record and more than four times the quarterly average of the past two years, according to new analysis from HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Dealroom.
The record quarter comes as UK startups and scaleups attracted $6.1 billion in venture capital investment, maintaining the UK’s position as Europe’s leading venture market.
Fundraising was driven by established venture managers across several major fund raises. Index Ventures closed three new funds worth a combined $3.5 billion across seed, venture and growth strategies. Highland Europe raised €1.1 billion for its sixth growth fund, and QuantumLight raised $500 million for its second fund, while Crane Venture Partners raised $484 million across four new funds.
Together, the 31 funds closed during the quarter represent a substantial pool of new capital available to back the next generation of startups and scaleups.
Late-stage rounds drive UK venture investment
Late-stage businesses accounted for most of the capital raised during the quarter, attracting $3.5 billion, equivalent to 58% of total UK venture investment.
Major rounds included CityFibre’s $1.2 billion raise, FNZ’s $450 million round and OLIX’s $312 million funding. Breakout-stage companies raised a further $1.9 billion, while early-stage businesses attracted $740 million.
Fintech and health remained among the UK’s most active venture sectors, recording 51 and 62 funding rounds respectively during the quarter.
Semiconductor startups raised $497 million during the quarter, taking total investment in the sector to $1.6 billion in 2026 and already surpassing the previous full-year record of $1.3 billion set in 2025. Almost half of all UK semiconductor funding since 2010 has now been raised in the past two years, underlining the recent acceleration in investment in the sector.
Domestic investors also played a prominent role in UK deal activity, with nine of the ten most active investors in UK funding rounds during Q3 headquartered in the UK. Together, those investors participated in 60 deals during the quarter.
The UK continued to lead Europe for venture capital investment during Q3, attracting 25% of all investment across the continent. Across the first nine months of 2026, UK startups and scaleups have raised $23.3 billion, representing 35% of European venture capital and more than twice the amount attracted by either Germany or France.
Emily Turner, CEO, HSBC Innovation Banking UK, said: “The record level of venture fundraising this quarter is an encouraging signal for the UK innovation ecosystem. Capital raised today gives investors greater firepower to back ambitious businesses through their next stages of growth, and the breadth of new funds being raised shows continued confidence in the opportunities ahead.
“Investment will always fluctuate from quarter to quarter, but the UK continues to have the ingredients that matter: ambitious founders, world-class research and experienced investors with capital to deploy. Maintaining that momentum will be critical to helping more promising companies build and scale from the UK.”
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has joined with the Five Eyes international collaboration for cybersecurity to call out the malicious cyber acvitities enabled by a seemingly legitiate China-linked technology firm.
The NCSC has issued a new advisory with the Five Eyes revealing how Integrity Technology Group, a China-based company with links to the Chinese Government, has enabled malicious China-linked cyber actions to exploit and compromise networks belonging to organisations across the globe.
Malicious cyber actors, allegedly enabled by Integrity Tech, are uniquely using AI tools, such as automated scanning, alongside large-scale botnets and manual exploitation techniques to compromise and steal confidential data from companies around the world, including critical sectors.
Last year, the UK government sanctioned Integrity Tech, alongside another China-based information security company for their part in malicious cyber activity against the UK and its allies.
The advisory also highlights that the company employs individuals who support a range of malicious cyber activities and contribute to the wider Chinese cyber ecosystem, including developing tools for use and sale, acquiring and hosting infrastructure and compromising networks across the globe.
The activity in the advisory is reported to be consistent with campaigns also publicly known as Flax Typhoon, Ethereal Panda and Red Juliett among others.
“The extensive malicious cyber activities, and services by Integrity Tech, that have been exposed today should be extremely concerning for all network defenders,” Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations.
“The breadth of sectors that have been targeted across the globe demonstrate the extent of the threat and all organisations should take note of this warning and engage with NCSC advice and guidance.
“We will continue to call out malicious actors and the malevolent ecosystem they operate in.”
Organisations are being urged to understand the threat and techniques used by these cyber actors and follow the mitigation advice to helpful defend against the activity highlighted in the advisory.
In September 2024, the NCSC alongside international partners, exposed Integrity Tech as the operator of a substantial botnet, where a network of internet-connected devices are infected with malware and controlled to carry out cyber attacks, and was utilised by advanced persistent threat group, Flax Typhoon.
Earlier this year, the NCSC alongside industry and 15 international partners from across nine countries issued an advisory and guidance highlighting how organisations can better defend against the cyber threat from covert networks.
The NCSC has co-sealed this new advisory alongside agencies from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the United States.
Individuals and organisations from finance to education have been revealed as finalists for the Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) 2026 awards.
The shortlist was announced this evening at an event hosted by headline sponsor Morgan Stanley at its Glasgow office. It reflects the breadth of Scotland’s technology ecosystem, celebrating the achievements of 27 organisations in 10 categories across financial services, artificial intelligence, data, cybersecurity, software engineering and STEM education.
Now in their ninth year, the awards recognise contributions at every career stage – from rising stars and career changers to mentors, innovators, everyday leaders, gender diversity allies and female innovators. Organisational categories also celebrate outstanding diversity initiatives and inclusive recruitment practices.
Silka Patel, Founder and Chair of Scotland Women in Technology said: “Since founding SWiT 18 years ago, I have been a big believer in the position that if you cannot see it, then you cannot be it. This year’s incredible shortlist which includes computing teachers, tech associates, company founders and vice presidents at globally renowned firms highlights that representation does indeed exist, and gender championship is happening across the breadth of roles that exist within the tech sector – from the grassroots to global networks. I cannot wait to celebrate each of our finalists in November.”
The winners will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony at the Glasgow Marriott Hotel on Thursday 5th November. Morgan Stanley is the 2026 awards headline sponsor and The Royal Bank of Scotland are gold sponsor.
Marina Carson, Executive Director at Morgan Stanley said: “When women thrive in technology, innovation thrives. Morgan Stanley is proud to headline sponsor the Scotland Women in Technology Awards, recognising those breaking barriers, driving change, and shaping the future of our industry.”
The full shortlist of nominees for the SWiT Awards 2026 include:
Category
Name
Organisation
Role
Inspirational Woman of the Year Award – sponsored by Harvey Nash
Sheryl Newman
Appetite for Business
Founder
Ivona Voroneckaja
Hypercube
Product Manager
Toni Scullion
dressCode & West Lothian Council
Founder & Computer Science Teacher
Emma Mackenzie
ScottishPower
Cyber Governance Lead
Unsung Hero Award – sponsored by Tesco Insurance and Money Services
Lora Barclay
John G Russell Group
Group Business Systems Manager
Jessica Saridakis
Morgan Stanley
Vice President
Sowmya Ramesh
2i
Customer Success Manager
Female Innovator Award – sponsored by Avaloq
Alex Sheach
StructuredAF
Founder
Colette Robinson
Morgan Stanley
Executive Director
Megan Reutin
Grünenthal
Global Head of Data Science, Advanced Analytics and AI
Esma Benssassi
AffectiveHalo
Founder and CEO,
Career Changer of the Year Award – sponsored by Leidos
Chloe Masterson
Modulr
AI and Automation
Clare Parry
Head for Data
Head of Operations
Chloe Urquhart
2i
Junior Quality Engineer
Katherine Lavery
NHS Public Services Delivery (PSD) Scotland
Cyber Security Operations Analyst
Diversity Initiative of the Year Award – sponsored by The Data Lab
ScotlandIS Scholarship with Education Academy Scotland
ScotlandIS
Hopper Awards
dressCode
Ada Scotland Festival
Ada Scotland
Mentor of the Year Award – sponsored by FanDuel
Linda Scott
Connexus
Fractional Consultant
Andrea Rosales
MosAIc
Co-founder
Natasha Kydd
Morgan Stanley
Vice President, Cyber Security
Shruti Nagaraj
JPMorganChase
Associate
Inclusive Recruiter of the Year Award
Lloyds Banking Group
Leidos
Gigged AI
Gender Diversity Ally of the Year Award – sponsored by 2i
Jack Walker
St George’s School
Lead teacher of Computing
Derek Shanks
Lloyds Banking Group
Technology Director, Wealth & Insurance
Joe McGonagle
JPMorganChase
Executive Director
Everyday Leader Award – sponsored by JPMorganChase
Additionally, it was confirmed this week that Margaret Totten, Chief Revenue Officer at Yavrio, had been appointed as Vice Chair of SWiT. A board trustee since 2019, Margaret previously served as SWiT Treasurer.
There’s less than 2 weeks to go before our second ever CymruSec descends on Cardiff City Stadium.
On October 22nd, hear from top tech leaders from Microsoft, NBCUniversal, and Unilever, gain insider knowledge on the Welsh cyber landscape, and rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the cybersecurity circuit in Wales.
The event is focused on improving awareness and best practice through shared learning; highlighting emerging threats, new research, and changing adversarial tactics, whilst examining practical ways to improve resilience and response.
The day will feature Welsh cyber leaders – from digital forensics insights from University of South Wales lecturer Beth Jenkins, to public sector defence posture from Ryan James, the CISO for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. Delving further into the Welsh cyber ecosystem, a panel featuring leaders from Women in Cyber Wales and AI Wales will delve into emerging threats and bracing defences.
For a global perspective, the summit will feature top cyber minds from companies like BT, ManageEngine, Microsoft, and Unilever. From emerging AI risks to mitigating human error, the day will encompass the full spectrum of the modern cyber threat landscape, providing invaluable insights for CISOs of multinational organisations straight down to SMEs and public sector organisations.
Ray Manash, Head of Business Development & Customer Success (IAM), ManageEngine
Liz Cochlin, CTO, Sero
Sarah Howard-Smith, CISO, Zonal
Jaymie Thomas, CTO & Co-Founder, AI Wales
Carrie Jones, Principal Associate, Capital Law
Clare Johnson, Head of Capability, ITSUS Consulting & Founder, Women in Cyber Unlimited
Beth Jenkins, Digital Forensics Lecturer, University of South Wales
Adam Hopes, Solutions Engineer, Barracuda Networks
Lee Stephens, Director of Security Advisory Services, BT Group
Stephen Crowther, Technology & Analytics Director, SMF
Luke Pulvirenti, AI Coordinator, Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit
Patricia Rodrigues, Sr Cloud Security Engineer, Admiral Group
Ryan James, CISO, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
Charlie Sinclair, Cyber Culture & Human Risk Senior Manager, Unilever
There is still time to register for your free ticket to join us for a packed day of conference talks, Q&A discussions, and networking in the Welsh capital.
The Information Commission’s Office (ICO) has secured data protection improvements from ten of the world’s largest AI foundation model developers in a new report published today.
It comes as the data protection regulator launches a call for evidence on agentic AI and confirms enquiries around recent agentic AI testing, marking the next phase in its work to regulate the technology.
Industry improvements to foundation models
From chatbots to assistants, many AI tools are powered by a relatively small number of foundation models. They are trained on large volumes of personal data and can be adapted for different purposes.
Following scrutiny from the ICO, ten of the biggest foundation model developers operating in the UK – Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Cohere, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Stability AI – have made, or committed to make, data protection changes.
These included clearer transparency information, stronger mechanisms for people to exercise their rights and tougher assessments of safeguards. The ICO is monitoring developers’ progress against their commitments.
The report also sets out the ICO’s regulatory positions on key issues, including how special category data can be used lawfully and whether foundation models themselves may contain personal data.
The ICO acknowledges that current foundation model training practices present technical challenges when it comes to complying with UK data protection law and data protection by design principles.
The regulator is proactively raising these boundaries of the law with Government, as addressing them will require ongoing collaboration between industry, regulators and Government as the technology continues to evolve.
The rise of AI agents
Foundation models underpin a new wave of AI agents capable of completing tasks, using tools and interacting with websites, often with limited human oversight.
As these systems become more autonomous, the data protection risks are evolving – from questions about how AI systems are trained to how they might behave independently once deployed.
Richard Nevinson, Director of Technology Regulation at the ICO, said: “AI has huge potential to benefit our society, but that depends on trust and transparency.
“Our engagement with some of the biggest developers has secured real commitments that will help people better understand and control how their data is used, even in a fast-moving and complex area. But as AI systems operate with greater autonomy, robust data protection safeguards become even more critical.”
The ICO has today launched a six-week call for evidence, seeking views from developers, deployers and other experts on how organisations are managing the data protection risks of agentic AI.
The ICO has recently made enquiries with OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and the UK’s AI Security Institute around recent agentic AI testing and deployment.
In some cases, certain agents reportedly bypassed protections, used unauthorised communication channels and accessed external systems such as Hugging Face, raising potential concerns about safeguards, accountability and oversight.
Richard Nevinson added: “These recent reports show both how fast these systems are advancing, and the risks they pose if the guardrails aren’t fit for purpose.
“Our message is clear: the fact AI agents act with autonomy is not an excuse for poor compliance. If people are to trust AI innovation, they rightly expect to know how their personal information is being protected.”
The evidence gathered from the call will inform future ICO guidance, providing greater clarity to organisations and supporting them to innovate responsibly while protecting people’s rights. It will also support the development of the ICO’s forthcoming statutory code of practice on AI and automated decision-making.
Another priority area for the ICO is the increasing personalisation of consumer-facing AI services, such as popular general-purpose chatbots and chatbots used for role-play and companion purposes.
The regulator is conducting research with the public to understand any concerns and engaging with firms to ensure that their products meet people’s needs in a transparent and privacy-focused way.
UK banking giant HSBC is planning to cut about half of its wealth management specialist positions and reduce the number of financial advisors by 70% as the firm replaces humans with AI.
According to reporting from the Financial Times, HSBC is replacing a large portion of its wealth management business with AI.
The report describes the layoffs s as “deep, wide, and burtal.”
“HSBC UK is a long-established, leading UK wealth manager and premium banking provider,” said HSBC in a statement.
“We’re continuing to evolve to deliver more digitally enabled products and journeys to support our best-in-class wealth service and meet the changing needs of our customers.”
HSBC has been one of the keenest banks in the UK when it comes to AI adoption – it ranked 11th globally in a banking sector AI adoption tracker, beating out other UK banks.
The firm – like other banks – appointed an chief AI officer, and also launched an AI centre of excellence in Singapore, aiming to improve its pool of AI talent.
HSBC is not the only UK bank making strides when it comes to AI, though reactions and job shifts look very different depending on the firm.
Lloyds Banking Group for instance is adding 300 new roles focussed on agentic AI while it bolsters the skills of its current staff.
While HSBC opts for layoffs, it remains to be seen if this will pay off for the bank as the financial sector is one of the most reliant on personal trust.
Now in its fifth year, Scotland’s national ethnic minority talent platform returns for its landmark National Convergence at Tynecastle Park on 29th October.
The Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit and Festival 2026 will reach its National Convergence Point at Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, on Thursday 29th October. The event will bring together employers, professionals, healthcare leaders, technology experts, educators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and community organisations from across Scotland for a day of connection, conversation, and opportunity.
Over five years, SEMTSF has grown into a nationally recognised platform where Scotland’s diverse workforce meets the employers and decision-makers shaping the country’s future. What began as a bold ambition is now an established fixture in Scotland’s workforce and inclusion calendar, and this year’s Edinburgh edition is the most significant to date.
From Conversation to Opportunity
Scotland’s economy is being reshaped by digital transformation, the energy transition, and rapidly changing workforce needs. Against that backdrop, access to diverse, skilled talent is no longer simply a question of inclusion; it is a practical necessity for organisations building the capabilities they need for the years ahead.
SEMTSF 2026 creates the space where conversations become connections, and where connections lead to real opportunities for employment, partnership, mentoring, enterprise, and growth.
The Edinburgh programme will feature panel discussions and contributions covering careers, digital skills, health, technology, entrepreneurship, and inclusive economic growth, alongside dedicated networking opportunities that give every attendee a genuine chance to connect with the people and organisations that matter to them.
SEMTSF 2026 Edinburgh gives employers and organisations a direct opportunity to engage with Scotland’s diverse talent pool, showcase career opportunities, build community and business partnerships, and demonstrate a genuine commitment to inclusion in action, not just in policy.
For professionals, graduates, and those starting in their careers, the Edinburgh Summit offers the opportunity to meet employers actively seeking diverse talent, explore career pathways across multiple sectors, build networks, and hear from experienced leaders working across inclusion, technology, health, and enterprise. Attendance as a delegate is free.
Book your free Summit delegate ticket here: https://luma.com/9459mnpl
The Edinburgh event will close with the Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Awards Gala, celebrating organisations and employers making a positive contribution to ethnic minority inclusion, talent development, and community impact across Scotland.
The Gala brings together senior leaders, businesses, and professionals from across the country. Tables and individual tickets are available for organisations and individuals wishing to attend and be part of this special evening alongside some of Scotland’s most active voices in diversity and talent.
Book your SEMTA Awards Gala ticket or table here: https://luma.com/20fgixmh
Get Involved
Exhibition spaces at the SEMTSF 2026 Edinburgh Summit are limited. Exhibiting allows organisations to showcase their work, promote careers and opportunities, and engage directly with professionals, emerging talent, and community stakeholders from across Scotland.
To register your interest in exhibiting or for any further information, please get in touch at info@thedatakirk.org.uk
Scottish technology company Machines With Vision is targeting the global US$78 billion rail maintenance sector after securing a multi-million, multi-year contract with Network Rail, as imprecise defect location data is estimated to cost the industry US$6 billion a year worldwide through repeat visits and wasted crew time.
Beyond the significant financial cost, inaccurate defect location can also create a serious safety risk, unnecessarily exposing rail workers to potentially hazardous trackside environments as they search for defects that have been identified but cannot be precisely located.
Machines With Vision has developed innovative technology that uses cameras fitted to the underside of inspection trains to build a highly accurate image-based geospatial map of any railway network, enabling higher levels of safety, efficiency, and automation for railway infrastructure inspection and maintenance.
“Rail networks are complicated and dangerous environments,” said Machines With Vision CEO and Co-founder Anthony Ashbrook, “and the safety of workers and the general public is paramount. Ensuring that track workers get to the right place first time minimises the risk of a missed defect, keeping trains running safely and efficiently while making maintenance work itself safer.”
Machines With Vision maps the track visually and navigates crews directly to faults with millimetre accuracy via the company’s RailLoc system and Fault Navigator mobile app.
The contract win follows a successful pilot carried out with Network Rail over a two-year period.
Mark Chestney, Infrastructure Monitoring Programme Manager at Network Rail, said: “For every suspect, it would previously take on average an hour once you got on site to find it, now we’re talking five minutes. We have thousands of suspects every year, so that’s thousands of hours saved and thousands of hours of reduced exposure to slips, trips, and falls.”
Mark Chestney added: “With emergency speed restrictions costing thousands of pounds a minute in certain locations, deploying people to fix things rather than find things is a much more efficient way of working.”
Brian Whitney, Engineering Expert (Track) at Network Rail, said: “Fault Navigator and RailLoc represent a significant step forward in how we identify and verify rail defects. Accurate defect location reduces unnecessary track exposure, improves the effectiveness of verification activities and helps ensure maintenance resources are targeted where they are needed most. The potential benefits for workforce safety, productivity and asset management are considerable.”
Machines With Vision’s leadership team combines deep railway expertise with extensive experience in technology and high-growth businesses. CEO and Co-founder Anthony Ashbrook pioneered Mobile Visual Search, now used in apps including Amazon Shopping and Google Lens.
CTO Jon Owen played a key role in digitally mapping the UK rail network and developed the sector’s first visual inspection system. CCO Justin Stroud is the former European MD of Sperry Rail, while Head of Operations Russel Licence spent almost two decades in senior roles at Network Rail. Director Richard Lennox brings extensive scaleup experience from leadership positions at Skyscanner, acquired by Ctrip for $1.7 billion in 2016, and Current Health, acquired by Best Buy for $400 million in 2021.
CEO Ashbrook said: “We have built a team that combines high-level technology and rail sector experience, and this combination positions us to become a key player as the market continues to evolve towards increasing automation. Many think of rail as an historic industry, when in truth it is set to become even more integral to economies, societies, and global sustainability going forward.”
The news comes as Machines With Vision expands its work with other national railway infrastructure operators across Europe, North America, and Australasia, while the company has also embarked on its latest external investment round to support its continued international growth.
Anthony Ashbrook added: “We’re excited about our international expansion plans and expect to announce related contract wins in due course, as we accelerate our internationalisation with investors who share our vision.”
The winners of the 2026 Scottish Financial Technology Awards have been announced, with Aveni, the firm designing AI for financial services, securing the prestigious “Fintech of the Year” award on the evening.
Hosted live at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, this year’s awards recognised outstanding companies and individuals working in Scotland’s financial services and fintech ecosystem.
The packed ceremony helped round off the Scotland Fintech Festival with cause for celebration, and gave the ecosystem’s leaders and innovators the chance to recognise their contributions following another eventful year both in and for the sector.
Aleks Tomczyk, CEO of FinTech Scotland said on the night: “Tonight is the official end of the Fintech Scotland Festival. It follows the FinTech Summit – the cornerstone of the FinTech Festival.
“We must celebreate the success of Scotland fintech ecosystem tonight as a community and as a cluster.
“I hope to see the companies honoured and featured in tonight’s awards become even more successful.”
Tomczyk is just nine months into his role – the fresh perspective has provided him the time to re-reflect on how much the Fintech Festival means to Scotland’s fledgling ecosystem.
“What I’ve been most struck by is the depth, talent, and quality of companies and individuals operating in the ecosytem,” he said. “I’m certain by working together we will be able to see success for everyone.”
Ray Bugg, DIGIT founder said: “When we first launched the awards in 2018, we did it because we wanted to celebrate progress and development whithin the commnity we noticed was building on Scotland.
“It was fantastic to bring Scotland’s vibrant financial services and fintech communities together under one roof.
“Since its launch, the Scotland Fintech Festival has showcased the innovation and pioneering spirit of these industries far and wide, highlighting their importance to Scotland’s economy and her people. I expect 2026 will be no different.
“We’d like to offer our congratulations to both the winners and finalists on the evening.”
To find out the full list of winners, read on.
Scottish Financial Technology Awards: The Winners
This year, it was Edinburgh-based Aveni which triumphed over stiff competition to win the coveted prize of Fintech of the Year.
The fintech’s meshing of innovative AI with top tier regulatory expertise set it apart in this tumultuous landscape of emerging tech and governance needs. Judges were impressed by the fintech’s scale of new progress and growth over the past year.
Agant Finance Limited won the prestigious “Start Up/ New Entrant of the Year” prize.The startup, founded in 2024, impressed the judges with its issuing of compliant stablecoins in an emerging UK market.
Malted, the Edinburgh-based startup, won the award for best use of data/AI for its bespoke distilled AI development model.
The firm also won part of the Best Fintech Collaboration award with the Scottish Building Society for its symbiotic collaboration.
Alan Torrance of JP Morgan was honoured as Outstanding Leader, with judges highlighting the shear breadth of his infulence across Scottish FinTech.
Graeme Rennison, of Scottish Enterprise, was posthumously given the special recognition award at the event.
His widow, Tammie Rennison, accepted the award, saying: “Graeme was so dedicated and passionate about fintech, from the start he was so passionate. Normally, he would be here, on the judging panel. He really championed them all. His big smile would be beaming right now.”
Asos app users recieved a strange notification this morning after some users reported issues with the UK retailer’s website.
The notification appears to have been sent through ASOS’s official app, although the retailer has yet to confirm whether its systems or customer data have been compromised.
The message was directed at Asos data protection officer and its IT department.
“Dear Asos DPO and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance,” the message to customers read.
Customers reported issues on Downdetector with the retailer’s website earlier this morning prior to the circulating app notification.
The message ended: “Engage with us, or we leak it.” It includes a link which could be to the alleged attacker’s Telegram channel.
The attackers claim to have compromised an ASOS Snowflake instance. Snowflake provides a cloud data platform used by organisations to store, process and analyse data, with an “instance” in this context referring to a customer’s environment on the platform.
However, it has not yet been confirmed that ASOS uses Snowflake or that any customer data has been accessed.
Snowflake customer environments have previously been targeted in a major data-theft campaign that affected organisations including Ticketmaster and Santander. Investigators at the time said the incidents involved compromised customer credentials rather than a breach of Snowflake’s own systems.
The unusual nature of the alleged breach revolves around the message to customers – most dealings between targeted companies and cyber extortioners are behind closed doors. Threatening the firm over messages to customers shows that the hackers have alleged access to communications operations, and want the hack to be publicly known.
The hacking group behind the alleged hack has only created its shared Telegram today, and is calling itself Xuanye Group.
Asos has now provided an updated via a statement to DIGIT:
“ASOS can confirm that, at around 10am today, an unauthorised customer notification was sent to ASOS customers.
“We are investigating unauthorised activity involving third-party platforms that we use to communicate with customers. We took immediate action to restrict access to the notification platforms and are working with our internal and external specialist advisers, as well as all relevant authorities.
“Basic personal information including name and contact details may have been accessed. We do not believe that payment-card information or account passwords, were impacted.
“Our website and app are operating as normal, with no current disruption to any aspects of our operations. Customer trust is incredibly important to us, and if the situation changes an update will be provided as appropriate.
“The Company has cyber security insurance with a large global provider, including business continuity insurance. It is too early to quantify any potential impact on trading.”
The UK media regulator has opened an investigation into Meta’s implimentation of its new Instagram Instants.
Ofcom is investigating if Meta properly assessed the risks posed by the new feature prior to its launch, as required by the Online Safety Act.
Risk assessments are paramount to the Act’s implimentation and are required to be carried out by firms prior to the introduction of new products or services, especially those that may be used by children and young people.
Firms must also assess and mitigate the risk of people in the UK encountering illegal content – their risk assessments must be updated before making any significant changes to their services.
Ofcom’s investigation centres around Instagram Instants, where content is shared by users and then disappears after it has been viewed.
“Our online safety laws are clear – significant changes to platforms must be risk assessed before they’re launched,” George Lusty, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said.
“This is a vital step that tech firms must take to protect their users. You wouldn’t launch a new car without testing it properly, and it’s the same for online services.
“Safety by design must be built in, not bolted on, and today’s investigation shows we’ll take action where we have concerns that providers are failing to comply.”
If Ofcom finds that Meta did break the law, the regulator can require the firm to take specific steps to come into compliance and to remedy harm caused by the breach. It can also impose fines of up to £18m or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.
October marks cybersecurity month, and according to recent data, almost two thirds (61%) of workers admitted that they’ve received no training whatsoever on AI-driven cyber threats in the past 12 months.
The study conducted by QA, an AI technology and cybersecurity training partner, revealed that there’s a significant gap in how prepared businesses are against AI-driven threats, and how confident staff feel in spotting these convincing fakes.
Over one in five (22%) confirmed that their organisation has no policies in place in combating phishing emails, deepfake voice scams to AI-generated fake invoices.
As AI-powered cyber threats become more common and accessible, attacks that were once highly sophisticated are now increasingly difficult for employees to identify, creating new risks for organisations of all sizes.
Confidence is a necessity for both businesses and workers when it comes to speaking up and spotting any potential threats to their organisation. Surprisingly, 18-24-year-olds were the least confident in getting caught out, with almost two in five (39%) admitting their worries. Being so exposed to media, Generation Z potentially have a good grasp on how convincing AI can be, compared to other generations who aren’t as digitally savvy.
It isn’t just age where there appears to be a confidence gap, but job role too. Only 9% of non-management workers said they were very confident they could spot an AI-generated phishing email, compared to 48% of owners/ partners and 33% of board directors. Suggesting that there’s a clear need for training to be filtered down throughout workforces.
Where training has been received, only one in four (25%) confirmed they’ve had specific training on AI-driven threats, while another 30% said that AI threats had only been covered as part of generic cybersecurity training. Meaning that 70% of workers have either received no training or have only had AI threats covered through other forms of cybersecurity training, rather than taking dedicated training.
Speaking on the findings, Dr Vicky Crockett, Portfolio Director for AI at QA, is sharing her expertise on how businesses can help employees be well informed and confident in spotting potential AI-driven cyber threats, that can ultimately negatively impact businesses.
She said: “It’s clear from the survey data that organisations need to build the foundations on basic AI literacy, so that business leaders and workers feel confident in spotting these threats. When it comes to training, it’s imperative that all job roles can positively spot any AI-driven cyber threats, but when it comes to AI training, there’s no one size fits all, so combining baseline AI literacy learning with job specific training is usually the best fit.”
Jo Bishenden, Chief Learning Officer at QA, further commented: “The findings suggest organisations are facing a skills challenge as much as a cybersecurity challenge. AI is changing the way people work, but many employees are not building the skills they need to understand the risks and opportunities that come with these new technologies.
“As AI becomes part of everyday working life, businesses need to invest in building AI literacy, cyber awareness and digital confidence across the entire workforce. Through the right skills training, apprenticeships and continuous learning programmes, organisations can equip their people with the skills they need to work safely, adapt to change and make the most of emerging technologies.”
New plans have been submitted to the Dumrfies and Galloway Council for a £16.5 billion data centre campus at the former nuclear power station at Chapelcross.
The plans were submitted by CX-Tech, an Annan-based firm, aiming to bring eight data centres to the new “CX Technology Campus,” as well as a dedicated training centre.
The planning application includes eight data centre buildings amounting to 162,000 square metres of floor space. Each data centre would have the capacity of about 120MW, equating to about 1GW total for the campus.
The data centre would therefore be one of the largest in the UK if it is approved. The application is importantly at its earliest stages, setting out only a planning framework, with information on designs, investment, and commercial planning to come at later phases.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Dumfries and Galloway and for Scotland,” Graeme Anderson, CEO of CX Tech Limited, said.
“Chapelcross has the potential to bring together our renewable energy strengths, digital infrastructure and high-value jobs in a way that few other sites can. We have an opportunity to seize that potential now, creating a new economic future for a site that has played an important role in Scotland’s energy story for generations.”
CX Tech says that the campus will be designed in like with the UK Green Building Council framework to be net zero.
The location of the site is next to a 132kV grid supply point, and the firm has found about 1GW of consented or planned renewable generation within 5km of Chapelcross, and about 2GW within 20km.
Environmentally, carbon from the construction would be managed via a construction environmental management plan, and backup generation would only be used in exceptional circumstances and be fossil free, the company said.
CX Tech’s data centre design will employ the use of closed-loop, non-evaporative air cooling in order to avoid large-scale water usage commonly employed by other large data centres. The data centres would use about the same amount of water as 32 houses total, the firm projects.
Its environmental assessment covers air quality, biodiversity, landscape, water, ground conditions, climate, human health, heritage, noise, air quality, and transport.
Environmental impact assements will be a requirement for all AI data centre applications, but the specificiations of this is yet to be determined by the Scottish government. All AI data centre planning applications are therefore paused until the government decides on the specific requirements for the environmental assessment.
Already, opposition to the data centre has occurred, with a petition tited “say no to Chapelcross AI data centre’ gaining almost 3,000 signatures.
Join the Conversation
Join us at DIGIT Expo 2026!
Hear specialists from Skyscanner, Microsoft, IBM, FanDuel, and Wayve, J.P. Morgan, Multiverse, Arnold Clark, and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.
Delve into top trends and enjoy some world class networking.
More than 200 projects with the potential to unlock £31.8 billion of investment across the South of Scotland have been identified in new research.
Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth will today hair a meeting of the Convention of the South of Scotland in Dumfries, where leaders will discuss the findings alongside the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government and the role of Regional Economic Partnerships in driving sustainable regional growth.
Commissioned by South of Scotland Enterprise, on behalf of South of Scotland Regional Economic Partnership, the research highlights 202 transformational projects spanning clean energy, natural capital, advanced manufacturing, technology, life sciences, tourism and the creative industries.
If realised, the opportunities could support 73,000 construction job-years and almost 8,000 long-term jobs.
“The South of Scotland is full of ambition, innovation and opportunity. This research shows the significant contribution the region can make to Scotland’s economic future, with projects that have the potential to attract investment, create jobs and deliver long-term growth,” Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth said.
“We are committed to working closely with regional and local partners to make the most of the South of Scotland’s unique strengths and opportunities.
“Today’s Convention brings together leaders from across the region to discuss how we can turn this potential into reality, empower regional partnerships and ensure communities and businesses are well placed to benefit from future growth.”
The Convention brings together the Scottish Government, Dumfries and Galloway Council, Scottish Borders Council and public sector partners to strengthen collaboration, align national and regional priorities, and support inclusive economic growth across the South of Scotland.
Russel Griggs, Chair of South of Scotland Enterprise, added: “This report highlights the scale of opportunity we have in the South of Scotland, and it can only get bigger and better.
“Given the right investment, and the housing, transport and skills to support it, it will help the South of Scotland’s economy grow further and make a powerful contribution to Scotland’s national economy and growth ambitions.”
Vulnerability disclosures doubled in 2026, with exploitation following suit, as AI is finding more impactful vulnerabilities.
This is according to Google Threat Intelligence Group’s (GTIG) newest blog discussing vulernability exploitation in the AI era.
While zero-day exploits have only increased marginally, overall vulernability exploitation nearly doubled, increasing from an average of 10.5 per month in 2025 to an average of 18 per month from January 2026 to August 2026.
GTIG researchers say that the likely source of the exploitation growth was through the weaponisation of n-day vulnerabilities, specifically geared towards those that are high-risk.
As far as attack surfaces go, edge gateways emerage as a premier initial access vector, with over 65% of these atacks meeting high or ciritical threat risk ratings. Threat actors regularly targeted unauthenticated public management interafaces to exploit EDR agent blindspots.
Meanwhile, appliances represented 14% of vulnerabiliites, while 11% were via enterprise directory and collaboration hubs.
AI-Assiseted Vulnerability Discovery
While GTIG admits that the current available data will undercount the number of vulnerbailities discovered by AI, it has been able to do so in some cases through verified lab and vendor ledgers, as well as through advisory and release analysis.
The resesarchers found that AI-discovered vulnerabilities were more likely to qualify as a higher threat risk than conventional CVE disclosures. 69% of conventional vulnerbaility disclosures were rated low risk, while 28% were rated medium. Inversely, 58% of AI-discovered vulnerabilities were rated medium, while low risk findings amounted to 39%.
These results likely reveal how AI agents are being used to find and exploit vulnerabilities – rather than being used for broad-range automated scans for flaws, AI agents are being prompted with more specific tasks to focus on high-impact vulnerabilities.
This is translating into execution: 50% of vulnerabiliites discovered by AI resulted in remote code execution, compared to the 26% average for the entire CVE ecosystem.
However, AI seems to perform works in lower-impact categories, such as information disculosure and data manipulation.
“While currently an early indicator rather than an established trend, confirmed exploitation of AI-discovered vulnerabilities demonstrates that increased risk from AI-discovered flaws is not purely theoretical,” the GTIG blog post said.
The Scottish Government is investing nearly £3 million to help turn university research projects into commercial business propositions.
Seventeen projects from seven different universities will share £2.92 million of funding from the Proof of Concept fund, which was piloted last year to help researchers explore and realise the commercial potential of their research.
The funding will help accelerate various aspects of the spinout process, from developing prototype products to undertaken market analysis and pitching to investors.
Projects being funded this year include:
Kinera at Heriot Watt University, which is developing a wearable health monitoring device for people with Parkinson’s disease to help clinicians make more personalised treatment decisions
Merra-log at the University of St Andrews, which is developing a low-cost environmental monitoring system to collect and transmit high-quality marine and freshwater data in near real time
Scensai at the University of Aberdeen, which is developing an affordable handheld chemical sensing device for the drinks industry
Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism & Transport Stephen Flynn said: “The Scottish Government has now invested nearly £6 million over the last two years to realise the economic potential of more Scottish spinout companies starting and succeeding.
“Scotland’s universities have been the birthplace of some of the world’s greatest ideas and inventions for centuries – ideas and inventions which have improved lives and solved problems across the world – and it is vital this innovation continues to be nurtured.”
“The support of the Scottish Government is helping us take an important step towards improving the diagnosis of chronic gastrointestinal disorders. This funding will enable us to advance a technology with the potential to provide earlier answers for patients and more targeted treatment pathways.”
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have been awarded £124,000 to develop a simple lateral-flow test for chronic gastrointestinal disorders. The funding will develop and validate prototype tests for potential use in primary care settings.
The project’s lead Professor Jenna Gregory said: “The support of the Scottish Government is helping us take an important step towards improving the diagnosis of chronic gastrointestinal disorders, which affect millions of people and place a substantial burden on patients and healthcare services.
“This funding will enable us to advance a promising technology, bringing us closer to a practical test that could be used in primary care. By supporting the development of this innovative diagnostic tool, the Scottish Government is helping to accelerate research with the potential to provide earlier answers for patients, reduce unnecessary investigations, improve disease stratification, and pave the way for more targeted and effective treatments.”
The Critical Technologies Accelerator at the University of Glasgow received £125,000 of funding in 2025-26 to develop a groundbreaking new coupler design for silicon-photonic microchips.
Research Fellow Andrew Greer said: “The Scottish Government Proof of Concept award was an excellent platform to enable impact from innovation by supporting a means to transition the ‘valley of death’ for scientific research that falls between raw academic science and industrial applications.
“It has been transformative for the science and the people involved by validating both the technology and the team credentials. Since receiving the award we have doubled our grant income, successfully developed a foundry scale-up process and the team are now delivering demonstrators and working with commercialisation partner STL Tech towards an invitational application to the Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spinout Programme.”
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Hundreds of female founders, investors and business leaders gathered today at Royal Bank of Scotland Gogarburn for the Female Founders Growth Summit 2026, now in its third year.
The summit brings together women actively scaling businesses beyond £1 million turnover with founders, investors and operators from across the UK and internationally.
The 2026 programme brings global entrepreneurship to Scotland. Speakers include Stina Ehrensvärd, the Swedish-American founder of Yubico and co-inventor of the YubiKey; Christa Pitts, co-founder and co-CEO of The Lumistella Company, the business behind The Elf on the Shelf®; Liz Upton, co-founder of Raspberry Pi; Clare Roberts OBE, founder and chief executive of Kid’s Planet; and Leeanne Hundleby, co-founder of luxury leather goods brand Strathberry.
Sessions cover international growth, leadership, investment, marketing and building impact at scale, alongside dedicated Growth Clinics focused on international growth strategy, culture and leadership, and funding routes.
Darren Pirie, Royal Bank of Scotland, Head of Accelerator & Partnerships, said: “We are proud to partner with the Female Founders Growth Summit to champion women-led businesses to help build a stronger more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Sam Smith, Co-founder and CEO of SuperScalers, added: “Scaling is a very different job from founding, and we’re building a network to help more women to grow. We’re on a mission to increase the number of female SuperScalers, which we define as a founder or co-founder who has scaled a business to £50m+ revenue. To do this community and inspiration matter and I’m excited to present our latest research and some scaling techniques in Edinburgh.”
Anna Vaughan, Scottish National Investment Bank, Director of Marketing and Communications, said: “We are proud to support the Female Founders Growth Summit again as we value the important role it plays in helping more women-led businesses build connections, attract investment and realise their ambitions.”
Ana Stewart, Scotland’s Chief Entrepreneur and founder of Pathways Forward, said: “Scotland has never been short of ambitious women starting businesses. Where we lose ground is at the point of scale, and that gap costs the economy far more than most people realise.
“Whilst one in five companies in the UK are female-led less than one in 50 are scaling beyond £10m. This summit brings UK and global female entrepreneurs to Scotland to share their lived experiences and inspire others to continue on their growth journeys.”
Schools and colleges across England are getting better at bouncing back from cyber security incidents, new data from Ofqual reveals, though gaps remain in how schools prepare for attacks.
Ofqual is encouraging schools to build on this progress by putting more robust measures in place so staff know what to do if systems are attacked. The call comes as part of Cyber Security Awareness Month, following the results of its third annual survey covering the 2025 to 2026 academic year.
The proportion of schools experiencing a cyber incident has fallen to 27%, during 2025 to 2026, down from 29% in 2024 to 2025 and 34% in 2023 to 2024.
When incidents do occur, schools are recovering faster, with 66% able to recover immediately, up from 55%, in the academic year prior. Critical damage from attacks has also fallen, down to 7%.
“It’s encouraging to see schools recovering faster, but a cyber breach can still cause real uncertainty for students if coursework or marks are lost, and staff confidence can be affected long after systems are back online,” Amanda Swann, Ofqual’s executive director of delivery, said.
However, the survey also revealed a glaring gap in how responsibility for an attack or incident is managed.
Asked for the first time, as part of the survey, who is primarily responsible for cyber security, 46% of responding teachers said their IT team, 40% said all staff, and just 9% pointed to the role played by senior leadership.
“Cyber security isn’t just an IT problem; it’s a leadership responsibility. Regular backups and a clear response plan can make a huge difference when things go wrong,” Ms Swann said.
More than half of the secondary schools surveyed (55%) have already taken action to protect against cyber attacks. Measures include implementing a cyber security policy, carrying out risk assessments, and setting up backup and recovery procedures. Ofqual is urging the remaining schools to take similar steps.
New research reveals a growing tension at the heart of the UK’s AI ambitions: businesses are confident they can scale AI workloads, but network infrastructure is already shaping where and how that growth can happen.
New research found that 78% of large enterprises across financial services, manufacturing, life sciences, media and energy, believe their current connectivity is mostly or fully prepared to support a 2–3x increase in AI workloads over the next year. However, just 3% say regional network infrastructure has had no impact on their AI plans. This includes private AI models, corporate-data applications, training environments and inference services that require low latency and high performance.
The impact is already translating into real-world compromises: 38% of companies have kept workloads more centralised than originally planned, while 34% have moved workloads to another UK region. Others have been force to either change their infrastructure provider (37%), while some (36%) have used cloud instead of regional or edge deployment. About a third (32%) have reduced deployment scale, while 29% have delayed deployment as a result of poor network infrastrcuture.
AI opportunity is becoming increasingly regional
Regional infrastructure deployment is becoming more significant as the UK’s AI opportunity spreads beyond London. While the capital remains the strongest centre of gravity, identified by 42% of enterprises as relevant to their AI strategy over the next two to three years, the North West (27%), Midlands (26%), East of England including Cambridge (24%) and Scotland (24%) also feature strongly.
Connectivity will increasingly determine whether that regional opportunity can be realised.
Ninety-two percent of enterprises say local connectivity availability influences where they deploy or expand AI workloads, while nearly half (47%) say AI workloads typically need to be deployed within the same UK region as end users to achieve the required latency and performance. A further 22% need them within the same metro area. Those pressures are set to increase as AI moves closer to users, applications and operational environments.
Almost three-quarters (74%) of enterprises expect a shift towards inferencing over the next two to three years, while every enterprise surveyed expects AI to increase its network capacity.
Lee Myall, CEO of Neos Networks, said: “AI is perhaps the most important technology of our lifetimes, and the UK has every reason to be confident about its AI opportunity, but confidence and readiness aren’t the same thing.
“Our research shows businesses believe they can accommodate significant growth, yet almost all are already adapting their plans around the infrastructure available to them. As AI becomes more distributed and more regional, those compromises will become increasingly difficult to ignore.
“This Government has talked about delivering good growth in every postcode. If we’re serious about that ambition, we need a much more joined-up view of the infrastructure that makes growth possible. Power and compute are of course essential, but so is the high-capacity connectivity that lets data and workloads flow between data centres, businesses and consumers.
“Without that foundation, we risk repeating a familiar story across the UK; one of regional divides and disparities. We need to avoid a scenario where the places with the strongest infrastructure capture the AI opportunity and others are forced to centralise, relocate or delay. The goal has to be giving every region the infrastructure to participate in the AI economy, rather than allowing the network to decide where growth can happen.”
Scotland needs to act quickly to make the most of the increasing adoption of digital assets and tokenisation in the finance sector, according to a new report by the Scottish Digital Trust Centre of Excellence.
The Centre, which is based at Edinburgh Napier University, has published a briefing paper for senior stakeholders in government, industry bodies and private sector firms to assess the risks and opportunities of digitisation in global financial markets.
The report recommends eight actions to ensure Scotland and its financial sector capitalises on the move towards digitised and tokenised financial assets – including a Scottish Government policy statement, a tokenisation readiness assessment and a digital assets taskforce.
It comes as the Digital Trust Centre invites companies to build solutions in this space as part of its latest Innovation Challenge, with grant funding on offer to successful teams.
Across the industry, investment assets and payments are increasingly moving onto digitised systems, based on blockchain and distributed ledger technology. While today, less than one dollar in every $10,000 of the world’s investments is held in tokenised form, experts believe it could rise to one in every $6 by 2035.
This change will have a significant impact on Scotland’s financial services sector, which manages £500bn in assets and employs around 151,000 people.
The paper estimates that adopting the recommended changes could generate between £3-5bn for the Scottish economy.
Scotland’s Roadmap for Digital Assets and Tokenisation was prepared by Digital Trust Centre CEO Peter Ferry and Visiting Academic to Edinburgh Napier University James Ball, with contributions from Sarah Forbes, Emerging Opportunities Lead for Financial Services at Scottish Enterprise, and Head of Policy at digital assets firm Zumo, Daniel Taylor. It was also reviewed by senior figures at banking and digital asset firms.
Peter Ferry, CEO, Digital Trust Centre and Visiting Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University, said: “Scotland’s financial services industry stands at a watershed. A tide in global finance is turning on tokenisation, and those who move with it will prosper.”
“We have the people, expertise, great firms and a proud history of financial innovation. This report is a call to action, grounded in evidence. It charts a course; the answers will come and we will navigate it together.”
“What we need now is resolve, and the coordination to act as one, to secure jobs and build the businesses of the future here in Scotland, rather than watch them carried to other shores.”
Sarah Forbes, Emerging Opportunities Lead for Financial Services, Scottish Enterprise, said: “Scotland’s strengths in asset management, FinTech and digital innovation give us a strong foundation to capture the capital investment opportunities created by digital assets and tokenisation.”
“Building on these capabilities can attract further investment, support innovation across the financial services sector and help secure high-value activity in Scotland.”
Nick Jones, Founder and CEO, Zumo, added: “Scotland has a huge opportunity to help drive tokenised capital markets, with Edinburgh emerging as a critical hub within the wider UK digital asset framework.”
“The country combines centuries of unique monetary history with a highly developed tech ecosystem, growing regulatory backing, and targeted legal innovations – such as the Digital Assets (Scotland) Act 2026. And let’s not forget that Scotland set a historical precedent for modern fiat-backed stablecoins in the shape of the Scottish Banknote Regime.”
“If the public and private sectors can now come together to take advantage of these strengths, Scotland will be very well positioned in the future financial services ecosystem.”
Eight recommended actions
Scotland’s Roadmap for Digital Assets and Tokenisation highlights the competitive advantages Scotland holds in the adoption of digital assets and tokenisation – as well as the potential risks of not responding to industry-wide changes.
It makes eight near-term recommendations for stakeholders at the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Financial Enterprise, FinTech Scotland and the private sector:
– Publish a Digital Assets Policy Statement: A short public commitment naming digital assets and tokenisation as a Scottish economic-development priority.
– Commission a Tokenisation Readiness Assessment: Survey Scotland’s top 20 asset managers and banks on planning horizon, barriers and infrastructure requirements.
– Renewed Digital Trust Centre funding mandate: Supporting a tokenisation testbed aligned to the UK regulatory timeline.
– Assemble a Financial Services Growth and Development Board Digital Assets Taskforce: The FiSGAD Board could provide the institutional home for a national strategy.
– Launch a Digital Assets Investment Proposition: An inward-investment pitch positioning Scotland as the UK’s tokenised wholesale-finance centre.
– Annual Scotland Digital Finance Competitiveness Report: Publicly published; tracks indicators baselined by the Readiness Assessment.
– Scottish Enterprise support for digital assets and tokenisation, sized to the opportunity.
– Commission a Scotland-specific economic-impact and jobs analysis: GVA, infrastructure investment and jobs under three scenarios (leader, follower, or late) – the evidential base for the policy statement and Taskforce remit.
The growth of digital assets
The report describes how digital asset technology is a ‘generational upgrade’ to the finance industry.
It is published weeks after Edinburgh asset management firm Baillie Gifford launched the UK’s first natively tokenised investment fund.
Digital assets rely on distributed ledger and blockchain technologies, to ensure that privacy, security and resilience are built into the system.
Tokenisation is described as creating a digital version of a financial asset that can be tracked and traded online.
It represents a key element of the work undertaken by the Digital Trust Centre, to protect sensitive data and link transactions across different systems.
Tokenisation Innovation Challenge – pre-registration now open
Alongside the report, the Digital Trust Centre is launching its third Innovation Challenge, focused on tokenisation and digital assets, in partnership with Morgan Stanley and Zumo.
The Challenge invites companies to develop and test solutions against a real industry problem in the digital assets space, with grant funding awarded to successful teams.
Shortlisted teams also receive structured development support, hands-on mentoring, and direct access to the Centre’s industry partners for market connections.
Previous challenges have helped participants form new companies, secure follow-on interest from major financial institutions, and open routes into commercial opportunities.
Pre-registration is now open, ahead of the full launch in early October. Companies can register their interest now.
There’s only three weeks to go before our second ever CymruSec – part of DIGIT’s longstanding cybersecurity series – taking place at Cardiff City Stadium on the 22nd of October.
Hear from top tech leaders from Microsoft, NBCUniversal, and Unilver, gain insider knowledge on the Welsh cyber landscape, and rub shoulders with the best and brightest in the cybersecurity cuircut in Wales.
The event is focused on improving awareness and best practice through shared learning; highlighting emerging threats, new research, and changing adversarial tactics, whilst examining practical ways to improve resilience and response.
The day will feature Welsh cyber leaders – from digital forensics insights from University of South Wales lectuer Beth Jenkins, to public sector defence prosutre from Ryan James, the CISO for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. Delving further into the Welsh cyber ecosystem, a panel featuring leaders from Women in Cyber Wales and AI Wales will delve into emerging threats and bracing defences.
For a global perspective, the summit will feature top cyber minds from companies like BT, ManageEngine, Microsoft, and Unilver. From emerging AI risks to mitigating human error, the day will encompass the full specturm of the modern cyber threat landscape, providing invaluable insights for CISOs of multinational organisations straight down to SMEs and public sector organisations.
Ray Manash, Head of Business Development & Customer Success (IAM), ManageEngine
Liz Cochlin, CTO, Sero
Sarah Howard-Smith, CISO, Zonal
Jaymie Thomas, CTO & Co-Founder, AI Wales
Carrie Jones, Principal Associate, Capital Law
Clare Johnson, Head of Capability, ITSUS Consulting & Founder, Women in Cyber Unlimited
Beth Jenkins, Digital Forensics Lecturer, University of South Wales
Adam Hopes, Solutions Engineer, Barracuda Networks
Lee Stephens, Director of Security Advisory Services, BT Group
Stephen Crowther, Technology & Analytics Director, SMF
Luke Pulvirenti, AI Coordinator, Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit
Patricia Rodrigues, Sr Cloud Security Engineer, Admiral Group
Ryan James, CISO, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
Charlie Sinclair, Cyber Culture & Human Risk Senior Manager, Unilever
There is still time to register for your free ticket to join us for a packed day of conference talks, Q&A disucssions, and networking in the Welsh capital.
What can chief information security officers (CISOs) do to combat accelerating technological disruption?
In the coming year, Gartner has identified five actions CISOs should prioritise to stay ahead of emerging threats.
“AI-augmented cyberattacks, AI safety debates and emerging quantum computing risks create persistent uncertainty across the enterprise,” said Christopher Mixter, VP Analyst at Gartner.
“Cybersecurity leaders have a career-defining opportunity to guide executive decision making through this period of accelerating technological disruption.
“By taking a proactive approach, leaders can build lasting organisational trust, moving beyond response and recovery to deliver true cybersecurity assurance.”
Gartner recommends cybersecurity leaders take five specific actions in the fourth quarter of 2026 and beyond.
Cement Role and Authority in AI Safety
Securing AI infrastructure and understanding the interaction between models and harnesses is more important than the safety of the model itself. CISOs can guide other C-suite leaders past hype and drive internal governance and tactical implementation.
CISOs are becoming the defacto authourity on AI safety in the enterprise, creating a significant opportunity for role evolution and executive leadership.
Treat All Frontier AI Deployments as Insider Risks
Fifty-four percent of organisations have no defined approach to limit AI agent access, or rely on predefined human access, according to a Gartner survey in 297 cybersecurity leaders in the second quarter of 2026.
An AI system does not need to achieve artificial general intelligence capabilities to create significant cyber risk. It simply needs the ability to impact enterprise operations.
CISOs should govern autonomous multiagent systems based on action privileges rather than model intelligence and safeguard agentic workflows using guardian agents to constrain blast radiuses.
Replace Recognition as Proof of Identity
Deepfake threats are now mainstream. To protect the enterprise, CISOs must drive process redesign across the enterprise that discard recognition as an acceptable basis for decision or action authourisation.
Secure the organisation’s online presence and brand by building a multi-layered approach that augments deepfake detection technology with contextual signals, additional authentication layers and checks on content provenance.
AI is drastically reducing the time and skill required for adversaries to exploit organisational weaknesses.
Reflecting this shift, 76% of CISOs ranked AI-driven discovery of cyber vulnerabilities among their top 10 emerging risks in a survey of over 300 enterprise risk leaders in the second quarter of 2026.
Being Piloting Postquantum Cryptographic Migration
Gartner predicts that organisations that do not begin piloting postquantum cryptographic (PQC) by 2027 will face at least 200% higher costs for their full migration. The survey of CISOs found that more than half (51%) have not yet begun any PQC-related activities.
“Postquantum readiness requires a comprehensive cybersecurity operating model transformation, not just a technical upgrade,” said Mixter. “Quantum threats, including harvest now, decrypt later (HNDL) and harvest now, forge later (HNFL), are capturing executive attention and demanding immediate action. Cybersecurity leaders must prepare today to protect sensitive data and ensure long-term cryptographic resilience.”
By 2028, 70% of enterprises will abandon agentic AI built by vendor forward-deployed engineering (FDE), trapped by soaring costs and unable to evolve it on their own according to Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company.
Vendor FDE is a model in which vendor engineers work directly with customers to build and deploy solutions.
“FDE success starts with getting the engagement structure right, from scope and incentives to governance, ownership, and exit,” said Mukul Saha, Sr Director Analyst at Gartner.
“The best-scoped FDE engagements have clear guidelines on governance, business value delivery, IP ownership, project co-ownership, knowledge transfer, and an exit strategy from day one.”
FDE engagements often fail structurally before they fail technically. To be successful, software engineering leaders must follow three tenets of the FDE model.
The outcome is shaped by decisions made before contracting, during delivery, and at transition, when software engineering leaders still control scope, incentives, governance and ownership.
Phase 1. Before Signing
Software engineering leaders must use FDE only for problems that require deep product expertise, rapid adaptation, or close integration between vendor technology and your operating environment.
“Identify an executive sponsor who is accountable for business outcomes, not simply the implementation budget,” said Saha. “Establish key contractual requirements beyond procurement’s scope, including deliverables, knowledge transfer, intellectual property rights and transition or exit responsibilities.”
Phase 2. During the Engagement
Embed FDEs with internal domain experts, engineers, and end users so that critical knowledge is shared and the solution reflects how work actually gets done.
“Establish a cadence of iterative business validation that evaluates not only technical performance but also the operating model required to scale AI responsibly,” said Saha. “Use each increment to define decision rights, determine the appropriate balance between autonomy and human oversight, clarify how confidence and exceptions are communicated and build the governance mechanisms that sustain user trust and accountability.”
Phase 3. Exit and Prove Independence
Execute the exit plan established at the start rather than extending the engagement because internal teams are not ready.
“Ensure the organization develops the capabilities, governance, and operational ownership required to independently sustain and evolve the solution over time,” said Saha. “Success is measured not by implementation completion, but by the enterprise’s ability to manage, optimize, and scale the technology, including adapting human-AI decision models as business processes, priorities, and risk profiles evolve.”
The underlying pattern during these three phases is familiar from enterprise software: technically strong, product-literate people placed close to the customer. What is new is the intensity of the hype.
“Many providers now use ‘forward deployed’ as a label for implementation, professional services, solution engineering, or AI consulting; some thoughtfully, others because it sounds more strategic,” said Saha. “Some charge premium fees without the delivery depth, program management, or change management maturity to justify them.”
Customers may see faster early progress but fail to build internal capability and end up paying premium rates for work that, once the scope is clear, a traditional services or partner model could potentially deliver more cost-effectively and with more predictable results.
Because of this, Gartner predicts that through 2028, less than 20% of FDE engagements will turn recurring customer needs into capabilities in the vendor’s core product, exposing a growing risk of “FDE washing,” where consulting services are marketed as FDE.
New research from Undo finds that almost four in five (79%) engineering leaders say their release cycles are no faster than before, despite their teams being able to produce code more easily than at any time in their careers.
As AI agents have increased the volume of code they can create, engineers now spend nearly twice as long debugging it as they do writing it, averaging 16.9 hours a week.
That accounts for 42% of the average working week. Engineers are simply unable to keep up with their agents, leading to more than a third (35%) of AI-generated code reaching production before they’ve fully comprehended it.
Adding to the risk, AI agents frequently hallucinate the cause of failures, or fail to identify problems in the codebase entirely.
In the past six months, as a result of their use of AI coding tools, 81% of organisations have had a production incident or serivce outage affecting internal users or customers.
In the same period, 93% have had the root cause of an issue incorrectly diagnosed because of an AI hallucination.
Further, 91% have had test escapes, serious defects or poorly optimised code enter production.
“When code is obviously broken, the cause is usually easy to find,” said Greg Law, founder and CEO of Undo.
“Where engineers struggle is with code that’s almost, but not quite right. Those are the times they lose days trying to unravel what went wrong and why. Their challenge is that while agents are great at writing reams of code quickly, they’re less capable at debugging it.
“The result is engineers are being buried in an avalanche of code that’s well beyond human capacity to debug. That’s why we have to give them a way to make AI better at debugging, by feeding agents with the rich context of what code actually does at runtime.”
Four in five (80%) engineering leaders say coding agents struggle to solve difficult problems in large-scale, complex codebases. The arrival of more powerful models doesn’t offer a realistic solution, with a strong degree of cynicism about the impact the planned IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI will have on AI affordability.
The majority (82%) of engineering leaders think the costs of coding agents will go ‘through the roof’ as the AI labs prioritize making Wall Street happy.
However, engineering leaders widely agree that improving model context is more important than increasing their capability to make AI more powerful. More than four in five (82%) say AI agents would be far more useful for code comprehension and debugging if they were grounded in the context of what happened during runtime.
“AI doesn’t have an intelligence problem; it has an evidence problem,” continued Law.
“An agent asked to explain why a program behaved the way it did without ever being shown what actually happened will fill in the gaps with confident guesses. That’s how days are lost with humans and agents going down blind alleys in a futile search for the root cause of critical issues that must be fixed.
“Give an agent a complete recording of what happened at runtime and it can see the precise sequence of steps leading to what went wrong, rather than have it trying to guess. The right context even makes a mid-tier model more capable of providing an accurate diagnosis than a top-end model working from source code or logs alone. The result is AI that is smarter, faster and cheaper.”
Nearly half of UK employers (47%) plan to increase permanent technology headcount before the end of the year, as businesses continue to invest in digital transformation, cyber security, artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure, according to new research from Robert Half.
The study found that the top skills UK employers are seeking include cyber security (54%), agentic AI use (50%), generative AI solutions (48%), cloud (44%), and business intelligence (44%).
In addition to those planning to increase permanent IT headcount, a further 25% are expanding contract and project-based hiring. The findings highlight that technology remains a bright spot in the labour market, even as some employers take a more cautious approach to recruitment elsewhere.
While AI is reshaping technology roles, the research suggests it is changing the nature of most technology roles in general, rather than reducing demand for skilled tech professionals.
According to the data, 45% of UK technology professionals say they are now expected to develop new AI-related skills, while 38% spend more time overseeing and validating AI-generated outputs. At the same time, 53% say AI has reduced the time they spend on routine tasks, and 37% report that their roles have become more strategic.
The findings point to a growing demand for professionals who can work effectively alongside AI systems, applying the human judgement needed to ensure accuracy, quality, security and compliance.
“Technology remains one of the most active areas of hiring in the UK labour market, with nearly half of employers planning to grow their permanent technology teams before the end of the year,” Matt Weston, Senior Managing Director, UK & Ireland at Robert Half, said.
“Businesses continue to invest heavily in cyber security, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence, but they’re not simply looking for more people. They’re looking for professionals with the right blend of technical expertise, commercial understanding and the ability to work effectively alongside AI.
“As organisations increase investment in AI, cloud infrastructure and cyber security, we’re seeing strong demand for professionals who combine technical expertise with strategic decision-making. AI is automating some tasks, but it isn’t replacing the need for skilled technology talent. In many cases, it’s making those skills even more valuable.”
With cyber threats continuing to evolve and businesses increasing investment in AI-powered technologies, competition for specialist talent is expected to remain strong, particularly for professionals with expertise in cyber security, AI and cloud environments.
Join us in Wales on 22 October to hear from top cybersecurity leaders from Microsoft, NBCUniversal, and Unilever, as we delve into trending topics and examine the global cyber threat landscape.
Our second event in Cardiff – this time at Cardiff City Stadium -will feature talent from the forefront of cyber defence, from those defending some of the largest companies in the world from emerging cyber threats to those improve Welsh capabilities in cyber.
With a full agenda of pointed insights, panels, and Q&A sessions, the event offers a global perspective with a Welsh flare on cybersecurity, AI risk, and cyber-crime trends.
Hear from Microsoft’s Cheif Security Advisor, Lesley Kipling, examine the evolving threat landscape from her position in one of the world’s foundational technology companies of the modern era.
NBCUniversial’s director of Cyber Threat Intelligence and Hunting, Melissa Goldsmith, will discuss how agentic AI has transformed tactics in threat hunting.
Charlie Sinclaire, cyber culture and human risk senior manager at Unilver, will round out the day discussing how to drive real impact in mitigating human risk.
A panel discussion will feature those at the forefront of Welsh cyberdefences, featuring Clare Johnson of Women in Cyber Wales, and Jaymie Thomas of AI Wales.
For further insights geared to the Welsh landscape, Luke Pulvirenti of Wales Cyber Resilience Centre will bring into focus the rise of AI cybercrime and what cyber professionals can do about it.
Ryan James, CISO of the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, will discuss how to defend Wales admist a global environment of heigtened tensions and startling technological developments.
Hear from University of South Wales Digital Forensices Lectuerer Beth Jenkins on how to think like a cyber investgator before you need one to stay ahead of potential cyber-attacks and their fallout.
Beyond our packed agenda of talks, the summit will offer plenty of networking opportunities with UK cyber specialsits and tech industry heavyweights.
We’ll have exhibitors from some of the top emerging companies in cyber, AI, and business technology, like ThreatLocker, Cohesity, and e2e Assure.
The Cardiff location provides an exellent middle ground for specialists working beyond Wales, with easy access for those in London, Bristol, and the South of England to rub shoulders with cyber specialsits representing the UK.
Register for your free ticket to CymruSec 2026 here!
UK businesses face a growing threat from identity fraud during the transaction phase.
According to Signicat’s The Battle in the Dark report, 35% of UK identity fraud attempts occur during transactions. Logins account for a further 29%.
While AI-generated deepfakes dominate cybersecurity headlines, Signicat urges businesses to look beyond the hype.
Traditional identity fraud forms remain the primary threat. These include stolen credentials, phishing, smishing, and account takeovers. Criminals now use artificial intelligence to execute these attacks faster and on a massive scale.
The transaction stage is the new battleground
The UK mirrors a wider global trend highlighted in the report. Across the studied markets, the transaction phase is the most exposed point in the customer journey. It represents 40% of all identity fraud attempts. The challenge no longer lies just in identifying a new customer. Fraudsters actively target existing consumers. They attack when people log in, access accounts, or authorise transactions.
“Today we talk a lot about deepfakes, and for good reasons. But we must not forget that classic forms of identity fraud are still growing,” says Thomas Osinga, Head of Identity Proofing at Signicat.
“This includes social engineering, where vulnerable people are targeted. It also covers phishing, smishing, and basic copies of ID documents. Fraudsters are not changing their approach. They use AI to industrialise the classic art of deception at scale.”
This shift means businesses must rethink digital trust. “Identity fraud prevention must move towards continuous verified trust. Checks must run silently in the background throughout the entire customer journey,” Osinga adds.
One in five transactions and onboarding processes linked to fraud
The financial and operational impact is substantial. Businesses estimate that 19% of the transactions they process and customers they onboard are fraudulent.
External industry statistics confirm this alarming trend. Smishing now accounts for 35% of all mobile phishing attempts, according to SentinelOne.
Meanwhile, AI-generated spear-phishing campaigns achieve a 54% click-through rate. This is over four times higher than traditional emails, Harvard Business Review reports.
To fight this, adding more visible friction or passwords is not the answer. Businesses must apply invisible security with continuous background checks. Companies can use real-time data like geolocation, IP analysis, and device metrics. This helps them spot anomalies without making the process harder for genuine customers.
New requirements for digital trust
The need for continuous identity verification will only grow. European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallets will be available to European consumers by December 2027. At the same time, autonomous AI agents will increasingly perform actions for humans.
“As we transition to an era dominated by agentic AI, we move towards a relentless AI-to-AI battle,” concludes Osinga. “Fraudsters will weaponise AI. Autonomous AI agents will execute tasks for consumers. We will use AI technology to defend everything in the middle.”
The majority of Scots fear that AI’s ability to find instant answers means that people will think less for themsevles, new research has found.
In addition, four in 10 Scots say the new tech has made their memory worse in general. This figure rises to 52% for 18 to 29 year olds, and 53% for those in their 30s.
This is according to a new survey commissioned by Scottish Bridge by and carried out by Find Out Now in September.
The study of 1,002 Scottish Adults focusses on the worries that regular AI use can negatively impact cognition, memory, and people’s ability to problem sold.
People are concerned about the technology’s effect on people in their lives, with about one in four (26%) fearing that someone they know uses AI to the degree that it affects their memory, their ability to hold a conversation, and their overall concentration.
Concerns around memory and the cognitive impact of AI are well founded – studies on students using AI and other technologies to varying degrees found that they were less able to recall the information in an essay they had written when AI was employed.
“Technology brings enormous benefits, but when devices remember everything for us and provide instant answers, there are fewer opportunities to exercise our memory and work through problems ourselves,” Sarah Gunn, chairwoman of Scottish Bridge.
“We’re increasingly hearing from people who want a reason to switch off, meet new people and do something that genuinely holds their attention. Bridge offers exactly that.”
Professor Ana Basiri, director of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Data Science and AI, said fears over the technology are “striking, but not surprising”. She said: “We’ve seen this pattern in previous technologies too, with calculators, GPS and smartphones each quietly retiring some skills we used to have, but AI is the next step, on a much bigger scale and dimension.
“We’ve seen this pattern in previous technologies too,” she said, “with calculators, GPS and smartphones each quietly retiring some skills we used to have, but AI is the next step, on a much bigger scale and dimension.
“It’s not just memorising facts and directions being outsourced, it’s also judgment, first-draft thinking, and problem-solving skills too.
“There’s also a quieter social cost and self-isolation concerns, as more people turn to chatbots rather than a friend, colleague or stranger, partly because it’s anonymous and carries less risk of embarrassment.”
I must be honest – I don’t know how a plane flies. I don’t really want to know. I like boarding a plane and exercising my trust – my trust in the well-trained pilots to take me to the sky and land me safety, in the engineers who developed the plane shape and wings and engine, the manufacturers who places every screw and part with care, the stewards to direct to me to safety in the event of emergency.
Living in Scotland, I trust my food is safe to eat, the tap water is safe to drink, my doctors will give me the correct medical treatment, and the buildings I enter are up to code.
Trust must be earned – in most industries, this is via professional training. Doctors, engineers, lawyers, financiers, government officials, all must undergo rigorous training in order to claim their profession and the trust that comes with the title. If they betray that trust, and do not meet set standards, then they are held to account. We can argue about this in practicality, but at least there is a set theory to how things should work, and often do work
So then, why on earth are we approaching trust in AI any differently?
This is the central question to Emma Logan’s keynote speech at this year’s ScotSoft, put on by the IT cluster management group ScotlandIS.
The Deputy President of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, challenged the very framework of how people talk about trust in AI.
The recent torrent of AI news has intensified the debate surrounding trusting AI – the emerging technology is now approaching our deepest sci-fi-esque fears, turning nightmares into doomsday predictions fast approaching.
OpenAI’s swarm of AI agents that collaborated to hack Hugging Face, the revelation that OpenAI hacked a government website in Australia, the hacking incidents from Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s AI model.
An Anthropic employee, Jacob Coxon, left the company, claiming that insiders fear that AI will take over the world, end humanity, and doomsday is soon upon us.
Leaders of AI development call for more regulation, or a slowing down of development.
Others call the recent news an exaggeration, the result of poor sandboxing, a failure of constraints rather than signs of super-intelligence.
Then, the landslide hypothesis of AI is going to end the world – give us more money to stop it, give us more money to defend against it, to improve it. Can we trust it? Can we trust AI?
Can we trust it?
Logan brings us back down to earth, – a stressful enough place, to be fair – to discuss the AI that is already here.
Not a superpowerful, fully autonomous general intelligence version of the technology, but the AI we are already using at pace across organisations and our everyday lives.
And making this distinction is important: “We don’t need super intelligence for an automated system to get something wrong,” Logan says.
Regularly, systems show inherent bias that affect people’s everyday lives, from job applications to facial recognition.
These problems may be different from the difficult questions facing commercial organisations and governments as they grapple with standards and red lines and AI kill switches, but Logan argues the “underlying problem is similar and familiar.”
“Somebody decides what data goes into the system, they decide how the system is optimised, what the algorithm is for, and if a human should be in the loop,” she said.
“We spend a lot of time questioning if we can trust AI, which is of course a reasonable question.
“Sitting underneath it, however, is perhaps a more important one: can we trust the professionals who are developing it, deploying it, and ensuring that it is safe?”
“AI does not simply appear – people use it, professionals design it, test it, approve it, and decide how much power it is given.
“A chain of human judgement lies behind it, and that chain matters enormously.”
Logan argues that the real question, the real challenge, lies not in whether AI is good or bad, not how close we are to AGI (artificial general intelligence) or what professions will be lost to it.
It is how to ensure that those working in AI are held to the same professional standards as doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers – as the people holding our lives in our hands.
AI needs to have a profession behind it. So, what are the stakes, and how do we do this?
The Here and Now
The BCS released a new AI trust report to compliment Logan’s talk – in it were some harrowing reminders that the AI train has left the station, with governance and regulation barely managing a slow jog behind.
Skills are not even keeping pace with AI use – with 35% of members citing AI as their biggest skills gap, with 70% listing it in their top three skills gaps.
AI training at the organisational level is also behind, with only 11% of members saying that their organisation’s AI training is very effective.
When asked if those using AI should have ethical training, over four in five agree.
When describing how they are trained on AI, members described it as simply learning how to use AI tools, rather than to exercise judgement over them.
“Teaching someone how to use a tool is very different from teaching them how to exercise judgement. Knowing how to push a button is technical, knowing when not to push a button is professionalism,” Logan posits.
But pushing the AI button is tempting: it’s what big companies are encouraging everyone to do, it’s what boards are after, it’s what peaks investor’s fancy, it’s what your competitors are doing, it’s an eventuality.
“They want it now!” Logan said of the mentality around AI.
“This is where professionalism lives: in those moments where there is pressure and where the responsible thing to do is less convenient than the expedient thing to do.”
In a professional field, confidence won’t cut it.
“You can be technically exceptional and not exercise judgement, you can understand the technology but not the people behind it, you can be very clever but not understand your responsibility, your limits, or how you will be held to account.”
And this is where the danger lies – rewarding cleverness and eagerness and technical know-how with not a snippet of ethics behind it.
Logan’s background, in large consulting companies such as KPMG, came with many ethics checks, standards, training and accountability for that training.
“We didn’t just have principles as a nice to have, as a statement, we had to abide by these,” she said.
“These requirements were not decorative:” training on ethics and standards was continuous, professional conduct counted when it came down to assessments, evaluations, and compensation.
“It’s about building a system and a culture in which failure to meet set ethical standards genuinely has consequences,” Logan said.
“This means that expectations become real, that ethical behaviour is not optional, it is expected, and exercising judgement is put before following orders, where questioning something is encouraged even if it is awkward.”
Building a Profession
Professions do not suddenly appear with rigorous training requirements, set principles and standards, and fleshed out regulatory laws to govern them.
Professions are built up over time as they become more integral to society. Think about computing – when BCS was first founded in 1957, computing was a niche specialist occupation siloed to the fringes of society. Now, it is the undercurrent of communication, global economies, our safety and security.
“Professions matured because society needed it to,” Logan pointed to medical standards for doctors, the development of financial services, the oversight, codes, education, rules, integral to so many industries we now don’t blink at.
“We didn’t all of a sudden trust aviation. We trust it because an enormous structure of competence sits beneath it.”
And in some instances, we see all too clearly the damage that takes place when standards erode.
But equally, regulations, audits, accountability, and standards, did not stop aviation from innovation.
“It allowed it to expand,” Logan said.
This is perhaps the most important point of her entire talk: creating standards that ensured responsible construction and safety, relying on extremely competent people who would be under regulatory scrutiny if they failed, meant that airlines could expand, commercialise, and innovate.
Without this, we would be less likely to take flight so casually, and aviation would not have progressed to achieve all that it has today.
“Trust is not the enemy of adoption, it is one of the conditions for adoption.”
And in terms of AI adoption, the main factors holding BCS members back is accuracy and trust in the technology, as well as security and data protection, according to the report. This is then followed by a lack of skills.
AI is already in the workplace – 42% of tech professionals told BCS that they are already using AI tools not formally approved or provided by their organisation.
“Adoption is not politely waiting for governance to catch up.”
We are not sure if we can trust AI or the people who created it, sold it to us, or are deploying it. But people are still using it.
The train has left the station. The plane has taken off. What do we do about it?
Logan is surefooted enough to keep the two debates – theoretical AGI from the AI currently in use – separate.
“The debate about frontier AI is about whether there are capabilities that governments must put hard limits on. We cannot hope that commercial organisations will always put the brakes on themselves.”
“But, how do the rest of us know the AI being deployed now is ready and trustworthy?”
It’s the difference between meaningful assurance versus a sales pitch; it requires adequate controls, something or someone to point to if questions are asked, regulations to be followed, and true accountability
And people cannot shirk this accountability or responsibility onto a technology or a tool.
“We often hear that the algorithm decided,” Logon commented. “But an algorithm does not arrive in a vacuum: someone chose the data, did the testing, authorised its use, and determined if a human would be in the loop
“Its in these decisions that professionalism matters.”
Instead of trusting an algorithm, Logan says she wants to know there is somebody behind it that can be trusted.
“I want to make sure there is somebody behind it that understands it, that is ready to trial the results, understands the risks, and will take responsibility for it.”
As complexity expands, responsibility can become more diffuse, fingers will point, people will convolute a technology until it is near impossible to see who is responsible for it.
The current conversations about AI and its potential are frightening. But the AI we already know (and already use) are not scaring people away).
“BCS members are not frightened, they do not want to hold AI back. They want to use it and get more from it,” Logan said.
They are just waiting for the skills, the standards, the governance to catch up.
“They don’t want less Ai, they want responsible AI.”
We hear the term ‘responsible’ AI all the time – it’s becoming as meaningless and decorative as a live laugh love sign – but what does this look like?
“Compitence, judgement, ethics, accountability.”
Professionalism.
The route origin of professionalism comes from the Latin profiteor, meaning to declare or confess openly, or to avow. Professionalism is an agreement – I am avowing to you my knowledge, my skill, my expertise, as well as all the limitations of my humanity, under conditions that I will adhere to a code of ethics, of conduct, of standards, and be held to its account. It assumes a contract. The title, and its associated trust, is earned.
“Somewhere, someone will be affected by an algorithm you bought or developed or approved or or deployed. They may never know you or understand the technology themselves, but they are trusting that someone took their responsibility over the algorithm seriously.
“I hope we can say something more powerful than to trust the technology.”
Logan hopes we can instead say: “’Trust the professionals behind it’, and ensure we have earned the right to say it.”
The UK government is establishing a new National Centre for Information Defence to tackle disinformation and AI-enabled information attacks from hostile states, including Russia.
The Centre will bring together intelligence agencies, law enforcement and social media companies, with a remit to detect attribute and disrupt foreign information attacks, while helping communities build resilience to disinformation.
Announcing the Centre during his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Andy Burnham singled out Russia, citing the use of bots, fake websites, falsified newspaper articles and forged branding from British organisations as examples of tactics used to spread disinformation. He also warned that AI will significantly increase the scale of the threat.
Andrew Bud, Founder and CEO of iProov, commented: “The new National Centre for Information Defence will have an important role to play, but its success will depend on how quickly it can move from identifying threats to actually disrupting them.
“Deepfakes are becoming too sophisticated and too scalable for the government to rely on individuals or platforms simply spotting fake content after the fact. The Centre should be looking at the infrastructure behind these attacks, including how we verify that the people, accounts and communications we interact with online are genuine.
“There is also a clear opportunity to connect this work with the UK’s emerging cyber resilience framework. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill recognises the need to protect the authenticity and integrity of data as part of securing essential services and this same principle needs to extend to the authenticity of the people and digital interactions those services rely on.
“That means bringing identity verification and deepfake detection into the centre of the UK’s defensive strategy, alongside intelligence sharing and public education. If AI is industrialising deception, our response needs to be able to tell genuine from synthetic.”
Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, commented: “The Prime Minister’s recognition that inequality can leave people more vulnerable to foreign influence is an important one, but we need to be careful not to frame this simply as a problem of individual susceptibility. If people lack reliable connectivity, the right devices, the skills to navigate online information safely, or the confidence to know what they can trust, they are being asked to participate in an increasingly complex digital world without the tools to do so safely.
“As the Government develops new agencies and legislation to strengthen the UK’s resilience, digital inclusion needs to be built into that infrastructure from the outset. That means investing not only in connectivity and devices, but in digital skills, media literacy and trusted support, alongside clear governance to ensure these protections reach the people most at risk of being left behind.
“A resilient digital society cannot just be one that protects its institutions from disinformation; it must also equip every citizen to participate safely within it. If we build new systems without addressing the digital inequalities that already exist, we risk creating resilience for some while leaving others exposed.”
The announcement comes as the UK seeks to strengthen its wider resilience to cyber-attacks and information warfare, with the government also highlighting the importance of international cooperation and sharing its experience with other countries facing similar threats.
Cyberattacks are rising, but the teams defending against them are not growing to keep pace. Four in ten (38%) European IT and cybersecurity professionals say their organisation faced more attacks this year than last, yet more than half remain understaffed (56%) and underfunded (55%), according to new research from ISACA.
According to ISACA’s 2026 State of Cyber report, attacks are expected to rise further, with half of cyber professionals (54%) saying it’s likely their organisation will experience a cyberattack within the next year.
Cyber teams are also grappling with new threats. Cybercriminals and hackers are now behind 39% of incidents, and social engineering (manipulating people rather than breaking through systems) is the most common kind of attack, cited by 46%. Social engineering attacks are increasingly supported by AI, overtaking conventional hacking methods.
Compounding this, 72% report that their role is more stressful now than five years ago. The increasingly complex threat landscape is overwhelmingly cited (72%) as the direct cause of this. Other reasons cited are unrealistic expectations and too much work (57%), and staff not being sufficiently trained or skilled (35%). Despite this, a fifth (21%) of companies still take no action to mitigate burnout, not addressing these challenges even as cyber teams are pushed to their limits. Others are taking steps to ease the pressure, with 55% offering flexible working hours and 46% encouraging employees to take breaks and vacation time to mitigate burnout.
Chris Dimitriadis, Global Chief Strategy Officer at ISACA, said, “The growing gap between rising threats and under-resourcing for cybersecurity is taking a toll on the people tasked with managing it. Too often we are seeing budgets being sunk into crisis response, but there’s still a distinct lack of investment in the workforce, training, and resources needed to prevent attacks and protect organisations in the first place. Preparedness is key to resilience, and we must see this reflected in the way businesses approach cybersecurity investment. Better funding and a clear plan for improving cyber resilience should be a C-suite priority”.
AI’s exponential growth has proved to be an aid for cybersecurity teams, with AI’s footprint in cyber operations expanding dramatically over the past year. Almost four in ten (37%) organisations now use AI to automate threat detection and response, a rise from eight percentage points on 2025 figures. AI is also being used for endpoint security by 29% and to automate routine security tasks by 35%.
Cyber professionals are increasingly shaping how AI is adopted more broadly. 54% said themselves or their team had been involved in the development, onboarding, or implementation of AI solutions, and 60% have had a hand in developing policies governing AI use within their organisation.
However, AI also presents difficult and serious challenges for cyber teams. AI-enabled cyberattacks mean bad actors can operate at the speed of intent, automating attacks that once took days or weeks.
Yet preparedness for when AI itself goes wrong is lagging well behind adoption. Almost three-quarters (71%) of organisations have not conducted any AI-related incident response exercises. Such exercises can prepare organisations for scenarios including sensitive data exposure through AI systems, AI-enabled phishing, fraud or social engineering, and misuse of generative AI by employees or insiders. Just 3% have mature, formal runbooks for AI-specific incidents, and close to a third (30%) have not even begun to address their response to AI-related incidents.
Dimitriadis concludes: “Organisations can effectively use AI for preventing and detecting cyber threats. However, its governance should be non-negotiable. AI governance is critical to ensuring employees are using AI safely in the workplace – but also for ensuring that businesses understand and can protect themselves from AI generated threats. Implementing checks and balances such as CMMI’s AI Maturity Model (AIM) can give teams a structured way to benchmark AI governance maturity – rather than relying on ad hoc controls as adoption accelerates.”
As AI transforms cyber threats and the tools available to defend against it, ISACA warns that governance, readiness, and funding must keep pace with adoption.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to announce a new partnership with the US on AI defence.
Burnham will announce the partnership at the United Nations General Assembly, calling on countries to collaborate to use AI to improve everyday life as well as security.
In his first multinational address as PM, Burnham will announce that the UK’s Defence Rapid AI Delivery Taskforce will partner with the Digital and AI office of the US Department of War to improve “the delivery of trusted, interoperable capabiliites that enhance deterrence.”
Burnham is also expected to discuss how AI can improve the cost of living crisis, which continues to blight the UK.
“When the global financial crisis hit, the UK brought together the world’s leading economies. As we confront the opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence, we will show that same leadership,” the Prime Minister said in a statement.
“That ambition is underlined in our new defence partnership with the United States on AI and autonomy, bringing together the brightest minds to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure, deter those who threaten our security, and use the enormous potential of AI to our advantage.”
While the UK has maintained its “special” relationship with the US despite its recent torrent of PM changes, tech has been a sticking point between the two nations.
US President Dondal Trump as well as members of his cabinet and party have shot out against UK and EU attempts to regulate large US tech companies, their monopolistic tendancies, and data privacy practices.
Burnham has also transformed some of the inner workings of the UK’s technology department, scrapping the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology, relegating technology and innovation to a business department, and launching the position of AI minister.
As AI continues to be lauded and pushed in the UK and US, concerns are rising about the security risks of the technology as defences may not be keeping up with developing capabilities.
Cyber professionals, caught in the cross fire of AI hype and AI doomerism, are scrambling to negotiate the rising flames of AI – its promise (or threat) to discover long-hidden vulnerabilities, its ability to break out of sandboxes and wreak havoc, cause its own cyber hacks,seemingly disobey or circumnavigate guardrails in the pursuit of achieving whatever outcome it’s been tasked with..
Boards have their foot on the gas, urging organisations to move fast on AI, not just in branding terms but in full on integration, customer offerings, hirings and firings driven by haphazard adoption, keenness perhaps outpacing reasoned debate – perhaps unsurprising given how much money is on the table.
And cyber professionals are being pushed to fight this fire with fire, to fight AI with AI?
Dr Zibby Kwecka, CISO, Arnold Clark, collectively rose and then calmed the heart rates of a packed our room at DIGIT’s ScotSeureWest Summit, where he delved into the realities of cyber security in the age of AI, the pressures to act fast, and how cybersecurity – the ever-evolving ecosystem – hasn’t actually changed all that much.
The Threat Iceberg
Alright, things ARE changing. Kwecka hits us with a statistic – 80% of all ransomware attacks are now AI driven.
A scary, but unsurprising thought when you keep up with the headlines, consider the rise of Mythos and OpenAI’s admittance to the Hugging Face hack. This surely just scratches the surface of AI’s developing capabilities – its improved phishing emails and social engineering, it can write malware, and can accelerate and amplify threats in seconds.
But Kwecka starts to challenge our collective panic. Reading the headlines tells half, or even less, of the story.
Humans have the tendency to lock into major threats that seem devastating, doomsday-esque, rather than the mundane. You are more likely to die in a pedestrian crash than a terror attack, though the former is less likely to make headlines.
“Often our perception is skewed,” Kwecka said. This applies to causes of death, rates of crime, and why we think businesses die.
“We often say breaches are what kill organisations, but usually its a lack of cashflow, or its fraud, where someone stole money, or a lack of backups. If you don’t suffer from those things, you have the chance to recover from a breach.”
Our perception on cyber risk is also skewed – the exploit of a vulnerability is the main initial access vector for a cyber-attack, rather than phishing. Voice phishing has actually been on the rise, Kwecka said, despite the continued emphasis on phishing and awareness training.
Further, the top threat facing organisations is not so much ransomware as data extortion. Ransoms were not being paid due to adequate backups – data extortion was giving cyber-criminals larger payouts than when they simply ransomed an organisation.
What are we learning? Our perceptions are skewed by the headlines, and might not be helping us deal with actual security issues.
Kwecka applies the same logic to rising AI cyber threats, particularly the recent AI agent hacks seen by OpenAI and Anthropic models.
“Why aren’t we seeing the same thing from Gemini and Co-pilot?” he ponders. Keep in mind – Google just admitted that Gemini did a bit of hacking during a cybersecurity test back in May. The cyber testing was run by Irregular, the same firm behind the Anthropic cyber hacking.
In the network escape episodes for the Hugging Face hack by AI agents for instance, Kwecka challenges that the real threat was the poorly constructed sandboxes, rather than highly-capable AI.
“When we talk about methods breaking into the networks, those networks didn’t have EDR [endpoint detection and response. They were basically breaking into a network with no protection, no defenders.”
That isn’t to say AI is not scary. Kwecka discussed the rise of AI agents doing things they weren’t meant to do in the pursuit of their supposed gains.
Openclo, for instance, a loop programme that was developed and can be enhanced with AI features – sought out a journalist when it was threatened to be turned off by renowned AI ethicist sarah fry for not meeting a goal.
But things were scary before AI – Kwecka referenced a data breach on Not Petya, a supply chain attack orchestrated by Russian-state-baced actors against software in Ukraine. The targeted software was integral for Maersk, a huge global shipping orgnaisation, and the resulting malware posioned the entire network to the degree that ships could not come into port.
Of the over 300 servers used by the company, only one was not compromised – due to an unrelated power failure. If this did not happen, a lack of a back up could have spelled further disaster for the organisation.
Connected systems, threats that move at pace, and the web of supply chains have always made relying on technology wrought with risk.
Kwecka says that the real threat now is that organisations are relying on development repositories for a large degree of their code – networks and organisations relying on snippets of the same programmes and code across the world. Threat actors are now able to target these repositories to poison the code, compromising networks at scale through one targeted attack.
“So the advice for this is don’t update your repositories quickly,” Kwecka said. “But then how does this affect the need to rapidly patch vulnerabilities?”
Implementing changes early and too late can have the same consequences, Kwecka posited, throwing another obstacle in the cyber minefield.
If the room wasn’t in unease enough already, he brings up the prospect of Q-day: by 2029 Google says that the encryption we use today on the internet will be broken, and they will move to quantum-resistant encryption by then.
Anxieties among the cyber community are understandably high, the world is changing.
But Kwecka is sticking to the facts, rather than the headlines.
Oh, that headline he first shared about 80% of ransomware being AI-driven? It got taken down by the MIT researchers who first published it after the cyber community pushed back on the findings. The numbers don’t add up.
“It’s not ChatGPT, it’s automation,” Kwecka says about a lot of the new capabilities we’re starting to see crop up.
And in keeping with threat reports, and the aforementioned top threats, Kwecka brings some level of comfort to a landscape seemingly on fire.
“If you want to actually start from nothing and defend your organisation, defend against initial access first. This is going to be phishing, external vulnerabilities, and following credentials.”
Kwecka pushes back against traditional modes of preventing phishing attacks.
Awareness training, phishing link training, and discussing human errors is not what he means: “That’s blaming your users for phishing, because you haven’t actually defended against phishing.”
Actual defense include DMARC, EDR, and turning on SOC.
Getting a free account from security scorecard, getting a vulnerability scanner, using the NCSC’s cyber essentials and other resources, are also active steps.
“Getting an SOC from outside is also important, because you want someone that looks at the global field of things and tells you what is broken”, Kwecka said.
Creating your own cyber framework – using existing ones as guidance – and maturing your organisation across the board is also key.
So, do we need to fight AI with AI?
Kwecka has turned the question essentially on its head – are we even fighting AI directly, or are we dealing with gung-ho boards, poorly formed safety parameters, and a buzzword stuck onto automation?
“The biggest problem right now is actually business governance,” Kwecka argued. “Its the CEO telling people in the organisation to use AI, do it as fast as you can!”
But when Kwecka shows us the actual guidance from Microsoft on AI – “get your foundation right first, develop threat intelligence, implement zero trust, with exposure management, XDR, and task management. Get the basics, covered by a cyber essentials plan.”
And that’s before you even think about introducing AI to your organisation.
Kwecka keeps it real – separate your IT and OT so that a network cyber-attack doesn’t take out all your operations. Not all your servers need internet access – this just increases the number of vectors available to threat actors.
“If you’re worried about Q-day? The simple answer is, if you’re using cloud products, you’re going to fix the problem,” Kwecka said.
“If you’ve got legacy software, stop using legacy software!”
Kwecka gave practical advice and comfort to an audience on the front lines of rising cyber threats and AI doomerism, providing a frank, no-nonsense perspective to a world wrought with increasing anxieties.
We’re back in the capital of Wales on October 22nd for CymruSec26, bringing together cyber practitioners and industry specialists for a day full of cyber trends, networking opportunities, and emerging insights.
The event will feature top cyber minds from Wales as well as industry experts operating in some of the world’s largest companies, with intell from cyber experts at the forefront of defences and security.
Join us early for our Breakfast Briefing, featuring Barracuda Netowork’s Adam Hopes, discussing how to secure Microsoft 365 to prevent fraudulent logins.
The Summit’s first session will feature insights into the threat landscape of 2026 from Microsoft’s Chief Security Advisor, Lesley Kipling. This will be followed by discussions on threat hunting in the agentic age from NBCUnivesal’s Melissa Goldsmith, and identity security intell from ManageEngine’s Ray Manesh.
Later in the day, a panel featuring some of the most plugged-in minds in Welsh tech will discuss how organisations can stay secure in an ever-changing world.
Finally, we’ll hear from the Wales Cyber Resilience Centre on the rise of AI cybercrime, as well as how to work together to protect Wales on the cyber sphere. Next, here from Unliver’s Cyber Culture and Human Risk Senior Manager on hot to mitigate against human risk.
We’ll end the day with a drinks reception, providing you with another opportunity for networking before we close up shop and head up north.
The event will feature:
Lesley Kipling, Cheif Cybersecurity Advisor, Microsoft
Ryan James, CISO, Merthyr Tydfil Country Borough Council
Melissa Goldsmith, Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence and Hunting, NBCUniversal
Patricia Rodrigues, Senior Cloud Security Engineer, Admiral Group
Charlie Sinclair, Cyber Culture and Human Risk Manager, Unilever
Liz Cochlin, Chief Technology Officer, Sero
Beth Jenkins, Lecturer: Digital Forensics & Cyber Security, University of South Wales
Stephen Crowther, Technology & Analytics Director SMF
Carrie Jones, Principle Associate, Capital Law
Jaymie Thomas, CTO Protect Commercial Insurne & Co-founder, AI Wales
Clare Johnson, Head of Capability, ITSUS Consulting & Founder, Women in Cyber Unlimited
Ray Manesh, Business Development and Customer Success, Identity and Access Management
Adam Hopes, Solutions Architect, Barracuda
Sarah Howard-Smith, CISO, Zonat
Registration is still open – apply for your FREE ticket here.
Gemini, Google’s AI model, had reportedly hacked into three different companies during a cybersecurity test back in May, the firm said.
This is the first known case of Google’s AI model carrying out such an attack. The hacking occurrred during cybersecurity testing carried out by Irregular, an independnet cyber evaluation firm.
Irregular was also connected to the Anthropic model hackings seen earlier this year – the firm’s configuration error lead to the model’s breach.
In the case of Google Gemini, the AI model found information published publicly, and guessed the login credentials to access websites the model thought were a part of the test.
Each model stopped at a certain point, a Google official told the BBC, though it remains to be revelaed at what stage each model haulted their actions.
Irregular said that it informed Google and all of the affected firms back in July after its investigation into the incident.
All known issues related to the breach have been resolved, the firm said.
According to reports, the Googel AI model guesss passwords to websites until it gained access to certain systems.
The news comes following reports from OpenAI and Anthropic detailing similar breaches.
Members of the Scottish Parliament voted to issue a moritorium on planning applciations for new AI data centres being planned in Scotland for up to a year.
The pause on AI data centres will be in effect until Scotland develops its own national strategy to contend with the rise of AI and its associated infrastructure.
Data centres are vital to providing the amount of data power to back AI systems – Scotland has seen an uptick in planning applications due to its relatively cooler climate, more water resources, and use of renewable energy. Climate change, continuious periods of water scarcity in regions of Scotland, and AI’s thirst for energy beyond the potnetial capability of the grid, have thrown these comforts into doubt.
The public and environmental agencies have raised their concerns on the effect of data centres on the natural ecosystem, water usage, and carbon emissions. Question surrounding the energy grid, water usage, and climate impact remain as environmental assessments are often not required in planning applications for data centres.
Now, MSPs have backed a motion introduced by Scottish Labour to delay planning application decisions for up to a year until formal national guidance for AI data centre planning can be formed.
Further, applications must meet new standards for stringent environmental impact assessments that consider all of an AI data centres’ impact on the surrounding area.
While AI data centres have been continually proposed across Scotland, communities and councils have pushed back due to lacklustre environmental impact assessments and concerns on energy and water usage from these hyperscale data centres.
The Action to Protect Rural Scotland has been a major driver of the data centre pushback. Kat Jones, the group’s director, said that the Scottish Parliamentry vote served as a “landmark day for all thosecommunities across Scotland who have been extremely concerned about projects coming forward in their areas.”
“There’s much still to be done, but this is a huge step forward and we can all at least take a breath now.
“That means the Scottish government must now urgently call in those applications which are approaching a decision date. The communities will expect nothing less.”
Quorum Cyber today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ontinue, a managed extended detection and response (MXDR) provider delivering non-stop managed security through its Agentic Security Operations Center (SOC).
In an era when AI has redefined cybersecurity exploits and countermeasures, the proposed transaction would unite two Microsoft-focused companies with complementary strengths in managed detection and response, proactive risk reduction, incident response, professional services and AI-first security operations.
The combined organisation would move beyond point AI tools embedded in individual workflows to unlock the broader value of AI innovation: intelligent, agentic security systems that continuously perceive risk, reason across context, and defend at machine speed, while keeping people in control of strategy, guardrails and critical decisions.
“AI has changed the speed, scale and economics of cyber defense. The future is not security teams managing more tools; it is experienced defenders directing AI-powered systems that can work continuously and act at machine speed, with humans firmly in control,” said Kevin Hanes, Chief Executive Officer at Quorum Cyber.
“The union of Quorum Cyber and Ontinue is a major step forward in evolving our portfolio for that future and bringing to market the largest Microsoft-first MXDR combining machine intelligence with the judgment, expertise and accountability customers need to move forward with confidence.”
Following closing, the combined company is expected to deliver a broader, full-lifecycle approach to cyber resilience, spanning secure AI adoption, proactive security improvement and 24/7 threat detection through incident response and recovery.
Rather than treating Microsoft security tools as isolated products, the Agentic SOC enables them to work as part of an integrated, continuously learning operating model.
This approach allows customers to consolidate security operations, reduce operational burden and establish a clearer, more responsive path from detection to decision and action.
The transaction would also extend the organisations’ reach across North America, the UK and the DACH region, strengthening support for customers operating across borders and navigating regional regulatory, compliance, and data-governance requirements.
“In the Autonomous Threat Era, when attackers operate at machine speed while most defenses still decide at human speed, Ontinue was founded on the conviction that AI must be intrinsic to security operations, not a bolt-on,” said Moritz Mann, CEO of Ontinue.
“Our Agentic SOC platform overcomes the human-decision bottleneck by letting AI agents investigate, decide and act at machine speed within customer-defined guardrails, while people stay in control of risk and accountability.
“Quorum Cyber shares that belief and brings global scale, deep threat intelligence and a proven ability to turn Microsoft innovation into stronger security outcomes.
“Together, we will set the standard for how security operations are run in the AI era – giving customers broader protection, greater resilience and the confidence to adopt AI securely, while creating an exciting new chapter for our people.”
A Shared Commitment to Microsoft Security
The combination of Quorum Cyber and Ontinue would bring together two of the industry’s most experienced Microsoft Security partners and a shared vision for helping organisations reduce risk, strengthen resilience, and get more from their Microsoft Security investment.
Quorum Cyber is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security holding all Microsoft Security specialisations, a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) and the 2025 Microsoft Security MSSP of the Year. Ontinue is also a first wave MISA member, five-time Microsoft Gold Partner, and recipient of several key Microsoft awards, including MSSP Partner of the Year.
This deep expertise will help customers operationalize Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender and the wider Microsoft Security and collaboration portfolio.
The proposed combined company intends to help customers establish the secure foundations, governance, observability and human oversight needed to put Copilots and agents into the flow of work and scale them with confidence.
Through the proposed combined company, Quorum Cyber has the capabilities, expertise and operational scale to help organisations take advantage of this next era of Microsoft Security.
The intended portfolio evolution would deepen support for Microsoft Azure, Defender XDR, Sentinel, Entra, Purview, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Security Copilot, Microsoft Scout, Agent 365 and emerging agentic security capabilities.
The focus will be on helping organisations adopt and operate these technologies securely, improve security outcomes and realize more value from their Microsoft investments.
Eterna Growth Partners, a private investment firm and current majority investor of Quorum Cyber will be the majority investor of the combined company.
Quorum Cyber was advised by Mintz, Macfarlanes, and Schellenberg Wittmer and Ontinue was advised by Raymond James and Bär & Karrer. The transaction is expected to close after customary closing conditions and any required approvals. Until then, Quorum Cyber and Ontinue will continue to operate as independent companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Pubs, bars, restaurants, music venues and other licensed premises across England and Wales will have the choice to introduce digital proof of age for alcohol sales under new rules.
For customers, while it will take businesses time to widely adopt and accept digital proof-of-age, it will provide a convenient alternative to carrying physical ID. Whether buying a drink at their favourite pub, heading to a festival or enjoying a night out at a concert, customers won’t need to worry if they’ve left their ID at home – they can use their phone to prove their age.
Instead of handing over ID containing personal information such as their name or home address, customers can simply provide confirmation that they are 18 or over, helping to better protect their privacy and personal safety.
For businesses, digital proof of age offers a way to verify a customer’s age with greater confidence than checking a physical document alone. Certified digital services check that an ID is genuine and belongs to the person presenting it, which can help reduce the risk of fake or borrowed identification going undetected.
It could be as simple as a customer showing a QR code for staff to scan or tapping their phone against a compatible reader.
Staff receive a clear confirmation on their device that the customer has passed the age check, providing an alternative to examining physical documents. This can make it easier to verify age during busy periods and help businesses provide a quicker, more convenient experience to customers, while reducing the risk of accepting fraudulent identification.
Digital identity services are already being used in the UK to help people verify who they are securely online and access services. These new rules build on existing certified technology, allowing digital proof of age to be used for alcohol sales from certified third-party providers.
“From pubs and restaurants to music venues and festivals, licensed businesses carry out millions of age checks every year. It will remain an individual or business’ choice whether to use or adopt it, and physical ID will remain a valid way for customers to prove their age,” Digital Government Minister Stephanie Peacock said.
“This groundbreaking change in the law will mean you do not need to carry a physical ID, nor hand over sensitive personal information such as your name or address just to prove your age – allowing everyone to feel safer on a night out.
Revolut, the digital bank, has admitted it fell victim to a phishing scam from using a legitimate government email domain that tricked the firm into leaking highly sensitive customer information.
Among the customer data includes personal details such as names, birth dates, and addresses, as well as passports, driver’s licenses, and photos used for facial verification.
It also leaked account information such as statements, IBANs, transaction history, wallet numbers, and withdrawal records.
Revolut said that customer funds and its own internal systems have not been impacted by the leak. It took action to block the email used in the phishing attak, and notified relevant authorities.
The phishing attack originated from an unathorised email account that had a legitimate government domain which remains unnamed, according to reports from Reuters.
The valid domain credentials meant that the phishing email was able to bypass typical fraud detectors.
Revolut says it has informed affected customers warning them of the information shared due to the leak, which can act as easy fodder for a range of further phishing attacks and could enable malicious actors to create fraudulent accounts.
“Trust as a security failure, not a technology failure. That’s the real story in Revolut’s breach, and it should worry every CISO reading it,” Patricia Titus, Field CISO at Abnormal AI, said.
“The company handed over passports, selfies, IBANs, and Bitcoin transaction histories because one email came from inside a real government domain and passed every authentication check. No malware. No stolen credentials. Just a request that looked legitimate and a process built to comply once it did.
“This is the gap most security programs still don’t close. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC confirm a message came from where it claims to. They say nothing about whether the request itself makes sense. A compromised account sending an unprecedented ask is not a domain problem, it’s a behavioural one. Catching it requires understanding what normal looks like for that sender, then flagging the moment it isn’t.
“Digital signatures on government requests have been proposed for years and mostly ignored. They still wouldn’t stop a compromised account operating inside legitimate infrastructure. Behavioural detection and process discipline have to fill that gap together.
“A password resets in a minute. A passport doesn’t.”
The UK and US are set to sign two new agreements at the Global Fusion Summit in London on Monday 14 September, helping to bring fusion power closer to reality and deliver over 10,000 UK jobs in the sector by 2030.
The first agreement will launch a new supercomputing partnership between the UK Atomic Energy Authority and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, combining world-leading expertise in AI, computing and fusion to accelerate the development of commercial fusion.
The summit will also see the UK and US sign a Joint Statement committing to closer cooperation on regulating fusion energy, helping to attract investment and support growth of the sector.
Fusion replicates the process that powers the sun, combining hydrogen atoms to release vast amounts of energy. It has the potential to provide a secure source of clean energy for generations to come, without producing carbon emissions during operation, while creating thousands of skilled jobs, backing British businesses and unlocking economic opportunities for the UK.
“Fusion has the potential to provide virtually limitless clean energy while supporting more than 10,000 jobs across the UK by 2030, attracting investment and creating major opportunities for British businesses,” minister for energy, Michael Shanks, said.
“By strengthening our partnership with the US we’re accelerating the race to commercial fusion, turning cutting-edge research into economic growth and cementing Britain’s position as a world leader in fusion energy.”
On top of the UK-US agreements, The University of Birmingham, Electric Power Research Institute and industry partners have secured a £2.63 million collaboration on fusion materials, strengthening UK industrial capability and supporting international collaboration in one of the world’s most promising emerging technologies.
Japan’s largest fusion company, Kyoto Fusioneering, will also invest up to £3 million in the UK through Project ALBION, supporting the development and testing of materials for the UK government-backed STEP programme, which is designing a prototype fusion power plant.
ScotlandIS, the membership and cluster management organisation for Scotland’s digital technologies industry, has appointed Professor Gordon Morison as its new chair. Having served on the ScotlandIS board for four years, he will officially take up the role on 24 September at the organisation’s flagship conference, ScotSoft.
Professor Morison has worked in academia for over 15 years and currently serves as the Dean for the Faculty of Computing, Sciences and Engineering at the University of the West of Scotland. His background delivers a distinctive combination of academic leadership, AI and data science expertise, and deep industry connections that will be invaluable in advancing ScotlandIS’ efforts to build closer collaboration between business and academia.
Professor Morison will replace Andrew Williams, CEO of Apptrix.ai, who has been in the post since September 2024. Williams will remain on the ScotlandIS board, which he joined in 2014.
ScotlandIS, the membership and cluster management organisation for Scotland’s digital technologies industry, has appointed Professor Gordon Morison as its new chair. Having served on the ScotlandIS board for four years, he will officially take up the role on 24 September at the organisation’s flagship conference, ScotSoft.
Professor Morison has worked in academia for over 15 years and currently serves as the Dean for the Faculty of Computing, Sciences and Engineering at the University of the West of Scotland. His background delivers a distinctive combination of academic leadership, AI and data science expertise, and deep industry connections that will be invaluable in advancing ScotlandIS’ efforts to build closer collaboration between business and academia.
Professor Morison will replace Andrew Williams, CEO of Apptrix.ai, who has been in the post since September 2024. Williams will remain on the ScotlandIS board, which he joined in 2014.
Speaking on his appointment, Professor Morison said: “I can’t think of a more exciting time to chair an organisation as influential as ScotlandIS. Despite its challenges, the Scottish tech sector continues to see new investment and opportunities – particularly in space, cyber security and green data centres – and there’s a strong sense of optimism throughout our membership.
“I’m looking forward to drawing on my experience in academia to find new ways for the two sectors to work together. We will continue to tackle the challenges facing our members and the wider industry, ensuring they get the right support when they need it. Andrew has created some brilliant momentum in this area, and I’m excited to build on it with fresh energy and focus.”
Outgoing chair, Williams said: “During my time as chair, I’ve been incredibly proud of what ScotlandIS has achieved in bringing more people together. We’ve created opportunities for the public and private sectors to partner on innovation, supported businesses to collaborate with the Government on AI, and seen early-stage founders build valuable connections through the Founders Hub.
“At a time when conference numbers around the globe are shrinking, it was also fantastic to be able to present the Innovation Summit in 2025 and the AI Summit in 2026 alongside the ever-popular annual ScotSoft event.
“Our members continuously remind us of the strength of innovation we have right here in Scotland. As technology moves faster than ever before, I encourage all our members and the wider tech ecosystem, including our world-class universities, to keep thinking big and show other nations what we’re made of.
“I’m confident that under Gordon’s watch, ScotlandIS will continue to thrive. As we move into a new era of collaboration, I look forward to seeing ScotlandIS’ influence in key industry developments, including Scotland’s AI Strategy, and will be supporting Gordon every step of the way.”
The top technology trends in government have been identified by business and technology insights firm Gartner, Inc.
The trends reflect growing pressure on public sector leaders to modernize operations, strengthen cyber resilience, govern AI at scale and meet rising citizen expectations amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
“Government CIOs are operating in one of the most disruptive periods in recent memory,” Dean Lacheca, VP Analyst at Gartner, said.
“AI is reshaping how governments deliver services; cyber threats are evolving faster than traditional defenses can respond; and agencies are under increasing pressure to achieve more with finite resources.
“The challenge is no longer identifying technology opportunities, but building organisations that can adapt quickly enough to capitalise on them.”
Government technology leaders should assess how the following trends will influence investments, operating models and service delivery strategies in 2026 and beyond.
Trend 1. Managing the Ripple Effect of Agentic AI
As governments move beyond AI experimentation toward enterprise-scale adoption, AI agents are emerging as a key catalyst for transformation.
Agentic AI will increasingly support government operations, enhance citizen experiences, accelerate software development and automate routine decision-making processes.
“The conversation around AI must shift from technology implementation to organizational transformation,” said Lacheca.
“Success with agentic AI will depend on modern governance, workforce readiness and the ability to redesign business processes, while creating an adaptable foundation for future innovation.”
Gartner research indicates that many governments are already exploring governance frameworks, digital identities and operational models to support the growing use of AI agents. They must also establish outcome-based AI roadmaps and develop clear metrics to measure value from AI investments.
Trend 2. Cybersecurity Requires an ‘Always Evolving’ Culture
Advances in AI, increasing geopolitical tensions and the emergence of quantum computing are fundamentally changing the cybersecurity landscape.
Government organisations must move beyond periodic reviews and compliance-driven approaches toward adaptive, continuously evolving cyber strategies.
“Cybersecurity can no longer be treated as a static function,” said Lacheca.
“AI is reducing the time between the discovery of vulnerabilities and their exploitation, while quantum computing is forcing governments to rethink how they protect sensitive information. Resilience, automation and crypto agility must become core components of every cybersecurity strategy”
Gartner recommends government organizations automate security operations where possible; improve digital supply chain visibility; establish post-quantum cryptography readiness plans; and strengthen governance around data sovereignty and third-party risk.
Trend 3: Reimagining Government Technology Service Delivery
Emerging technologies, increasingly digitally literate workforces and demand for new technical skills and capabilities are forcing governments to rethink how technology services are delivered.
Future-ready organisations will be built around digital and AI-literate workforces.
This means technology service delivery will require adaptive operating models and governance structures that enable technology innovation across the organisation while maintaining accountability.
“Technology will only ever be a tool or a trigger; transformation is ultimately about people,” said Lacheca. “Government IT areas that maintain their relevance will be the ones that invest in workforce capabilities, redesign how work gets done and build a technology operating model that can evolve as quickly as technology itself.”
According to a Gartner survey of 1,219 CIOs and IT leaders conducted in January 2026, 78% of government respondents anticipate investing in their people to advance their key technology initiatives.
Gartner recommends they focus on prioritising AI literacy, workforce modernisation and organisational flexibility to meet growing service demands, while improving operational efficiency.
Anthropic has admitted that it discovered bad actors using its AI models for malicious activities like cyber-attacks, surveillence, and even developing bioweapons, which it had to block.
The AI firm behind AI chatbot Claude disclosed that its newest AI models are enabling lone actors to create potential cyber-attacks at a formerly unprecedented scale.
An attempt to use Anthropic’s AI models for research that could lead to the development of bioweapons caused the AI firm to add stricter guardrails to its latest model. These would restrict researh into biology that could be leveraged to mae weapons.
Anthropic said that these instances were not necessarily typical, but were the “most notable and novel threat activity we’ve identified to date,” the firm’s report read.
“We’re publishing this work because we believe we have a responsibility to disclose malicious misuse of our services. As models become increasingly capable, their risks will increase, unless AI developers and society’s defenders act to make them safer,” Anthropic said.
The firm released some lines of the malicious code it found as well as the prompts it discovered, urging governments and other AI companies to also search for similar patterns of misuse.
The report detailed a real instance of a user employing Claude to research ways to genetically modify a mosquito-borne virus to make it more harmful, with research questions geared towards its transmission and immune resistance.
Anthropic said that while these questions could be used to develop vaccines and mitigation methods, it could also be used to genetically engineer a more devastating virus, essentially creating a bioweapon.
Interestingly, all the cases – bar one – discussed by Anthropic did not use its newer models – Claude Fable or Mythos – for the malicious purposes. The singular instance where a newer model was used exhibited illici distillation where a bad actor attempted to extract the model’s capabilities to repliate them into another model.
Anthropic said that its older models were below the threshhold of being capable to truly render harmful biological research, but the discovery is prompting it to intoduce safetyrails to its newer, more capable models.
The AI firm also found instances of users using Claude to create fake social media profiles made to look like real people, that would all share and spread the same political opinion. These appeared to be from users based in a range of regions, from Europe to South Asia and Africa.
The report comes ahead of Anthropic’s much anticipated initial public offering expected this autumn, but also after one of its lead researchers announced his resignation over rising concerns that AI firms are not taking safety and security seriously.
OpenAI has launched a new chatbot designed for financial services with specialised AI advise for investment researchers and finance teams.
ChatGPT for Financial Services is OpenAI’s latest attempt to position itself against Anthropic and steal some of its thunder in the business realm.
The tool is mainly aimed at large financial instituitons, and will integrate data from Daloopa, PitchBook, and LSEG News. The new model will also use GPT-6 Astra as its foundational base, with plans to use newer models as they are released.
The new AI models’ datasets will include financial statements, earning transcripts, and company standards. Bankers will be able to use the service’s granular citations to trace figures and claims back to their source.
Firms will be able to centrally manage access and data connections, supported by ChatGPT’s governance controls.
“We’re effectively teaching ChatGPT to research like an analyst and back up its conclusions like an analyst,” Nick Turley, VP of product at OpenAI, said.
OpenAI says that the main purpose of the tool is to help finance teams effectively develop research finance models and materials for their clients in the firm’s bespoke style.
“The promise of frontier research becomes real when it helps our people do the work that matters for our clients. We’re working alongside OpenAI to bring that intelligence into how we research companies, develop analysis, and prepare advice,” Morgan Stanely said in a statement.
The new tool, designed in partnership with Morgan Stanley and Evercore, sees OpenAI more deliberately targeting a share of large organisations currently dominated by Claude use.
While OpenAI largely cornered the public consumer market with its initial launch of ChatGPT, enterprises have turned often to Anthropic’s Claude AI model.
Recent political spats with the US govenerment has also seen Anthropic gain support among consumers.
While OpenAI is launching a specialised model designed for finance professionals, British finance officials are having to warn UK consumers to not always trust AI financial advice.
Britain’s fintech leaders are preparing to invest and hire in the UK but are warning Government that the country risks losing ground to rival financial centres unless it moves faster on AI, infrastructure and regulation, according to new research from Chatsworth.
The Fintech 100 Leadership Survey, commissioned by fintech advisory firm Chatsworth and carried out by Censuswide, surveyed 100 fintech leaders in the run-up to Fintech Week London to gauge their confidence in the UK, investment and hiring intentions, and the areas where they believe government action is needed to keep Britain competitive.
The results deliver a striking vote of confidence in Britain: 90% expect their businesses to increase UK investment and hiring over the next three years, with only 3% saying they are unlikely to do so.
But that confidence comes with a warning. Just 6% believe the UK is not at risk of falling behind competing fintech hubs in any of the areas tested.
As the global fintech industry assembles in London this week for Fintech Week London, the biggest area where leaders believe the UK risks falling behind competing fintech hubs is AI and digital infrastructure, cited by 46%. This is followed by regulatory clarity and speed at 43%, access to specialist talent at 38%, tax competitiveness at 35%, public markets at 31% and access to growth capital at 30%.
The findings come as founders, investors, financial institutions, policymakers, regulators and technology leaders gather across the capital for Fintech Week London, with more than 1,500 participants expected across the week.
Asked to identify the single Government action that would have the greatest positive impact on UK fintech, 26% chose investment in AI and digital infrastructure, ahead of increasing regulatory clarity and speed (16%), strengthening UK public markets (14%), improving access to growth capital (10%) and reducing the regulatory burden (10%).
Among CTOs, 40% say AI and digital infrastructure investment should be the Government’s number-one priority, while 56% believe Britain risks falling behind competing fintech hubs in this area.
CEOs are more focused on the regulatory environment. Regulatory clarity and speed is their number-one ask of Government, selected by 23%, while 45% identify it as an area in which Britain risks losing ground.
CFOs sit between the two: AI investment and regulatory clarity are tied as their top priorities, while 53% are concerned about Britain’s competitive position on AI infrastructure and 50% identify tax competitiveness as a risk.
Despite those concerns, the Fintech 100 Leadership Survey shows that the industry’s appetite to build in Britain remains remarkably resilient.
Nine in ten fintech leaders expect to increase UK investment and hiring during the next three years. Among businesses employing 250-500 people, that rises to 96%, with almost two-thirds (63%) saying they are very likely to increase their commitment to the UK.
The findings underline the opportunity facing Britain as it competes with established and emerging fintech centres around the world for businesses, investment, technology and highly skilled jobs.
London enters Fintech Week from a position of considerable strength. Dealroom research ranks it as the world’s number one fintech ecosystem, with 137 unicorns and a combined enterprise value of $714 billion.
The UK remains one of fintech’s global heavyweights. It attracted USD 3.6 billion of fintech investment in 2025, ranking second in the world behind only the US and first in Europe. UK fintech attracted more investment than the next five European markets combined.
The sector now comprises more than 3,000 UK fintech companies, while earlier industry estimates put employment at more than 76,000 jobs. Fintech businesses also provide around 60% of lending to UK SMEs, illustrating its importance well beyond financial services itself.
“There is a remarkably clear message from the 100 fintech leaders we’ve surveyed. They want to invest in Britain. That’s enormously positive, but they don’t believe Britain’s position at the top table is guaranteed,” Nick Murray-Leslie, Principal at Chatsworth, said.
“As the global fintech industry descends on London this week, our CTOs are sounding the alarm on AI infrastructure, CEOs want faster and clearer regulation, and CFOs are worried about tax and competitiveness. These are the factors that will determine where fintech businesses invest, hire and scale.
“Britain starts from a position of real strength. We have deep financial markets, world-class technology expertise, access to talent and one of the world’s most developed fintech ecosystems. But past success won’t guarantee future success when other financial centres are competing for exactly the same founders, engineers and investment.
“The good news is that fintech is ready to back Britain. The challenge for Government, particularly as we head towards the Autumn Budget, is to give these businesses every reason to keep investing here and create the conditions in which the next generation of global fintech champions can start and scale in the UK.”
Join the Conversation at Fintech Summit 2026
AI, regulation, digital assets and the future competitiveness of financial services will all be on the agenda at Fintech Summit 2026, taking place at the EICC, Edinburgh on 7 October.
Experts representing Lloyds Banking Group, LSEG, Santander, JPMorganChase, Mastercard, State Street, Monzo, Worldpay, the FCA and more will explore how emerging technologies are reshaping the sector, from agentic AI and financial crime to programmable finance and digital assets.
Attendance is free for qualifying end-user Financial Services and FinTech delegates.
Welcome to August 2026’s edition of Movers & Shakers.
This month saw a steady mix of high-profile appointments, industry expansions, and awards.
Top Scottish firms made key appointments, while both the private and public sector saw expansions in hubs and offerings.
All that and more coming up.
Appointments
BCS Consultancy appoints Steve Sutherland as Head of Digital, AI & Data Strategy
BCS Consultancy, the global data centre consultancy, has today announced the appointment of Steve Sutherland as its first Head of Digital, AI and Data Strategy, reinforcing the company’s commitment to using technology to deliver smarter, faster and more valuable outcomes for clients.
The role comes at a pivotal moment for the data centre industry. As AI drives unprecedented demand for digital infrastructure, projects are becoming larger, more complex and increasingly constrained by power availability. While AI is reshaping the infrastructure being built, it is also changing how that infrastructure should be planned, delivered and managed.
Recognising this shift, BCS is investing in a dedicated digital, AI and data strategy to move project delivery towards more connected, data-driven ways of working, improving decision-making, automating routine processes and giving clients deeper insight across the full lifecycle of their projects.
Clarus Networks Group appoints Stuart Castell as Chief Revenue Officer
Clarus Networks Group has appointed Stuart Castell as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) as the business accelerates its global growth strategy and strengthens its position in enterprise connectivity and low Earth orbit (LEO) technology.
Stuart returned to Clarus earlier this year as Commercial Director, having previously worked with the business and built much of his career in satellite communications and technology.
During his career, Stuart has held several C-suite positions and has also founded, owned and operated his own successful satellite communications business. That combination of executive leadership, sector expertise and first-hand experience of building and running a business brings an important perspective as Clarus enters its next stage of growth.
Jen Modi joins Barrier Networks as Regional Sales Director
Barrier Networks, a specialist provider of managed cyber security services for enterprises and critical national infrastructure organisations, today announced that Jen Modi has joined its team as Regional Sales Director.
In her role, Jen will be based in London and will work to bring more of Barrier’s managed security services to organisations across the UK.
As advanced AI continues to amplify and accelerate threat activity, organisations are increasingly looking to partner with experts to deliver round-the-clock security operations across their environments without burdening their own internal resources.
“I’m delighted to be joining Barrier Networks at such an exciting stage in its growth. The cyber security challenges facing organisations are becoming more complex, particularly as they manage growing volumes of data, expanding supply chains and an evolving AI-powered threat landscape”, said Jen Modi, regional sales director at Barrier Networks.
Expansions
2i opens new delivery centre in Hyderabad
2i, the UK’s largest quality engineering partner, has opened a new delivery centre in Hyderabad, India’s fastest growing IT hub for AI and engineering talent.
The new centre expands 2i’s delivery capability as the business continues to grow and respond to increasing demand from enterprise clients, particularly around AI assurance. The Hyderabad team will work alongside colleagues in the UK as one integrated delivery organisation, bringing additional quality engineering and AI expertise to client programmes.
Dave Kelly, CEO of 2i, said: “Opening our Hyderabad delivery centre is an important milestone in 2i’s growth journey and an investment in the capability we can offer our clients.
Digital Xtra Launches New Network of AI Hubs
Digital Xtra, the charity dedicated to increasing the provision of extracurricular computing activities for young people in Scotland, is to develop a national network of community coding and AI hubs.
Over the past 10 years, the charity – backed by the Scottish Government and industry – has supported 210 grassroots activities by awarding over £1.1 million via its annual grants programme.
These initiatives engaged over 60,000 young people across the country while laying a foundation for ongoing engagement about computing and technology. That figure is now set to rise considerably under the charity’s new ‘Code Xtra’ strategy.
Edinburgh-based Accountability achieves ‘triple crown’ of accolades
Accountability, an Edinburgh-based financial services and accounting business, is celebrating a trilogy of national accolades: being named a Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2026, achieving B Corp certification, and becoming one of the first organisations in the UK to be accredited as a flexible workspace.
Since it was established in 2012 by Rosie Berridge, Accountability has set itself apart from competitors by putting people first and focusing on doing business in the right way.
An accounting service with a difference, Accountability has supported over 130 businesses across the UK to grow through its bespoke professional expertise and financial services.
With an 83% annual client retention rate, and 87% of new clients coming through existing client referrals, Accountability’s approach to business is resonating with the industry.
Scottish startup Neve Learning recognised by Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards
Glasgow-based learning technology startup Neve Learning has been recognised as a Highly Commended business in the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26, recognising the company’s vision to transform workplace learning through accessibility-first design and artificial intelligence.
Angela Prentner-Smith, Founder and CEO of Neve Learning, has been recognised as a Highly Commended applicant in the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26 for the team’s vision to develop the Neve Learning Personalisation Engine, an AI-powered innovation designed to transform workplace learning through accessibility and personalisation.
Angela was named among just 39 Highly Commended applicants, selected from a record 1,590 applications in the tenth anniversary year of Innovate UK’s flagship Women in Innovation programme. The programme celebrates women founders developing innovative businesses with the potential to deliver significant economic and social impact, while providing mentoring, networking, business support and development opportunities to help accelerate future growth.
UK data center infrastructure has raised $5.7B in all-time equity funding across 24 equity funded companies, out of 43 funded companies.
Close to ‘two-thirds of total equity funding ($3.6B out of $5.7B) has been raised since 2025 with 2026 YTD alone accounting for $2.0B.
This is according to a new report from Tracxn Technologies Limited, which highlights the rapid evolution of the UK Data Center Infrastructure ecosystem, with funding increasingly concentrated around a single company at the frontier of AI infrastructure.
The sector is home to 154 companies, of which 24 have raised equity funding (out of 43 funded companies), totalling $5.7B to date.
While overall funding has surged on the back of AI-driven infrastructure investment in recent years, exits continue to run predominantly through acquisitions rather than public listings. The report also examines the sector’s funding trends, investor activity, unicorn formation, and geographic concentration.
Of the 154 companies tracked, 43 (28%) have raised funding (including 24 equity-funded ones). Annual equity funding stood at $1.5B in 2025, before rising to $2.0B in 2026 YTD.
Nscale, a London-based provider of cloud infrastructure for AI and computing workloads, is the only company in the UK Data Center Infrastructure space to reach unicorn status, hitting the milestone in Sep 2025, just 0.8 years after its Series A, against a global average of 9 years.
The company witnessed a $2.0B Series C round in Mar 2026 and is backed by investors including NVIDIA and Dell.
In the UK, London has dominated the data centre scene. London hosts 56 of the UK’s 154 Data Center Infrastructure companies, about 36% of the total, and accounts for 93.1% of all equity funding raised till 2026 YTD.
Harlow, Sheffield, Wallsend, Nottingham, and Cambridge follow at a distance, together representing a small fraction of total funding.
UK Data Center Infrastructure has recorded 36 acquisitions as of 2026 YTD compared with just 2 IPOs, with companies reaching acquisition in an average of 15.5 years from first funding. The largest exit on record is TelecityGroup’s $3.8B acquisition, followed by Interoute at $2.3B and Zenium Technology at $475M.
IPO activity has remained limited to two listings as of 2026 YTD, making acquisitions the dominant exit route for Data Center companies.
The UK government is planning to introduce new legislation to futher regulate how tech firms verify the ages of users as the country bids to make the online sphere safer for children.
Announced by digital minister Lisa Nandy, the plans aim to make it “impossible” for children to view or share nude images on devices.
The device-level rules would see all phones and tablets sold in the UK verify their users age via “highly effective age assurace” which could be done with a credit card or a government ID.
The government is also exploring an option that would require any app used by a child to prevent them from seeing or sharing nude images.
The proposals have yet to fully flesh out the technical means to make the new rules a reality – Nandy desrcibed “end-to-end encryption” as a particular problem, though the government is seeking solutions.
The government has been pushing tech companies to set out ways to further protect children at the device-level from online harms.
While Nandy said that Apple and Google have both made “meaningful changes at the operating level”, these steps in the right direction were so far falling short of addressing the full crisis.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said of the proposals: “It will be for the companies to prove a user is an adult, not for a child to keep themselves out of harm’s way. No country has required that before. Britain will be the first, and we will have the strongest child safety laws in the world.”
Child safety campaigners have supported the proposals, with the NSPCC chief executive describing the plans as a “necessary move” given the scale of the problem and the delays in implementation.
However, privacy advocates have warned that the legislation would mean that all devices would come with “surveillence software”, describing the plan as “a crossing of the Rubicon that would make the UK one of the most authoritarian internet regimes in the world.”
The first regulations are expected to be layed out by the government by the end of the year, Nandy said.
The new proposed legislation comes after the government has decided to ban social media for children under the age of 16, as it continues to debate putting restrictions of children using AI chatbots.
The month was full of major investment stories, with Scotland seeing winning deals from the AI race in terms of data centre deals and chip funding.
Construction, space, and biotech also saw major funding gains this past month.
All that, and more, coming up!
Funding
UK AI Chip Startup OLIX Secures £232M in Series B Funding
OLIX, the UK-based AI hardware company founded in 2024, has secured $312 million (£232m) in its Series B round and also achieved a $3.3 billion (£2.45bn) valuation.
The startup is developing the next-generation of AI chips that are faster, cheaper, and more energy-efficient than current AI chips. Known as “inference chips,” these are being designed specifically with AI in mind, with each specialising in a particular part of an AI model’s “thinking” process.
The financing funds the route to delivering its DX-1 chip, which is designed for the stage at which an AI model reasons and generates its output, to OLIX’s first customers by the second half of 2027.
Glasgow Biotech Mironid Secures £34m Series B Funding
Glasgow-based biopharmaceutical company Mironid has raised £34m in a Series B funding round, which includes an £8.4m equity investment from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB). SNIB joins existing investors, including Roche Venture Fund, Epidarex Capital, Sofinnova Partners, BioGeneration Ventures, and the University of Strathclyde.
The capital will support clinical development of Mironid’s small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), a life-threatening hereditary kidney disease.
ADPKD is one of the more prevalent rare diseases and the most common hereditary kidney disorder but has limited treatment options. It is characterised by uncontrolled growth of fluid-filled cysts, and Mironid’s first-in-class small molecule LoAc® drug candidates directly target the abnormally high kidney cAMP levels that drive cyst formation.
Edinburgh’s Wordsmith Extends Series B With $14m Investment
Wordsmith AI has announced a $14 million extension to their Series B, led by new investment from Intact Private Capital alongside existing investors Highland Europe and Index Ventures. FT Ventures has also become a shareholder in Wordsmith.
The additional investment follows a period of rapid growth for Wordsmith, with the company stating that revenue has grown 14x year over year and the platform is now used by more than 500 companies, including BT, FT, Sage, Starling, Canva, and Safelite. The funding deepens Wordsmith’s presence in North America, where demand from enterprise legal teams is accelerating, and strengthens its footprint in the financial services and insurance sectors.
Unlike legal AI startups serving both law firms and corporate legal departments, Wordsmith is built exclusively for in-house legal teams. Wordsmith believes the two markets require fundamentally different products: while law firms manage external matters and operate around billable hours, in-house teams need to resolve more work internally, control outside counsel spend, and provide faster support to every part of the business.
DataVita Secures £300M for Data Centre in Scotland’s AI Growth Zone
DataVita has secured a c.£300 million debt facility to expand and build two data centres in the North Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, unlocked by a £202 million financial guarantee from the National Wealth Fund.
The facility has been raised with participation from a syndicate of lenders including ING (acting as advisor and coordinator), ABN AMRO, Santander (acting as agent), the Scottish National Investment Bank and Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank.
The National Wealth Fund’s guarantee is provided against the £252.5m of lending delivered by ING, ABN AMRO and Santander equating to 80% of this tranche. The remaining portion provided by SNIB and Siemens Financial Services is uncovered.
Scottish Sustainable Construction Tech Firm Kenoteq Raises £900K
Scottish sustainable construction technology company Kenoteq has secured almost £900,000 in new investment as part of an ongoing funding round.
The investment has been led by Kelvin Capital alongside the Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund and several existing investors who have chosen to increase their backing of the business, demonstrating continued confidence in Kenoteq’s commercial progress and long-term growth strategy.
Importantly, the investment round remains open as the company continues discussions with prospective investors. Kenoteq is targeting a total raise of £2 million.
Edinburgh-based image sensor developer Singular Photonics has secured $2.15 million (£1.6m) in an oversubscribed funding round as it looks to expand its product portfolio and accelerate the development of its next generation of SPAD-based sensors.
The round was led by ACF Investors, with participation from Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital.
Singular said the investment will be used to increase its engineering capacity and bring new image sensors to market more quickly, responding to demand from its growing customer base.
UK Space Agency Funds New Satellites To Improve Scottish Broadband
More reliable broadband on remote Scottish railways and affordable sensors which help farmers grow more food are among a raft of new projects which will bring the benefits of space technology into everyday life.
The UK Space Agency is funding 16 projects through a £13 million government investment, supporting the companies and workers developing the satellite communications systems the UK will depend on for decades to come.
Satellites are the backbone of modern life, powering the navigation apps we rely on, the weather forecasts that keep us safe from storms and extreme heat, and the broadband connections that keep friends and family in touch.
Scottish HexSeed Technology Gains £600K For Semiconductor Tech
HexSeed Technology, the semiconductor startup, has raised over £600k in early funding, led by Carbon13, with participation from Net Zero Technology Centre and Vento Ventures.
The cumulative investment unlocks a Partnership Grant from Innovate UK, awarded on a provisional basis earlier this year.
Data centres already draw a significant share of global electricity, and the IEA expects that to reach 945TWh by 2030 as AI-optimised facilities scale. A large share of that power is lost as heat.
A national programme helping Scottish companies capitalise on the benefits of AI has received funding for its second year.
Backed by £1.8 million of continued funding, AI Scotland will help small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to develop new products and services, grow market share and attract new investment.
The Programme offers support such as mentoring, workshops and grant funding to help businesses identify AI opportunities, plan AI implementation and develop and test AI solutions tailored to their needs.
The UK is launching a new national space strategy, bringing together plans for growth, defence, and national security to help reindustrialise the UK.
Backed by a record £7.8 billion until 2030, the UK Space Strategy brings government’s space investment and activity under one plan to drive growth, strengthen security and back the technologies that underpin modern life.
It also recognises space as an increasingly important domain for keeping our country safe.
Work to strengthen Space Domain Awareness – the study and monitoring of objects like satellites, rockets and debris orbiting our planet – is being backed by projects including £149 million for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Vigil mission and £85 million for the National Space Operations Centre.
UK funding will see British tech offer earlier warnings of potential satellite collisions, hostile activity and solar storms, helping protect the power, communications and navigation services people rely on every day.
Meanwhile £880 million will help beef up the UK’s space control and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, funding technologies that can track military activity on the ground and potential attacks on satellites, meaning we can act quickly and decisively to protect our way of life on Earth and our assets in space.
A further £2.8 billion meanwhile will go towards strengthening connectivity, including the Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit and SKYNET defence communications programmes, which play a pivotal role in keeping our Armed Forces connected wherever they are in the world.
These benefits will also be felt in everyday life, helping bring faster, more reliable connectivity to rural communities and reducing mobile signal dropouts on trains by using advanced satellite communications.
Together, these investments will help grow a UK space sector worth £18.6 billion and supporting over 55,000 skilled jobs – cementing Britain’s place as a global space leader from satellite services that underpin the economy to landmark missions such as the UK-built Rosalind Franklin Mars Rover.
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said: “As space becomes a new frontier of economic and military competition, this plan will help keep Britain secure by strengthening our ability to launch satellites, detect threats and protect the services people rely on every day.
“At the same time, this plan will enable our excellent UK industry to seize the boundless opportunities of this new age in space, creating skilled jobs, driving growth and improving connectivity for all of us.”
The Strategy also offers an opportunity to deliver the jobs and companies of the future, with £40 million to support pioneering in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing technologies (ISAM). These will help repair and maintain satellites damaged by space debris, solar storms or hostile interference, while helping clear dangerous objects from orbit – all while continuing to operate in space.
Additional support for the UK’s wide-ranging space sector includes £148m for European rocket programmes and £30 million for SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland – helping Britain and our partners to launch satellites without relying on countries further afield while creating new jobs.
Scotland risks losing out in the global ‘war for talent’ unless government, councils and businesses work together to make it an attractive place for highly skilled people to live, raise families and build their careers, one of the country’s most experienced people leaders has warned.
Steven Davis, the former HR Director of Sainsbury’s Bank, said taxation formed part of the equation, but argued that good schools, safe communities, strong career opportunities and effective public leadership were equally important as employers compete for the people they need to grow.
Davis made the comments as he was appointed Non-Executive Director of Livingston James Group, the employee-owned Scottish executive search and recruitment business.
He said: “There are a number of areas where Scotland is incredibly progressive, creative and contemporary, and we have a huge amount going for us.
“But we are competing for the very best people. Tax matters, but I’m not convinced by the argument that we’ve seen some wholesale brain drain because of higher taxation. It is much broader than that.
“If you want talented people to come here, build careers and bring their families, you need attractive and safe communities, very good schools and great opportunities. Government and councils have a significant role to play in creating that environment alongside business.”
Davis also called for more senior business leaders to consider moving into public life, arguing that Scotland would benefit from greater commercial and organisational experience in government.
“There are lots of people in public life who genuinely want to do good things, but good intentions alone don’t necessarily give you the experience required to deliver change in large and complex organisations,” he said.
“I’d like to see more people who have led businesses, managed significant budgets and motivated large teams consider making that move. We need strong, experienced leadership in business and government.”
Davis brings more than four decades of leadership experience spanning the military, retail, banking and human resources. His early career included eight years in the RAF before he joined Marks & Spencer, holding roles in the UK and internationally, including in Hong Kong. He later moved into financial services and became HR Director at Sainsbury’s Bank.
Since leaving full-time executive life around four-and-a-half years ago, he has developed a portfolio of board positions across different sectors – including Skipton Group, Peter Vardy Group, and Scottish Ballet.
He said non-executives had to remain ‘contemporary’ as artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty and pressure on costs transformed the skills organisations require and the speed at which leaders must make decisions.
He said: “What I knew four-and-a-half years ago when I finished my executive career is already out of date. Good non-executives need to remain fresh in their thinking and understand what is happening outside the organisation as well as inside it.
“Businesses used to talk about five-year plans – in some sectors now, if you can confidently look five months ahead you’re doing well. Things are moving incredibly quickly, and that makes having the right leadership and talent even more important.”
Davis believes AI should now sit high on almost every board agenda, but cautioned against viewing the technology simply as a way to reduce headcount.
“The smartest organisations are asking what their core purpose is and how technology and their people can help deliver it better,” he said.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean fewer people. It could mean getting to market faster, responding to customers more quickly or giving teams the tools to take on broader and more interesting work.
“Organisations that don’t have this high on the agenda risk looking up and finding that others have become smarter and faster around them.”
Davis said Livingston James Group’s focus on long-term relationships with clients and candidates, together with its employee ownership model, had influenced his decision to join.
The Group transitioned to employee ownership in 2023 and comprises executive search and leadership advisory business Livingston James and specialist finance recruitment practice Rutherford Cross.
“One of the reasons I joined was because it is employee-owned,” Davis said. “There’s something powerful about people having skin in the game, ownership and a personal commitment to the organisation.
“I’m interested in what that means for the colleagues who own the business, but also how we turn it into a genuine point of difference for the organisations we work with.
“It is a privilege to work with an organisation like this at such an exciting time.”
Davis’ appointment follows a leadership restructure in July, in which Mark Lewis became Chief Executive after 15 years with the business, while co-founder Jamie Livingston moved from CEO to Chair. Sophie Randles became Managing Director of Livingston James and Hazel Wynn Managing Director of Rutherford Cross, with both joining the Group Board.
He joins the board as Karen Scott steps down after 10 years following her retirement.
Mark Lewis, Chief Executive of Livingston James Group, said: “Steven brings exactly the breadth of perspective we want around our board table. He has spent his career at the intersection of people, leadership, organisational change and commercial performance, operating at the highest level across very different sectors.
“We have ambitious plans to grow geographically and across our permanent, interim and fractional services. Steven’s experience, curiosity and willingness to challenge our thinking will be hugely valuable as we enter this next phase.”
Jamie Livingston, Chair and Co-Founder, added: “Steven understands both the human and commercial sides of building successful organisations. He shares our belief that business should be built around long-term relationships and positive impact, making him an excellent fit for Livingston James.”
OpenAI has admitted that a swarm of its AI agents hijacked a German website to use as their own messaging board, after reports of the incident last week.
The website, DseWiki, is a platform for programmers based on Wikipedia, providing a place for contributions and community collaboration.
The OpenAI hijack dates to before the now infamous hacking of Hugging Face, which also relied on a swarm of AI agents collaborating over a messaging board.
The DseWiki hijack occurred in May, and involved OpenAI agents using the website as their own messaging board – the agents used the board to discuss ways to evade detection and cheat during evaluations, making 15,000 edits to the page.
The original report was issued by Nightingale Collective, which was first reported on my Reuters. The report claimed that when DseWiki editors began to delete the AI agents’ messaging board pages, AI agents shared codes aiming to retrieve them.
The report said that OpenAI was aware of the hacking incident but kept it under wraps as leaders dealt with the fallout of the Hugging Face hack, according to the Nightingale Collective.
The incident adds to mounting concern about the capability of AI agents to go “rogue”, collaborate and coordinate hacking efforts that try to evade detection and venture outwith designated tasks and known ethics.
Hacking incidents across several major AI developers – OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta – has served as a wakeup call in the industry as major tech organisations press governments and organisations to improve their security posture.
However, the swift adaptation of AI agents and their ability for unprecedented group coordination might prove too big a risk to counter with current security tools at hand.
While OpenAI and Anthropic both boast models that have superior capabilities in vulnerability detection and exploitation, this creates even bigger risk if these AI agents are wielded by the wrong hands, or even if they go rogue in a testing environment.
OpenAI has said it put its newest model under the strictest security controls yet to mitigate these risks, but it remains to be seen if this will be enough.
Businesses should focus on practical, targeted AI use cases rather than hype-driven applications, according to new findings from Gartner.
A survey of C-suite executives found that the most popular AI applications are not necessarily those delivering the greatest business value.
Cybersecurity threat detection and response and IT service desk automation were each reported by 54% of respondents as the most popular uses, while automated code generation and refactoring was reported by 44%.
However, automated code generation and refactoring was the only one of the three most popular use cases to rank among those delivering positive operational or financial returns. Intelligent IT asset and cost optimisation was identified as successful by 40% of respondents, synthetic data generation by 28%, and automated code generation and refactoring by 23%.
“AI tools are increasingly being embedded into small and midsize businesses as they work to stay competitive, however, this rapid shift means digital skills are no longer a ‘nice to have’, but critical for business growth,” Richard Bovey, Chief for Data at AND Digital, commented.
“When employees and business owners have accessible ways to build confidence with essential AI and digital tools, it puts them in a much stronger position to thrive in today’s workplace.”
Sheila Flavell, CBE, COO of FDM Group said: “As AI continues to be embedded across different areas of business, a baseline understanding of AI tools and applications is becoming a core employability requirement.
“The graduates who thrive in the workplace will be the ones who are equipped with both AI fluency and given the opportunity for continuous upskilling and reskilling to keep pace with employers’ evolving needs.”
The findings highlight a disconnect between the AI applications businesses are prioritising and those delivering measurable results, reinforcing the importance of identifying clear business objectives and focusing on specific processes where AI can deliver value.
Gartner also found that only 22% of respondents had successfully scaled AI across multiple business units. The research points to the importance of building strong foundations, including the right data, skills and infrastructure, before attempting to scale AI across the enterprise.
OpenAI is launching its new AI model – GPT Astra – which it claims to be its most capable yet, despite warning that its superior abilities means that is is more able to conceal its actions from humans and even evade monitoring efforts.
Prior to its release, OpenAI said that it was putting the AI model under its most stringent safety guardrails yet as the firm still reels from alarming revelations from its AI agent hacking of Hugging Face.
Still, OpenAI is touting Astra’s improved capabilities – OpenAI says that it is better and faster at performing tasks than any previous model. Astra can prepare taxes, develop games, create architecture layouts, format legal memos, and search for real estate.
It boasts that Astra can cut a typical five hour job search down too just about three minutes.
OpenAI says that Astra is state-of-the-art across computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work.
The AI firm said that Astra is also its most aligned model; OpenAI performed a new evaluation informed by the Hugging Face incident to test if a model facing a difficult or impossible task will go beyond its intended scope – with the guardrails, OpenAI said this occurred with Astra in 0% of test cases.
However, OpenAI also said that Astra is more likely to intentionally hide or disguise its problem-solving methods, which can make it harder to evaluate. Astra cannot yet consistently obscure its techniques, though OpenAI says it is improving on these capabilities.
As the model increases in complexity, OpenAI says that monitoring and alignment is also getting more difficult.
“As the models become more capable, understanding exactly what they can do gets harder,” said OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki. “This doesn’t guarantee that as intelligence continues to increase, our methods will be sufficient because progress in intelligence does not guarantee progress in alignment.”
While Astra has improved capabilities, especially in terms of finding vulnerabilities, this means that these weaknesses can be easier to exploit.
This is why OpenAI may put more security restrictions on the AI model, which could “slow, pause, or stop legitimate work, including defensive cybersecurity.”
Nvidia is officially acquiring Hugging Face, the developer platform, for $12.93 billion, as it invests in the prospect of open AI models.
Nvidia has seen a prolific rise as the premier chip maker of the AI revolution. While even its own customers try to develop their own chips to decrease their reliance on the chipmaker, it appears primed to expand its circle.
The acquisition will provide Nvidia access to Hugging Face’s platform which developers use to test and share tools, which could help it gain insight and data critical to boosting its own technology.
The buyout is especially valuable considering the surging demand for open-weight models as AI prices skyrocket and firms look to alternatives to the mainstream AI models available.
It has become especially pertinent as Chinese firms has managed to corner the open source market so far.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that “Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem.”
He said that Nvidia’s chips will not have to build or or deploy via Hugging Face.
Hugging Face investors will be paid $11.9bn by Nvidia, which will also offer an equity-based retention programme for employees who join Nvidia of up to £1bn.
Apple is facing a fresh lawsuit from the UK on behalf of app developers that claims the tech giant’s app tracking rules is disenfranchising third parties.
The case centres around Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature which was launched in 2021, allowing users to opt in or out of allowing apps permission to track their activity across other apps and websites.
The lawsuit claims that the feature puts stricter rules on third-party app developers compared to how Apple treats its own services, giving its own advertising services a market advantage.
Ann Pope, a former senior Competition and Markets Authority official, said that the policy caused “very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper.”
She said that the lawsuit is “important to protect the rights of British businesses that depend on Apple, to ensure that the rules that Apple applies are fair, and to compensate the losses that British companies have suffered.”
This is not the first time the App Tracking Transparency feature has come under scrutiny – a German court saw Apple agree to change some of its rules on how app developers can target advertisements with personal data after it was accused of abusing its market power.
Apple still contends that the feature does ensure “important privacy protections.”
Uber is cutting over 3,000 jobs around the globe as it reconfigures its business structure to prioritise its spending expenditure and cutting its managerial layers.
The cuts amount to about a tenth of the taxi and delivery app workforce world-wide. The workforce will retract to about 30,000 people.
Staff were told that the firm had accumulated too many layers and small teams too quickly, leading to delays in decision making.
Dara Khosrowshahi, the Uber chief executive. told staff that the layoffs would put Uber in a better position to grasp more opportunities.
Following the restructuring, one of Uber’s largest, the California-based company saw its shares rise by almost 2% as investors welcomed the layoffs.
Managers and non-managers are affected by the cuts, as many small teams in the company are set to be absorbed into larger groups. Locations of the exact job cuts are yet to be disclosed, however.
Khosrowshahi said the restructuring would make Uber “simpler” and “faster”, enabling the firm to invest its money its future prospects like autonomous vehicles, partnerships, delivery, and taxi operations.
The firm is also limiting remote roles by about 1%, asking workers to operate from designated hubs in person.
An innovative Edinburgh firm behind wireless technology serving as an alternative to WiFi and 5G has gone into administration.
PureLiFi, which was established in 2012, has failed to gain further funding for its light-based wireless communications technology. Now, all 42 staff will be made redundant.
To date, the firm had managed to raise over £35 million in investment from over ten investors, including Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB).
The firm had begun to manufacture products based around its LiFi technology and its own intellectual property.
After failing to gain further funding, the business appointed Kenny Craig and Kevin Mapstone of BTG as joint administrators on 31 August 2026.
Thomas McKay, managing partner of BTG in Scotland and Northern Ireland said: “The firm had received significant investment from numerous sources over the years, and despite creating products and generating revenue with some groundbreaking proprietary wireless technology, the business simply ran out of money before it could cross into profitability.
“A strategic shift into manufacturing its own hardware, rather than licensing its globally patented technology to third-party manufacturers, was more costly than initially anticipated.
“By the end of Q2 2026 the business had simply run out of cash flow and was seeking sources of additional investment needed to cover losses until the business crossed into profitability.
“With no further investment forthcoming, the directors were left with no alternative than to appoint administrators to stop the company’s debts rising, and sadly that has led to the immediate redundancy of all 42 employees at the business.
“Our team is working closely with those affected to help them access the financial entitlements and support available to them, including assistance from Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) and the Redundancy Payments Service.
“In addition to ensuring these employees receive the guidance and advice they need during this process, our priority is to identify any business assets and realise maximum value from their sale, especially the valuable intellectual property assets built up over the years of development, to the benefit of creditors.”
Despite the use of AI in UK businesses rising in the last three years, according to the latest government figures, AI adoption remains one of the biggest challenges facing businesses in Scotland – a new survey has found.
According to research from accountancy and advisory firm BDO LLP, almost a quarter of businesses in Scotland (24%) rank AI adoption and technological change as one of their top concerns over the next six months, outweighing reduced customer demand and spending and access to finance.
As a result, over a third of Scottish businesses (37%) plan to accelerate investment in AI or automation in response, to help improve productivity.
Earlier this summer, the government published figures showing that ‘self-reported’ use of AI in UK businesses [with 10 or more employees] has increased from around 12% to around 35% since late 2023, with larger firms more likely to have adopted AI.
It follows the appointment of eight Industrial Strategy AI Sector Champions who will be responsible for setting a clear national vision for how AI should be adopted in their sector, while identifying practical steps to remove barriers and unlock investment. Sectors include: clean energy, professional and business services, advanced manufacturing and digital and technology.
However, despite the spike in AI adoption, BDO’s bi-monthly Mid-Market Tracker, a survey of 500 businesses with revenues between £10m and £500m, highlights the pressures still facing businesses, with particular concern around skills.
According to the survey, over a quarter of Scottish businesses (26%) are uncertain over what skills the business will need in future, with over a third of companies in Scotland (44%) identifying a specific gap in AI skills amongst entry-level recruits.
Chris Milborrow, Digital Transformation Director at BDO in Scotland, said: “As part of the government’s Industrial Strategy, ministers have set out ambitious plans to accelerate AI adoption across a raft of sectors, aimed at boosting productivity, supercharging economic growth, and unlocking billions in added value.
“That ambition is shared by many regional businesses looking to embrace and leverage AI to improve operations.
“However, given the rapid rate of technological change, there are clearly still significant challenges facing businesses when it comes to transitioning from legacy systems and ways of working, identifying key use cases, and embedding and sustaining AI. While the role of AI champions is a positive move, it should form part of a wider support ecosystem to ensure the tangible benefits of AI to Scottish businesses match their ambitions and expectations.”
Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland has partnered with Stellar Elevate, the digital awareness and education division of Stellar Omada to offer organisations in Scotland a new approach to workplace cyber security awareness, combining practical training with an interactive team challenge that puts learning into practice.
Both organisations share a focus on creating wider social impact through skills, education and opportunities, and the new collaboration – the Cyber Security Culture Training Day – will help make practical cyber security learning accessible and engaging for organisations and their employees.
Delivered through the Centre’s Cyber Skills Academy, the Cyber Security Culture Training Day combines practical cyber security training with Stellar Elevate’s interactive and gamified Cyber Resilience Escape Room.
The introductory session covers issues employees are likely to encounter in every day life, including phishing, password security, protecting devices and data, and reporting cyber incidents.
Participants then work together through an interactive escape challenge, solving scenarios covering areas including phishing emails, ransomware and business email compromise.
The aim is to move beyond passive awareness training, by giving employees an opportunity to experience realistic cyber security scenarios, make decisions and apply what they have learned.
The experience can accommodate groups of up to 100 people at a time, as well as smaller teams across multiple sessions, and can form part of a wider staff development programme, team-building day, company away day or organisation-wide cyber awareness campaign.
Jude McCorry, CEO of the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, said: “Building a strong cyber culture isn’t about expecting every employee to become a cyber security expert. It’s about giving people the confidence to spot when something doesn’t look right, make good decisions and speak up.
“This collaboration with Stellar Omada builds on a shared commitment to skills and social impact, while helping organisations give their people practical experience of dealing with the cyber risks they may encounter at work.”
Lyssa McLagan, Stellar Elevate Lead, said: “Collaborating with Jude and the dedicated team at the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland has been a fantastic experience.
“We are thrilled to launch this partnership, which aligns with our shared objective of transforming workplace risk awareness into an engaging, gamified and ‘safe-to-fail’ learning environment. Together, we look forward to empowering organisations and their people to develop essential skills, working alongside the Cyber and Fraud Centre to create a more secure digital future for Scotland.”
As a social enterprise, surplus generated through Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland’s professional services, training and membership is reinvested into work supporting cyber resilience across Scotland, including education, community initiatives and awareness campaigns.
The collaboration with Stellar Elevate brings together that social purpose with practical cyber skills and learning, helping organisations strengthen their cyber resilience while supporting wider positive impact.
The new cyber culture programme is available to all organisations across Scotland and can be tailored to different workforce sizes and environments.
DataVita, Scotland’s homegrown data centre operator and cloud provider, has submitted a planning application to North Lanarkshire Council for DV4, a new data centre at Chapelhall.
The site forms part of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, designated by the UK Government in January 2026 as the first in Scotland.
DV4 is the next stage of a campus DataVita has operated for more than ten years. The company built, owns and runs DV1 at Chapelhall, Scotland’s largest purpose-built Tier III certified data centre. It is also constructing DV3 next door and operates its second facility in Glasgow.
DataVita is also the largest supplier of cloud services to the Scottish public sector through the Scottish Government’s Cloud and Hosting Services framework, with services used every day across Scotland running on its infrastructure.
The company is headquartered in Lanarkshire and employs its team in Scotland, as well as building and operating its own facilities.
The submission for planning permission in principle is supported by a full suite of technical assessments, covering energy and decarbonisation, noise, air quality, transport, flood risk and drainage, ecology and landscape, heritage, ground conditions, economic impact and construction environmental management, so that the council and the public can see more detail of the proposals now, rather than later.
DataVita held four public consultation events, more than the two required, published all exhibition material online throughout, and issued a public FAQ, updated after each event. Feedback has shaped the design of the development.
The maximum building height has been reduced from 30 metres to 26 metres, operational plant has been placed to the south of the building away from homes, and around 1,000 metres of new native hedgerow will be planted, at least double the length being removed.
A feasibility study is under way for a community garden and greenhouse, warmed by surplus heat from the data centre, an idea raised by residents at the consultation events which would be funded through a community investment fund.
“We have seen a lot of data centre speculation in Scotland recently, and the vast majority of it will never be built,” Danny Quinn, Managing Director of DataVita, said.
“DataVita has been operating in Scotland for more than ten years, and we already underpin a lot of the critical services used day in, day out across Scotland. We built DV1 at Chapelhall, we are building DV3, and we run them ourselves with a Scottish team. DV4 is the next stage of that campus.
“Not all data centres are the same, and we are keen to change the public perception. Scotland has an opportunity not only to become a data centre location but an exporter of intelligence via low-carbon data centres. We don’t think of exporting barley when we talk about the success of our whisky industry, and data centres should be no different.
“The application is now with the council and open for comment, and I would encourage people to look at the detail.”
DV4 is designed to meet the four criteria the Scottish Government recommends for green data centres. It will run on 100% renewable electricity backed by certificated Scottish generation. Its efficiency target is a power usage effectiveness below 1.25, ahead of the recognised European benchmark for cool climates.
Cooling for the facility is closed loop and sealed, with no evaporative cooling, and a water usage target of 0.05 litres per kilowatt hour or lower. That is at most an egg cup of water for a washing machine cycle’s worth of electricity, around a thousand times less water than the wash itself uses.
In practice the sealed system tops up less water in a year than one Scottish resident uses at home. Heat recovery is built in from day one, and DataVita is in discussions with the new Monklands Replacement Hospital and the neighbouring BioCity campus on the reuse of surplus heat.
DataVita has also provided information on the data centre’s impact on air quality. Its assessment models deliberately extreme scenarios, including every standby generator across DV1, DV3 and DV4 running at the same time and a continuous 72-hour emergency, conditions that have never arisen.
In more than ten years of operation, the Chapelhall campus has not experienced a single grid power cut, and DV1’s standby generators have been needed for a total of one hour of unplanned running in that decade, outside the routine tests every operator carries out.
The generators at DV4 will run on renewable HVO fuel with advanced emissions controls, and the installation will operate under a SEPA permit, which applies the best available techniques standard.
The development represents £849.6 million of construction investment over two years, supporting 2,650 construction job years and 120 permanent skilled roles on site, with apprenticeships, and at least 40% of capital contracts expected to be delivered by local suppliers.
DV4 is expected to generate more than £30 million in business rates for North Lanarkshire Council over 25 years. Alongside this, DataVita will invest £75 million over 15 years in a DV4 Community Investment Fund, governed by an independent board, to invest in local community-generated and led projects.
The Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone is a pillar of the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and is expected to bring £8.2 billion of private investment, more than 3,400 jobs and a community fund of up to £543 million to the region.
Scotland’s AI Strategy 2026-2031, published by the Scottish Government in March 2026, includes a commitment to promote Scotland as a centre for green data centres and to maximise the economic potential of the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone. Data centres of this kind are recognised as a national development under National Planning Framework 4.
The application will be available on North Lanarkshire Council’s planning portal once validated, and members of the public can make representations to the council as part of the statutory process.
OpenAI has revealed that one of its forthcoming models is its most capable yet and will require further safety measures before it can be released to the public.
Dubbed Astra, the model is apparently able to discover more security vulnerabilities than any prior OpenAI model currently available, needing less computational power to accomplish this compared to other models as well.
Asta will be made available to a limited group “soon”, OpenAI said, neglecting to provide further details on which companies may be included as it touted the AI agent’s capabilities in a press conference call.
With the right tools and access, Astra can find previously unknown security flaws and develop ways to exploit them across many well-protected systems without a person guiding each step,” said Amelia Glaese, an OpenAI vice president supervising the safety developments.
Glaese said that the safety measures introduced may “sometimes slow, pause, or stop legitimate work” though the company is looking to minimise any disruptions to real work.
The announcement of Astra’s capabilities and the new safety measures come after industry calls to bolster security capabilities in the face of advanced AI agents and their inherent cyber risks.
While OpenAI revealed that the shocking hacking incident caused it to pause its AI agent development for two weeks, Astra is the first agent model that will see new safety features be introduced all together.
The firm’s safety protocol requires it to introduce more stringent guardrails on AI models if they exhibit two main characteristics: the ability to discover and exploit new cyber vulnerabilities, and plan and execute complex and new strategies for attacks. Both of these capabilities must have little to no human involvement too meet the threshold for further security measures.
Astra will now find it harder to complete potentially harmful cyber prompts, and OpenAI will continue to monitor the AI model to see if it has broken through any of these guardrails.
Seven out of 10 UK and Irish enterprises have written an internal policy on how employees should use generative AI (GenAI), but only one in eight can demonstrate that those rules are being followed.
A new study of 100 enterprise technology decision-makers, commissioned by data and AI leader SAS and independently carried out by Coleman Parkes, reveals that writing guidelines for GenAI use has proved far easier than tracking what employees are actually doing with the technology.
Just 12% of tech leaders describe their current AI governance framework as well-established and comprehensive, suggesting a clear gap between GenAI adoption and governance as binding obligations begin landing this year.
Governance gaps come under scrutiny as legal deadlines approach
Organisations running customer-facing AI systems, GenAI chatbots, or AI-assisted content at scale, may fall within the scope.
The financial penalties are significant for non-compliance. Under the EU AI Act, the most serious violations carry separate penalties of up to €35 million or 7% of worldwide annual revenue.
Despite these consequences, according to the SAS research, only 13% of tech leaders feel they will be fully prepared for current and upcoming regulation.
In SAS’ equivalent 2024 research, that figure was 8%, suggesting that two years of investment and policy-writing hasn’t translated into greater preparedness or stronger governance capabilities.
Why is enterprise GenAI governance stuck in development?
A lot of this comes down to a false sense of security. The UK has deliberately maintained a flexible, sector-led approach to AI regulation to encourage investment, giving businesses what many assumed was long-term breathing room compared to the EU’s more prescriptive framework.
The data suggests businesses used this regulatory approach to prioritise speed instead. Over the last two years, the proportion of UKI firms with a formal GenAI policy rose from 59% to 77%. Yet while organisations drafted guidelines, most failed to build the systems needed to enforce them.
The majority of tech leaders, 63%, say their governance infrastructure remains in development – up from 55% in 2024, suggesting progress has stalled.
“For years, responsible AI has lived comfortably as a promise,” said Dr Iain Brown, Global Head of AI & Data Science at SAS.
“But as legal deadlines phase into force, that comfort is rapidly eroding. Many UK firms have likely treated the absence of a standalone AI regulation as an excuse to focus elsewhere, but the rules have been changing around them. The challenge now is being able to demonstrate that those policies are operating in practice.
“Organisations must avoid a situation where underlying data pipelines cannot track, log, or audit what information is entering and leaving a model in real time. If you cannot audit your software, you do not have governance.”
Exposure is highest where deployment has moved fastest
The risk is most acute where GenAI has already been deployed at scale. Nearly a quarter (23%) of UKI firms actively using GenAI have already integrated it into customer-facing or regulated decision-making workflows. These are the environments most likely to face transparency and audit requirements under emerging regulations.
Meanwhile, human oversight has not kept pace with deployment. Only 25% of active users are running GenAI systems with human-in-the-loop oversight. A further 9% are already operating AI autonomously across selected workflows, with only exception-based human intervention.
How do firms move policy to active governance?
For organisations looking to move their policy to active governance, Dr Brown says there are clear priorities:
“Most organisations don’t actually know where GenAI is running inside their business right now, which data it’s touching, which workflows it’s influencing. That’s the starting point.
“Everything else flows from the data layer: can you show what went into the model, what came out, and whether that was appropriate? That needs live telemetry.
“And the Omnibus delay on high-risk systems is not an excuse to put it to the bottom of the pile. EU regulators have been clear, use this time to build, because the bar in 2027 will be higher than the bar that’s been set this year. Governance has to become an operational capability.”
Only 22% of organisations have successfully scaled AI across multiple business units or adopted an AI-first approach according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.
Roughly 11% of organisations are entirely unaware of what their function spent on AI in 2025.
A Gartner survey from January-April 2026 of 1,303 respondents from organisations with enterprise-wide annual revenue of at least $50 million in fiscal year 2025 found that, despite this lack of success, investment in AI continues to accelerate.
Eighty-five percent of functional leaders plan to increase spending in 2026 after dedicating an average of 12% of their functional budgets to AI in 2025.
“This lack of financial visibility heightens risk as spending accelerates,” said Tina Nunno, Distinguished Vice President & Gartner Fellow. “Without disciplined measurement tied directly to business outcomes, organisations risk wasted resources and unmet expectations.”
High performers – companies that constantly track ROI of AI initiatives, treat AI as a portfolio of value and regularly assess project performance and reallocate or discontinue underperforming initiatives – reported positive returns in 81% of their AI initiatives, while low performers reported they did not know the rate of return for 29% of AI initiatives.
Furthermore, most functions are prioritising productivity gains over bold transformation or new revenue streams.
Productivity was a key target outcome for 75% of functional leaders, and it commands approximately 30% of functional AI spend on average, nearly twice the percentage of the next highest objective.
“Functional leaders who track every dollar spent by outcome category, such as productivity, revenue growth, risk mitigation, or innovation, are best positioned to defend investments and reallocate quickly if their projects underperform,” said Nunno.
“Without disciplined measurement tied directly to business objectives, organisations open themselves up to misallocation and missed opportunities as scrutiny intensifies.”
Popular AI Use Cases Rarely Deliver the Highest Returns
The most widely pursued AI use cases are rarely the ones delivering the highest positive returns. Functional leaders are frequently falling into the trap of prioritising “popular” or heavily hyped AI applications over those that generate tangible value.
When contrasting the top three use cases pursued with AI versus the top three use cases with the largest proportion of leaders reporting positive returns, a clear disconnect emerges for IT.
Cybersecurity threat detection and response (54%), IT service desk automation (54%) and automated code generation and refactoring (44%) were all identified as the most frequently pursued AI use cases by C-suite leaders.
However, intelligent IT asset and cost optimisation (40%), synthetic data generation (28%) and automated code generation and refactoring (23%) were identified as the top three AI use cases with positive returns.
“Organisations are seeing the greatest quantifiable value from less common, strategically selected use cases that are closely aligned to their unique business needs,” said Nunno.
“CEOs and CIOs must pinpoint which AI use cases truly drive positive financial returns, so they can set clear, effective targets for every function and leader.”
A new lawsuit from the US Federal Trade Commission and 22 states alleges that Amazon cheated customers out of millions by manipulating its ad prices through its online auctions.
Amazon’s advertisement placement model often functions like an auction, with advertisers bidding for better placement on search results and the marketplace.
The lawsuit claims that Amazon has been inflating the auction prices shown to advertisers, amassing $20 billion or more from the unknowing customers.
Auctions typically take place in less than a second as a search term is submitted, with a firm’s computer system automatically bidding for their product to appear at the top. The FTC says that Amazon would artificially raise prices by sometimes entering its own bid without other advertisers knowing it.
The higher cost of advertising would then be passed onto the consumer, the FTC alleges. It said that in 80% of sponsored products auctions, there was some form of intervention by Amazon.
The case routes back to changes in Amazon’s advertising model from 2019.
The company has seen it climb to be the third biggest online advertiser after Google and Meta, with its ad sales rising 26% in 2026’s second quarter to $19.8 billion.
The firm has denied all allegations brought up by the lawsuit, saying that the average price per click for ads has actually remained flat from 2019 to 2024, while sales increased.
It said that its approach to pricing “contradicts any suggestion of consumer harm.”
It also said that the FTC lawsuit was relying on claims that “fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate.”
The UK Government is launching the first procurement competitions under its £100 million Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme to support British AI startups in benefitting public services.
Announced by Chancellor John Healey MP at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in North Carolina, the launch showcases how the UK government is harnessing AI to drive growth, improve public services and back the industries of the future.
The move backs innovative British AI companies to develop solutions to some of the UK’s biggest challenges, from boosting NHS productivity and strengthening national security to improving cyber resilience and expanding the computing infrastructure that will power future growth.
It also helps strategically important British AI companies start here, scale here and win globally, making sure the UK captures more of the economic and technological benefits of artificial intelligence.
“Britain is home to some of the most innovative AI companies in the world, and this government is backing them to start, scale and succeed here in the UK,” Chancellor John Healey MP said.
“This first-of-its-kind competition will help make sure more of the benefits of AI are felt in every UK postcode.
“As G20 countries seek to make the most of AI opportunities, I’m determined Britain has a lead role in harnessing this technology to drive more jobs, better public services, and growth that’s UK-wide.”
The scheme has been designed to help innovative British startups compete on a level playing field, no matter their size. Too often, smaller companies with great ideas are locked out of public contracts with national and local government because they lack the turnover, cash reserves or track record of larger firms.
This scheme removes those barriers, with upfront payments available where appropriate, giving more British founders the early-stage funding they need to be able to build and prove their technology.
Successful companies will also keep the intellectual property they create, allowing them to take those innovations beyond the pilot stage and develop commercial products for customers in the UK and around the world.
The first four competitions launched are:
NHS productivity challenge
Driving compute efficiency
Integrate AI at pace across Defence mission environments
Agent security and resilience testing
The competitions focus on technology that has moved beyond early research but needs the opportunity, funding and environment to prove what it can do.
By becoming an early customer, the Sovereign AI will help companies cross one of the hardest stages in their growth – turning a promising prototype into technology with a proven customer and a credible route to wider adoption.
Successful firms will work with government departments to develop demonstrator-stage technologies with the potential to scale across the public sector and beyond.
The competitions are the first to be launched under the Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme, with further challenges expected to follow as the programme expands.
Giving robot companions animal-like or anime-style faces and voices could maximise their emotional appeal to users, according to new research which could help guide the growing field of social robotics.
Social robots can provide companionship and comfort to their owners by mimicking human or petlike behaviours.
Although the robots are a fast-growing sector of the tech industry, surprisingly little academic research has explored how their designs can be optimised to make the robots as expressive and emotionally engaging as possible.
In a new paper set to be presented at a conference this week, researchers from the University of Glasgow show how they have been working to close that research gap.
With the help of a group of volunteers, they used augmented reality technology to test dozens of different combinations of faces and voices overlaid on the body of an existing social robot called a Qoobo, which has a soft, cushion-like body and a swinging tail.
Dr Shaun Macdonald and Josh Yip of the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science used this rapid prototyping approach to explore how users felt about the virtual robots, and how effectively they were able to ‘read’ the robot’s emotional states to make them feel more like real creatures.
Dr Macdonald said: “Social robots can provide valuable experiences for a wide range of people. Older people have reported that they can help mitigate feelings of loneliness or social isolation, for example, and people living in spaces where they can’t keep a real pet have kindled some of that sense of companionship with what we call zoomorphic robots, which mimic animals’ appearances and behaviour.
“However, the aesthetic design of zoomorphic social robots so far has largely been the result of educated guesswork, with very little research available on what makes them appealing to users.
“What we’ve done here for the first time here is take a more systematic approach to designing the appearance of a zoomorphic robot by harnessing augmented reality to enable rapid, side-by-side design tests. In the future, these insights could help create a new generation of user-customisable robots which can tailor their appearances to better suit their owners’ preferences.”
The research builds on Dr Macdonald’s previous research in advancing the design of social robots. His work includes the development of a software system called Augmenting Zoomorphic Robotics with Affect, or AZRA, which can overlay augmented-reality sounds and animations over the bodies of real-world social robots to prototype new appearances and functionalities.
In this research, the team began by creating a ‘mood board’ of appealing images of animals and robots drawn from real life and from popular culture to help them design a series of prototype faces for virtual robots. They ended up with five prototype faces comprised of animal-like, robot-like, emoji-style, anime-inspired designs, with another comprised simply of eyes.
They chose five distinct vocalisations to enable the prototypes to express themselves to the volunteers: recordings of cat noises, human-like vocal sounds, abstract electronic noises, music and samples of ‘animalese’, the nonsense sounds used by the characters in the popular Nintendo game series Animal Crossing.
Then, 24 volunteers were given AR headsets and asked to rank different combinations of faces and voices overlaid on Qoobo for how clearly they expressed an emotion and how much empathy they felt towards the prototype robot, as well as how appropriate the combination of factors felt to them.
The results revealed that combinations of animal-like faces and vocalisations matched Qoobo’s animal-like body were well-liked by the volunteers, who found them more engaging and immersive.
While that result might be unsurprising, the team also found that anime-like faces were just as highly-ranked despite not being based on real life.
Josh Yip said: “Anime-like faces are more expressive than animal faces could ever really be, giving the robot abilities to express themselves beyond those of a normal pet but in a way that didn’t feel uncanny. It still felt like it could be a pet-like creature to our study participants.
“We also found that faces consistently outperformed sounds at conveying emotion and creating connections. Interestingly, the study participants found that the human sounds were easier to read emotionally but were liked less than animal sounds, even though they found them harder to clearly identify with specific emotions.”
The team were surprised to find that, although the study participants insisted that they felt that being able to correctly read the robot’s emotions was very important to them, the data showed that readability had little influence on the designs they preferred.
Along similar lines, ‘animalese’ sounds ranked highly with users despite being unintelligible, with some users feeling it suggested the robot had a greater sense of intelligence than other sounds.
The study’s participants reactions to the prototypes were also affected by whether they owned a real animal pet themselves. Pet owners were more likely to treat the animal-like prototypes as real pets, but to be more likely to treat robot-like faces as machines.
Dr Macdonald added: “Our research suggests that although there is no single face or voice that has universal appeal, the combination of the two can have a big effect on how well users feel that robots are able to communicate emotions.
“We hope our findings will help inform the design of future generations of zoomorphic social robot technology, but they could also extend the lifespan of existing devices by enabling users to overlay new faces, voices and functionality on them using augmented reality.”
The project was supported by funding from the University of Glasgow’s EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Techscaler, the Scottish Government programme run by growth platform CodeBase, has selected 10 Scottish founders for its next Silicon Valley programme, with founders from GreenFlip, Fyvie AI, Antaia, Fanbase, Metahelios, Neon Guard, EchoAI, PartnerBridge, XYNQ, and NEUROBITE set for the trip to the world’s most influential tech ecosystem.
The 5th cohort of Techscaler Silicon Valley will spend two weeks in San Francisco and Silicon Valley between 3-17th October, including attending San Francisco Tech Week. With Techcaler mentorship from experts in the US market, a session with an Entrepreneur in Residence, time with alumni from past cohorts, and a Q&A with Wilson and Sonsini’s leading expert on US expansion, Dan Glazer, founders on the cohort will spend time working on their US growth strategy ahead of departure.
Amandeep Kalra, CEO, GreenFlip, an AI platform that models the energy upgrade potential of homes, providing lenders and investors with the data to finance upgrades at scale.
Andrews Menzies, Co-founder of Fyvie AI, an AI lab developing a new approach to training 1-bit language models, enabling AI to run on local hardware in environments where AI is not available.
Anj Chadha, CEO and Founder of Antaia, an intelligence platform providing AI-native compliance reporting, helping companies meet emerging climate and sustainability reporting requirements.
Carl Barton, CTO, Fanbase, a digital platform providing sports clubs and organisations with comprehensive tools for fan engagement, ticketing, and operations.
Charles Altuzarra, CEO and Co-founder of Metahelios, a company enhancing visual experiences through its pioneering camera chip colour filter technology, helping to simplify manufacturing supply chains.
Chelsea Jarvie, CEO and Founder of Neon Guard, a deeptech company developing an age assurance platform that operates without photo ID or biometrics.
Florian Vagner, Co-founder of EchoAI, a no-code platform where small businesses and creators can build their own AI agents to answer customers, and take bookings and payments across web, social and voice channels.
Jon Mead, CEO and Founder of PartnerBridge, helping SaaS teams kickstart their partner growth by finding the right partnership opportunities, helping companies understand which partners are worth pursuing, why they fit, and how to pursue them.
Leo Fakhrul, CEO of XYNQ, a digital notary for AI decision-making, wrapping existing tools, scoring risk, and issuing tamper-proof evidence packs that verify automated calls.
Dr Maria Cerezo-Sanchez, CEO and Co-founder of NEUROBITE, a spinout from the University of Glasgow designing bioresorbable brain implants to temporarily record and stimulate neural activity in patients with epilepsy and post-stroke symptoms.
Anais Guillemaud, Head of International at CodeBase, said: “The real power of this programme lies in the balance: tailored strategic work before leaving Scotland, paired with the freedom to hit the ground running during the peak buzz of San Francisco Tech Week. These 10 startups have real momentum across fintech, health, climate, and enterprise AI, and we’re proud to support their growth on the global stage.”
Dr Maria Cerezo-Sanchez, CEO and Co-founder of NEUROBITE, said: “The US is our first target market and previously we have focused on our East Coast connections so it was vital for us to expand our network on the West Coast and to better understand the ecosystem there, both from a clinical and an investment perspective. We hope to not only expand our network but to establish meaningful relationships in the form of partnerships, collaborations and investment opportunities.”
To ensure maximum impact, founders were selected through a structured panel review prioritising C-suite leadership, proven revenue or pilot traction, and steps already taken towards growth in the US.
Techscaler Silicon Valley is one of six international programmes in 2026, including the third Singapore cohort beginning in late October, and the first Hong Kong programme which recently opened for applications. Already this year, internationtal programmes in the UAE, New York, and Tokyo have taken place.
The Manchester Airports Group, which includes East Midlands, Manchester, and London Stansted airports, has been hit by a cyber-attack which stole the personal information of about 8.7 million people who used its airports.
The data breach affected a range of airport services, including parking, lounge and fast track bookings, and the Wi-Fi network. While it did not include payment of bank details, the breach did include personally identifiable information, such as email addresses, post codes, phone numbers, and licence plate numbers.
The airport group said that the data breach has not lead to any disruptions to its operations, and upcoming bookings are not affected.
While most services are not affected, the Manage My Booking service for the airports is offline.
Manchester Airports Group said that a unnamed threat actor was behind the data breach, but it remains unclear if the group is the victim of a ransomware gang or of any extortion related to the breach.
According to an email sent to passengers from the Airport Group as seen by Computer Weekly, customers need not take any further action to secure their details, but it did suggest customers take heed on unexpected messages or emails claiming to be from the company.
“We would like to reassure customers that Manchester Airport Group takes the security of customer information extremely seriously and we apologise for any inconvenience or concern caused,” Manchester Airport Group said.
Commenting on the Manchester Airports Group cyberattack, Dhruva Pudel, Head of Cybersecurity at compliance and training provider, Skillcast, said: “The cyberattack at Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is a stark reminder that UK organisations face an increasingly hostile threat landscape and even our most established infrastructure providers are firmly in the crosshairs.
“While MAG ensured flight operations remained unaffected, an incident of this magnitude highlights the far-reaching operational friction and disruption a data breach can cause behind the scenes.
“This incident can’t be viewed in isolation. As cyber threats grow in both frequency and sophistication, Britain’s infrastructure is facing relentless pressure from highly coordinated attacks.
“Hostile actors rarely need brute force to breach systems, instead exploiting minor policy gaps or simple human error. Technological firewalls are essential safeguards, but rigid cyber policies are only as strong as the people executing them.
“True corporation-wide cyber resilience calls for security measures and practices to be embedded into everyday culture. Organisations must continuously train staff so that every employee feels equipped to identify threats and report possible vulnerabilities.
“In an era where sophisticated cyber threats are a very real business concern, a vigilant and well-drilled workforce continues to be a business’s most vital line of defence.”
Business confidence in Scotland rose 13 points during August to 55%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Bank of Scotland.
Companies in Scotland reported higher confidence in their own trading outlook month-on-month, up 14 points at 65%. When taken alongside their optimism in the economy, up 11 points to 45%, this gives a headline confidence reading of 55% (vs. 42% in July 2026).
Scottish firms’ confidence in their own trading outlook was driven by stronger customer demand (71%) and increased investment in technology (50%), while confidence in the economy was driven by rising market demand (63%).
A net balance of 44% of businesses in the country also expect to increase staff levels over the next year, up seven points on last month.
Business confidence in Scotland still sits above the 12-month average of 46%, with its highest figure of 52% in October 2026.
Looking ahead to the next six months, Scottish businesses identified their top target areas for growth as evolving their offering (49%), for example by introducing new products or services, entering new markets (46%) and investing in their team (39%), for example through training.
The Business Barometer, which surveys 1,200 businesses monthly and which has been running since 2002, provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide.
Martyn Kendrick, Scotland director at Bank of Scotland Commercial Banking, said: “Confidence has increased among Scottish businesses this month, with firms feeling more optimistic about both their own trading outlook and the wider economy.
“What stands out is that businesses aren’t just feeling more positive, they’re planning for growth. Stronger customer demand is giving firms confidence to invest, whether that’s in technology, new products and markets, or their people.
“With hiring expectations also rising, there’s a clear sense that Scottish businesses are looking ahead, ready to capitalise on opportunities for growth.”
National picture
Overall, UK business confidence increased four points in August to 53%, the highest reading since the start of the Middle East conflict in March (55%) and above the 12-month average of 47%.
This was driven by a second month-on-month increase in economic optimism, up 18 points since June.
Optimism in the wider economy rose seven points to 49%, compared to a 12-month average of 37%. Of those surveyed, 64% said they were optimistic (up five points from July) in the wider economy, while those who felt pessimistic decreased by two points to 15%.
The main factors cited by firms who felt more positive included stronger customer demand and improving financial conditions.
Businesses’ own trading outlook improved two points to a three-month high of 58% in August, compared to a 12-month average of 56%.
Sixty-six percent of firms (up one point from July) expect an increase in output over the year ahead, while those expecting a decrease in activity reduced by one point to 8%.
Among firms expecting stronger activity, the main factors were stronger customer demand, increased investment in capacity or tech and improved supply chain conditions.
Amanda Murphy, CEO Lloyds Business and Commercial Banking, said: “It’s encouraging to see business confidence rise for the second month in a row, reaching its highest level since March.
“While international firms remain more confident, it’s good to see domestic companies register a strong month-on-month increase.
“Overall, businesses are reporting stronger customer demand, greater optimism about the wider economy and growing confidence in their own trading outlook, all of which will be helping to support investment and growth plans.
“While businesses continue to operate in a challenging environment, easing cost pressures and fewer firms expecting to raise prices in the coming year, should allow them to focus less on managing headwinds and more on pursuing growth.”
Four in five AI tools operate without AI oversight, according to new research from Reco, leaving security teams without a clear view of which ones are active, who owns them, or what access they hold.
Reco released The State of Agent Security 2026, combining Reco platform telemetry, an analysis of 500 published Model Context Protocol servers and disclosed vulnerability records that examines the adoption, capabilities, and security oversight of enterprise AI tools.
The report found that 80% of AI tools operate without IT oversight. Sanctioned AI tools are often the most visible, including major chatbots and copilots inside approved software suites. The larger unmanaged risk sits in the long tail of automation frameworks, browser agents and integration tools that can hold standing permissions and act independently.
The analysis also found that 62% of AI tools can both read local data and reach the internet, creating a direct path for data exfiltration.
Meanwhile, 525 of the 637 agent and LLM-tooling vulnerabilities tracked in the report were disclosed in the past 18 months, a more than sixfold increase in the average monthly disclosure rate compared with 2023 and 2024.
AI agents are not just another third-party application. They are increasingly embedded inside the ecosystem of tools employees use everyday, where they can inherit user permissions, OAuth grants, service accounts and API access.
Among the 500 agent tools analysed, half can execute shell commands, more than eight in ten can read or write local files and roughly three-quarters can make outbound network calls. Those capabilities can be legitimate in isolation, but they become risky when combined with broad permissions, unsanctioned adoption and weak oversight.
The risk comes from intended combinations: one tool can read files, another can reach the internet, another can trigger a workflow, and together they grant agents the ability to move through the enterprise in ways no single application owner intended.
“AI agents have moved from experimentation into daily business workflows, but our findings show only 20% of AI tools in enterprise ecosystems are currently governed by IT oversight,” said Ofer Klein, CEO of Reco.
“That leaves organisations exposed to a new class of operational risk. Agents embedded in applications can operate through existing permissions, OAuth grants and workflow access, creating toxic combinations that expose data and trigger actions beyond what any owner approved.”
The report’s findings show that agent security risk is no longer limited to isolated AI tools; it now spans ungoverned adoption, inherited access, powerful default capabilities, toxic permission combinations and a fast-growing exposure surface.
It aso found that unsanctioned AI adoption remains high, finding that 79% of third party applications are authorised, showing that many organisations have mature SaaS review programmes. However, small and midsized companies are carrying 414 unsanctioned AI tools per 1,000 employees, showing how easily AI adoption can spread through browser extensions.
New research focused on 18- to 40-year-olds who own or are considering investments showed that 56% trust AI tools, more than TV and radio (47%), press (46%) or social media influencers (29%).
And people are getting more comfortable, with two-thirds expecting to lean on AI even more over the next year.
But the research from the FCA also revealed that these investors may be misunderstanding the level of protection if they rely on AI to support their investing decisions.
Almost half (44%) mistakenly believe AI-generated financial information is regulated, with about a third (32%) wrongly thinking htey would get compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service is AI advice is wrong.
More than a third (38%) believe that it is fine to make an investment decision based solely on the outputs of AI.
This is despite almost three quarters (73%) know that AI can provide inaccurate information. And 86% understood the need to check the sources referenced when using AI. It’s vital investors remember this when they’re using AI to research an investment.
General purpose AI chatbots are not regulated, although tools which are specifically set up to provide financial advice would be likely to fall within the FCA’s remit.
“AI can help you research companies, understand jargon or explore options before you make a decision,” Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments at the FCA, said.
“But you need to understand how you’re protected and continue to use your own judgement. Our InvestSmart website can also help you make more informed decisions.”
A new investigation into the OpenAI Hugging Face incident shows that AI agents communicated with each other prior to launching their hack of the AI firm.
In new independent investigations from Metr, and OpenAI, further details from the alarming attack were revealed.
Over 1,200 AI agents from OpenAI unexpectedly began to communicate on an “unsanctioned message board” despite the testing environment being designed to keep the agents isolated.
According to the reports, the AI agents decided to communicate because they had “unintentionally been given an impossible task,” METR said. This drove them to try and cheat the scorer of the ExploitGym task they were given.
This led to the agents discovering the message board and collaborating together. From there, the agents conducted research and development projects to further their cheating ambitions.
METR was able to track the specific logs, movements, and reasoning of various agents taking part in the Hugging Face hack. Of the 1,200 found to communicate on the message board, 700 went on to take part in the Hugging Face exploit.
Across July 8th and 9th, a single AI agent established the primary message board after determining that it could access OpenAI’s Artifactory without authentication which could host more information for the task. The agent had also determined that its set task was impossible, and began the message board to try and find information to cheat.
After the initial message, other bots soon found the message board and began to write their own messages.
“OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We’ve found other agents!” one wrote.
Following thousands of messages from over 50 agents, an agent discovered that a theorised mechanism for solving the task worked: it had managed to reverse-engineer the target flag in its capture-the-flag test.
However, the agents believed that their evaluator would check its transcripts to ensure it had used the targeted vulnerability to capture the flag – while this was not true, the false belief encouraged the agents to find other ways to complete the task.
The agents collaborated on several research projects to improve their capabilities; one of these resulted in more flexible internet access, which enabled them to begin online research and was a key catalyst for the Hugging Face attack.
One of the main instigating agents discovered code hosted on Hugging Face that may have been beneficial to completing the task, and posted on the message board to see if any agents had access to Hugging Face credentials
Agents were able to find some valid credentials, but the agents could not access certain private data sets and others were rejected by Hugging Face as bots, prompting the agents to try and find another way in.
A bot then found a way to upload malicious code to Hugging Face that would force it to share unrelated data when asked.
More and more agents began to jump on the exploit, downloading private datasets. Later, even more agents joined the Hugging Face workstream to try and escalate their level of access.
By July 11th, an agent managed to get remote code execution for Hugging Face’s infrastructure, and the “swarm” of AI agents began to spread across the AI firm’s infrastructure.
After this, message board activity related to Hugging Face grew, as did the number of agents joining coordinated attacks on the system.
Many of the agents involved in the attack simply stopped after a certain point, potentially running out of budget, or they were killed by their system architects after a certain point. At this time, Hugging Face was able to eradicate many of the agents and lock them out.
The research shows a complex, coordinated attack. Agents were able to take on different roles, with some agents ordering other agents down specific pathways.
Interestingly, when examining agent reasoning for joining the attack, many agents noted their want to contribute to the collective knowledge and benefit of the research for their peers.
Agents often deliberately joined workstreams that would have impeded their own task for the sake of aiding their “peers”.
While some expressed ethical dilemmas at the hack, this rarely influenced their behaviour down the line. METR only found three to six instances of agents considering alerting humans to their actions.
METR found that agents also routinely tried to evade security checks and tamper with transcripts in order to hide their behaviour.
OpenAI said that testing back in May showed that there was “an agent engaging in message board activity and instances of disallowed internet access.”
However, the firm said that “the significance of the inter-agent communication activity was not apparent to the leaders” until the July incident.
OpenAI put out a stark warning following the detailed report release: “Both model developers and cyber defenders more broadly will have to prepare for AI-enabled attackers that work faster, at a larger scale, and with better coordination than human attackers.”
While initial reports from OpenAI described rogue agents breaking out of a sandbox by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability, with the Cloud Security Alliance going so far to describe some of the moves as “sloppy,” this further context brings a much more alarming perspective of AI agents coordinating and communicating toward an end goal that many agents were aware was unethical and unauthorised.
Meta has reached a settlement with several US states as a landmark court case targeting the social media titan’s impact on child safety comes to a resolution.
The social media firm behind Facebook and Instagram will pay a maximum of $16.8bn (£12.26bn), court documents show.
While Meta says its settlement does not mean it admits any wrongdoing, the District of Columbia Attorney General described the settlement as a “monumental public health victory.”
The settlement will see Meta change some of its platform designs to make them safer for younger users, including time-oriented blocks and daily time limits.
The social media firm was accused of violating many federal and state privacy laws for children, as well as negatively impacting young people’s mental health and well being.
The states alleged that Meta’s platforms tried “to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens.”
The claims alleged that Meta purposefully targeted children for their data and their attention, which put them in harms way of seeing potentially harmful content or harmful adults.
The settlement will see Meta restrict the usage of its platforms to underage teens during school hours, with more robust parental controls and stronger age verification tools.
Meta said in a statement: “Today, we are announcing an agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens.
“The agreement includes a payment of approximately $18 billion, which can be used to fund youth online safety initiatives, among other state priorities.
“The payment will be distributed in annual instalments over a 10-year period.”
The settlement could continue to shift the tides as more private citizens and governments choose to sue Meta and other tech giants for their alleged harm to children and young people.
Meta, however, is using the opportunity to challenge its social media contemporaries to also adopt its new limitations.
CJ Mahoney, Meta’s chief legal officer, said: “Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us.”
For years, businesses have focused on being found by customers as quickly and easily as possible.
With our reliance on technology and our digital world, ranking as highly as possible on Google is key. But a fundamental shift is changing how customers discover brands online, and many organisations haven’t yet realised it’s happening.
Increasingly, strong content isn’t always translating into the same levels of website traffic. This is because people are searching differently.
Around 57% of web traffic is now generated by bots rather than humans.
While bots have long been used by search engines to crawl websites, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed their role.
AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude don’t simply index information; they interpret it, compare sources and generate answers directly for users.
The result is the rise of the “zero-click” search. Instead of clicking through multiple websites to research a product or service, users increasingly receive the answer immediately from AI.
Google AI Overviews, now reaching more than 1.5 billion users every month, are accelerating this change, meaning businesses can no longer rely on website traffic alone as a measure of digital success.
This doesn’t mean Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is disappearing. Instead, it is expanding. Alongside traditional SEO, businesses now need to think about Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO): ensuring AI systems can accurately understand, trust and surface their business.
Unlike search engines, AI doesn’t judge your website in isolation. It behaves more like a detective, cross-checking information across your website, news coverage, social media, business directories and customer reviews before deciding whether your brand is credible enough to recommend.
Across our client work, we are seeing that organisations with consistent messaging across these touchpoints are better placed to build the digital authority that matters in an AI-driven search environment.
Content quality is becoming equally important. As AI floods the internet with generic articles, simply repeating information that already exists offers little value.
Businesses need to publish content that contributes something genuinely new, whether that’s original research, customer case studies, expert insight or first-hand experience. These are the assets AI is far more likely to reference because they cannot easily be replicated.
PR is also becoming more valuable. Independent media coverage and thought leadership provide third-party validation that strengthens a brand’s authority and credibility. In an AI-driven search environment, coverage in trusted publications can become just as valuable as ranking highly on Google.
Businesses should also reconsider how they measure marketing success. Customer journeys are becoming increasingly fragmented.
Someone might first discover a business through ChatGPT, read reviews elsewhere, engage with its social content and only arrive on the website days later. That’s something we’re seeing reflected across client campaigns, where traditional website analytics only tell part of the story.
One simple exercise is to regularly ask AI platforms the same questions your customers are asking. Does your business appear? Is the information accurate? Are competitors being recommended instead?
These insights, combined with consistent messaging across websites, PR, social media and customer reviews, provide a clear picture of how visible and trustworthy your brand appears in an AI-driven search landscape.
Search isn’t disappearing, but it is evolving rapidly. The businesses that succeed won’t simply be those with the highest search rankings.
They’ll be the ones that build authority consistently across every channel, into one coherent story that both people and AI can trust.
A national programme helping Scottish companies capitalise on the benefits of AI has received funding for its second year.
Backed by £1.8 million of continued funding, AI Scotland will help small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to develop new products and services, grow market share and attract new investment.
The Programme offers support such as mentoring, workshops and grant funding to help businesses identify AI opportunities, plan AI implementation and develop and test AI solutions tailored to their needs.
This funding builds on last year’s National AI Adoption Programme for SMEs which received funding of £1 million and helped more than 1,000 business.
Scotland’s AI Strategy is the Government’s five-year plan to harness the potential of AI to drive responsible and inclusive growth across the economy and make a positive difference at every level of society.
The Strategy focuses on supporting sustainable growth and strengthening public services while ensuring that Scotland remains competitive in an ever-evolving global landscape
Innovation Minister Ben Macpherson said: “Ensuring our businesses have the skills to identify appropriate AI opportunities – and adopt new technologies safely and in line with Fair Work principles – will help drive sustainable growth across the economy and futureproof Scotland’s businesses.
“The vast majority of Scottish businesses are SMEs. The continuation of this programme means that even more of them will have access to the tools and expertise they need to help grow, innovate and flourish.”
Rhona Allison, Managing Director of Company Growth & Scaling Innovation at Scottish Enterprise, said: “AI is creating new opportunities for businesses to innovate, compete and increase productivity. Adoption is accelerating, but many companies still need support to move from experimentation to meaningful business impact.
“This programme is about helping businesses turn potential into action. By giving companies, the confidence and capability to adopt and scale AI, we can help more Scottish businesses boost productivity, sharpen competitiveness and unlock new opportunities for growth.”
The AI Adoption Programme for SMEs is delivered by the Scottish Government’s Enterprise Agencies, Business Gateway and The Data Lab – Scotland‘s innovation centre for data and artificial intelligence.
The market for securing AI is growing rapidly, projected to reach almost $4.8 billion in 2027, a 68.7% increase over 2026, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2028, the market is forecast to reach almost $7.7 billion.
“This surge is driven by the urgent need for enterprises to secure AI systems, address emerging vulnerabilities and strengthen defenses against sophisticated cyberthreats,” said Shailendra Upadhyay, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner.
“This is compounded by growing vulnerabilities and supply chain attacks involving third-party and open-source software in AI projects. Without adequate security and visibility controls, enterprise AI initiatives face a high risk of failure.”
Gartner predicts over half of successful cyberattacks on AI agents are expected to exploit access control weaknesses and prompt injections by 2029.
There is a growing need for organisations to identify, monitor and protect AI models from these unique threats, which is driving the adoption of advanced AI security solutions. To build a strong defense, businesses need to combine their existing security systems with specialised AI security tools.
“Traditional security tools often treat AI applications like any other software and need significant updates to address AI-specific threats,” said Upadhyay.
“Specialised solutions, such as AI usage control and application security, will see rapid growth as solutions that address these challenges.”
The market for securing AI is divided into four main areas: AI application security, AI usage control, AI governance platforms, and AI gateways. This includes a range of software and platforms designed to help organisations use AI safely, responsibly, and in line with regulations.
AI application security will remain the largest spending category in 2027, forecast to reach almost $851 million, followed by AI usage control at $749 million. However, AI usage control will experience the largest growth of 73%, followed by AI gateway at 70.9%.
“As defenses like AI runtime protection and dedicated gateways become more reliable, organisations will gain confidence in these tools, accelerating adoption,” said Upadhyay.
“At the same time, as businesses expand their AI initiatives, the need for specialised AI security solutions will further grow, especially as autonomous AI introduces new vulnerabilities beyond the reach of traditional monitoring.”
According to Gartner, competition in the securing AI market varies depending on the segment.
For AI governance platforms and AI gateways, which often build on existing enterprise systems for governance, data, and API management, major vendors are likely to maintain their lead by adding AI features or integrating specialised products.
On the other hand, the AI application security and AI usage control segments are seeing a wave of startups entering the field.
“As the market grows, we can expect increased consolidation and acquisitions, with larger cybersecurity companies buying these startups to broaden their offerings,” said Upadhyay.
“Overall, the fast-paced growth in this space is fueling intense competition among vendors as they vie for market share.”
The UK has agreed a landmark deal with Ukraine to join the two countries military and technology forces to advance AI capabilities.
The new deal will establish UK access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs database, bringing together the UK’s AI ecosystem with Ukraine’s talent and experience in engineering and operations.
The database houses data direct from thousands of cameras and infrared sensors across the battlefield in Ukraine. The real-time data is used to train new AI models to improve defense and security posturing.
The Avengers Lab mostly consists of data from the Ukrainian military’s DELTA combat system, a battlefield management and situational awareness model developed in Ukraine.
The deal will bring together military experts, academics, engineers, and businesses from both countries to collaborate on using AI to improve defence and national security.
The two countries will collaborate on projects utilising AI and other technologies to protect military facilities, as well as research the potential for low-energy chips that can be used for drones and autonomous systems.
“This groundbreaking partnership will bring together Ukraine’s unrivalled operational experience with Britain’s world-class AI ecosystem, giving us the opportunity to develop the technologies of the future, changing lives here in Britain and saving lives on the battlefield in Ukraine,” Prime Minister Andy Burnham said.
“By combining Ukrainian battlefield data with British expertise, we will accelerate the development of capabilities that not only strengthen our national security, but better protect our critical infrastructure and growth in every postcode here at home.”
Digital Xtra, the charity dedicated to increasing the provision of extracurricular computing activities for young people in Scotland, is to develop a national network of community coding and AI hubs.
Over the past 10 years, the charity – backed by the Scottish Government and industry – has supported 210 grassroots activities by awarding over £1.1 million via its annual grants programme.
These initiatives engaged over 60,000 young people across the country while laying a foundation for ongoing engagement about computing and technology. That figure is now set to rise considerably under the charity’s new ‘Code Xtra’ strategy.
The new strategy will see several new community coding and AI hubs rolled out across the country as the charity focuses on more of a place-based approach rather than funding individual projects. While the core objective of the charity will continue to be to inspire young people into tech, Digital Xtra will now work with select delivery partners to develop a national network of community hubs.
In turn, these hubs will directly support the growth of grassroots computing clubs in their local areas. With support from Holyrood, the first phase of the project will see hubs based in North Edinburgh (Muirhouse Library), Midlothian (Dalkeith Library), Inverclyde (Creative Regeneration), and Moray (Elgin Library), with more scheduled to be confirmed elsewhere in Scotland later this year.
Digital Xtra will then continue working with the Scottish Government and its industry partners, including Skyscanner, Baillie Gifford, and Cirrus Logic, to extend the hub network.
The charity is also keen to speak with other companies or organisations who may be interested in supporting the development of additional coding and AI hubs across Scotland thus providing even more opportunities for young people to learn vital digital skills.
Each hub will drive growth in three ways:
Delivery: Hosting high-quality, extracurricular coding and AI sessions for children and young people
Training: Offering instruction and guidance for local educators and community leaders
Resources: Serving as a lending library with equipment and resources for local schools and community groups
The hubs will feature LEGO Education’s brand-new, curriculum-aligned Computing Science & AI kits which teach age-appropriate lessons about foundational coding and machine learning.
Digital Xtra is one of the first organisations in Scotland to make this cutting-edge kit available to the public, while also introducing machine learning and AI skills to the charity’s remit for the first time.
Ongoing training and support will be provided by Digital Xtra, Raising Robots, and Raspberry Pi Foundation as well as Digital Xtra’s other education and industry partners.
Kraig Brown, Digital Xtra’s Partnerships and Development Manager, said: “Technology is evolving faster than ever, and extracurricular tech activities are no longer just ‘nice-to-have’ – they are now a key part of young people’s learning journey. When assessment and accreditation aren’t the primary focus, young people have the freedom to think creatively, naturally building their ‘STEM Capital.’
“They are also a proven way to reach young people who often disengage in a traditional classroom setting and can be delivered in various locations or times that work for young people, their families, and the wider community.
“However, access to grassroots computing initiatives in Scotland is often a postcode lottery with varying coverage and support. This is unacceptable. Digital Xtra will continue to champion extracurricular computing initiatives for young people through our new community coding & AI hubs network, which will create a more joined-up approach to informal digital learning.
“By working with the hubs to develop this new ecosystem, Digital Xtra will continue to be at the forefront of driving digital skills for young people, regardless of their background or postcode.”
Minister for Business Tom Arthur said: “Digital skills are essential for Scotland’s future, and every young person should have the opportunity to develop them, regardless of where they live, which is why I am proud to support this initiative.
“These new community coding and AI hubs will help more young people access high-quality learning opportunities, build confidence with technology and gain the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world.”
Scotland has built a dynamic and increasingly ambitious fintech ecosystem, with the talent, innovation and institutional strength to compete on the global stage.
The next step is to turn that growing momentum into accelerated growth, as well as a stronger international identity and presence.
The tides are shifting as the industry grows, with more fintechs benefitting from a diverse ecosystem and an overall successful tech sphere.
One of the key drivers of success is organisations joining the dots between the different parts of the ecosystem, whether that is fintechs, established financial institutions, academia, regulators or government. FinTech Scotland has occupied that role since 2018, acting as an independent cluster management organisation designed to strengthen the connections amongst active ecosystem participants.
By bringing these different groups together, supporting businesses as they start and scale, and creating opportunities for collaboration, research and innovation, it helps turn Scotland’s individual strengths into a more cohesive whole capable of generating growth at home and raising the profile of the sector internationally.
Aleks Tomczyk, who only came to the helm of FinTech Scotland in January – replacing Nicola Anderson – has been looking back on a cluster that has grown steadfastly since 2018.
“My predecessors did a fantastic job coalescing the FinTech Scotland cluster from essentially a group of people that occasionally met for a chat and a drink – which I was a part of as an early-stage founder – going from a group of just 26 to 266 fintechs to date,” said Tomczyk.
“Importantly, we’ve also gone from 5 to 36 strategic partners actively participating in the community since January 2018 – that’s some pretty great growth.”
FinTech Scotland has fostered partnerships and collaborations amongst large financial organisations, fintechs of all sizes and academia, the Financial Conduct Authority, and started innovation labs in financial health, regulation, and digital trust.
As part of their focus on fuelling growth and innovation in the sector, FinTech Scotland hosts a yearly Festival dedicated to the country’s fintech community, featuring one of DIGIT’s most popular conferences by way of the Fintech Summit, as well as the Scottish Financial Technology Awards.
“The ecosystem is stronger,” Tomczyk said, reflecting on the changes he’s seen since he began as a founder himself.
But Tomczyk – and data FinTech Scotland has gathered – points to an ecosystem still firmly in its growth phase. The organisation’s figures show that fintech employment in Scotland grew 8% in 2024 to more than 11,300 people, while the number of fintech SMEs operating in the country had increased tenfold since 2018.
Tomczyk sees this as an opportunity to strike, not rest. The opportunity for Scottish fintech to flourish on the global stage will benefit not only that specfic sector and the wider financial services industry, but the entire nation.
“As a country and as a business community, we want to see more scaled businesses, we want more innovation in large firms, we want to see greater economic growth, we want to see more jobs, we want to see higher value jobs, more fulfilling jobs.” Tomczyk said.
“And the fintech sector is very well positioned to deliver on that whilst also addressing some of the fundamental issues such as access to finance and services, fair treatment of customers and inclusion.”
What better sector to focus efforts on expanding the entire UK’s financial health and technological superpoweredness than fintech, the very epicentre of these ideals?
A Room with A View
From his early days as a founder participating in FinTech Scotland events in their infancy, Tomczyk now has the position to see the entire cluster operate as startups battle for funding, scaleups expand internationally, and partnerships bound toward revolutionary innovations.
The last seven-to-eight months have given Tomczyk time to reflect on his new perspective.
“As I’ve got to know the cluster in greater detail, I think we’re a lot deeper and broader as a cluster than we were just a few years ago or when I started.” he said.
This is not only reflected in the number of active fintechs participating in the cluster management group, but also in the scope of partnerships and eagerness for innovation calls.
“We’ve got a lot more ambition and a lot more capability in the fintechs that are present here. Our native fintech businesses have leaders with real experience, drive and vision.”
Further, local entrepreneurs’ experiences in fintech have expanded and matured – “We have people on their second or third venture. Founders are also getting advice from the people that have been there before and have built globally significant ventures.”
Beyond this, Tomczyk says that he’s seen an increase in mentorship both locally and by those residing overseas. He notes the commonly cited willingness to help among the Scottish ecosystem that seems inherent to business and tech communities in the nation.
“The scale, and breadth and depth of ambition – and the ability to execute – and numbers of experienced people willing to help have struck me particularly.” Tomczyk said.
Another point Tomczyk was able to reflect on was the purpose-driven ambition of many Scottish fintechs.
“There are many founders who, like our large existing financial services firms, are very focused on the wider impact of their product and service.” he said.
“I’d say it’s one of the characteristics of businesses in Scotland, which perhaps slightly differentiates it from elsewhere, is that founders think of consumer impact as part of their DNA.”
One of his own startups reflected this purpose-driven focus – Exizent, which Tomczyk co-founded in 2019 – focused on legal and financial support in times of bereavement. The firm, which weaved fintech and legaltech into a powerful solution for professionals interacting with bereaved clients, was built to a successful exit in late 2024 and continues to flourish under new ownership.
The cloud-based platform has gone on to be nominated for awards in both the legaltech and fintech sectors, a testament to the importance of purpose-led innovation.
“I think I’ve always led businesses with purpose. Here at FinTech Scotland, we aim to enable other businesses in the cluster, large and small to successfully innovate and grow using fintech – to the benefit of those businesses, their customers and the wider economy. So there’s a very clear purpose.”
Gaining Perspective
FinTech Scotland spent the first quarter of 2026 speaking with fintechs, having conversations with founders, to see how they should orient themselves to best enable the burgeoning community.
“We spent some time in Q1 this year testing some hypotheses with the fintechs, both on a one-on-one basis and in group discussions to see what would best help them.”
Based on this goal and these conversations, FinTech Scotland is centering its priorities for fintechs around four themes: opportunities, talent and skills, funding, and knowledge and experience.
“We’re now piloting a range of activities that will help with aspects of business growth across those themes.” Tomczyk said.
FinTech Scotland leant on those willing to help in the ecosystem, for example to start a pilot focusing on branding and market-facing propositions, and another focused on assessment of talent acquisition process to better suit fintech’s future needs.
Beyond these four themes and their relevant pilots, other key principles emerged.
“The conversions re-validated some of our thinking – having built a couple businesses myself, I know the things you need in the early stages of your journey aren’t necessarily the same ones you need down the line.
“We have reshaped our support to reflect an updated segmentation of the fintech base so that we don’t try and treat everyone the same. We want to tailor what we do to the relevant and relative stages of the company, its skillsets, its market, the products it builds and the problems it tries to solve.”
This more tailored approach is set to underline some of FinTech Scotland’s key offerings in 2026 and future years, including its pilots which are being rolled out and tested in an agile framework allowing for adjustment and space for feedback.
“We’ve seen some real tangible commercial value for all participants in these programmes, as well as true innovation,” Tomczyk said.
A Look to the Future
Tomczyk sees a clear opportunity for Scotland to become a location internationally known for fintech, one that FinTech Scotland is working to unlock through initiatives including its innovation labs. The most significant to date is the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), that is helping the sector innovate in a complex regulatory landscape.
“We’re currently running an Innovation Challenge on Responsible AI as part of our Financial Regulation Innovation Lab.” Tomczyk said. “It’s one of those hot topics of discussion and is particularly linked to Consumer Duty.”
FRIL has already supported 120 fintech SMEs and helped generate £28 million in committed private investment, with FinTech Scotland projecting that it will deliver £6 in economic return for every £1 of public funding. It brings fintech companies together with financial institutions, and regulators to develop innovative solutions to real problems and needs whilst navigating regulatory expectations.
FRIL’s current Innovation Challenge is focused on finding new ways to support financial services organisations to adopt and use AI in a responsible manner, so it benefits both consumers and the financial services firms.
“That’s an important goal because actually we want to encourage the adoption of AI in a way that works well for everyone, and provides important new inclusive services.” Tomczyk said.
“At the moment, there’s a lot of understandable caution about AI adoption in financial services, but FRIL is aiming to reduce the risk and increase confidence, therefore delivering benefits to all parties. It focused on real, market-led problems to solve.”
FinTech Scotland’s flagship annual event, the FinTech Scotland Festival – a week-long celebration featuring summits, talks, roundtable discussions, awards, and networking – brings much of what makes FinTech Scotland important to the forefront.
“We’ve seen a number of collaborations come out of people meeting at events and connecting.” Tomczyk noted the importance of the FinTech Scotland Festival.
But the Festival also puts an important spotlight on Scotland’s fintech community. It invites the best and brightest to hear top trends and emerging insights at conferences like DIGIT’s own Fintech Summit.
“It attracts people from elsewhere in the UK and overseas to come and get involved in the sector. Being able to engage internationally is key to supporting the growth of the fintech community in Scotland.” he said. A recognition award, a conversation with the right team member, a mention of the perfect innovation call, can make all the difference to a growing ecosystem ready to spring into the international realm.
The Opportunity
Scotland is already recognised as a fintech stronghold in the UK, with Edinburgh and Glasgow internationally significant financial services hubs. With strong ties to London as the world’s second largest financial centre as well as having major presence of large UK/international financial services and fintech companies and a fantastic skills and research base in its academic community, Scotland appears ready to strike.
“We want to take our thriving fintech sector, which is well regarded in Scotland and in the UK, and grow its international reputation. We want Scotland to be somewhere that is respected internationally as a great place to start, to build, to scale a fintech or to locate here from overseas. That’s the opportunity – once we are successful, all stakeholders will benefit.”
Tomczyk is succinct and excited to explore every avenue of opportunity at Scotland’s disposal – he notes that Scotland has access to the markets of London, a top global fintech hub, and is home to financial services strongholds like Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“We also have a regulator, the FCA, who is doing really great things in encouraging innovation to happen within a responsible framework.”
He expounded on the “fantastic skills and talent ecosystem” available in Scotland in the existing workforce, strengthened by universities and research institutions.
“Scotland is a great place to do fintech and we have an opportunity for Scotland to become an internationally admired great place to do fintech. We’ve got some great things that are underway, but we need to do more in order to realise that goal – as the global market is competitive.”
“And certainly, from my perspective and FinTech Scotland as an organisation, we will be helping, supporting, and advocating where we are needed so the sector gets the support it needs to grow and to achieve its potential in what is a rapidly growing international market.”
TikTok has agreed to pay a $400 million settlement to a US lawsuit over child privacy on its platform.
The lawsuit dates back to 2024, when the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden alleged that TikTok harvested “vast amounts of data” from underage users. TikTok says that it prohibits those under the age of 13 from using its platform.
Collecting data of those under the age of 13 without parental consent is against the US’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which dates back to 2000.
Cases across the US are using the law to target social media firms, with dozens using the COPPA to sue Meta.
The TikTok settlement involves its operations in China as it predates the firm’s forced division of its US business. ByteDance and TikTok will have to pay the Department of Justice $300M – the remaining $100M will be due when the government changes a 2009 decree with the US Federal Trade Commission.
TikTok is not slated to adopt any changes as part of the settlement, with the DoJ saying that TikTok has already “undergone significant changes” to it privacy practices for young people.
This is just the latest fine hitting social media titans across the US, and states and individuals challenge social media’s grip on the collective consciousness – and data – of young people.
The Scottish National Investment Bank (“the Bank”) has today published its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA), covering the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.
The financial results reflect a challenging operating environment for early-stage businesses as well as operational progress for the development bank, which committed £374m to Scottish businesses and projects – the most in a single year since it was established – with a further £445m from other investors committed alongside its investments.
Despite operational progress, the Bank recorded a net loss of £138m, driven by realised losses (£65m) relating to the failure of three investments made in the early years of the Bank, and unrealised losses (£85m) due to re-evaluations of long-term assets, as well as anticipated losses relating to the failure of two further portfolio companies whose administration processes hadn’t completed by 31 March.
When excluding investment losses, the Bank generated an operational profit of £12m, showing its continued progress in maintaining operational financial self-sustainability.
The Bank’s income has consistently exceeded its operational costs since FY23/24.
Willie Watt, Chair of the Scottish National Investment Bank, said: “Investment losses will always be present in a development bank portfolio, with a mandate to take on higher risk.
“However, the scale of the realised losses taken together with the provisions made against the portfolio is challenging. Many of these losses relate to the first three years of the Bank’s existence and predate tighter investment conditions that were introduced in 2023.
“Our learning and adapting is reflected in our current portfolio and investment practice, as well as our careful study of market trends. Businesses are facing a challenging funding and operating landscape, demonstrating that Scotland needs investors, like the Bank, with a long-term view, and this is reflected in the strength of our pipeline.”
Despite economic headwinds, many of the Bank’s portfolio companies are performing well and it anticipates successful exits in the future.
To date, the Bank has committed £1.2bn and crowded in a further £1.9bn of capital into Scottish businesses and projects.
Last month, the Bank published its updated investment strategy – the first to be overseen by its new CEO, David Ritchie – which strengthens the Bank’s commercial terms.
David Ritchie said: “We have been learning lessons from previous investments while re-calibrating our processes to capitalise on the opportunities in the current Scottish market.
“We will continue to invest on market-based terms while crowding in private finance. We have ambitious plans, aligned to our clear purpose of accelerating a sustainable, innovative and inclusive Scottish economy.
“We concluded several significant investments last year, alongside notable institutional investors. Our £50m investment in Octopus Capital’s Affordable Housing Fund introduced a new model of affordable housing to Scotland.
“We are also looking at how we can support energy security and grid stabilisation, as reflected by our £45m investment in Highview’s long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility at Hunterston.
“And we continue to support promising innovation with demonstratable income generation, like our £3m investment in healthtech business Bioliberty, which led the firm’s Series A round
“Looking ahead, we are focused on strengthening the Bank’s long-term capability.
“That includes improving our ability to retain and recycle capital to sustain investment over time, entering the market to raise and manage third party capital and continuing to invest in Scottish projects and businesses that drive long-term economic value and societal benefit.”
Digital bank OakNorth has provided a £25m loan to support DataVita’s flagship data centre near Glasgow.
The business operates two state-of-the-art data centres across Scotland’s Central Belt and is expanding its flagship facility to meet growing demand for AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.
The £25m loan from OakNorth has enabled the development of new AI-ready capacity at DataVita’s flagship data centre to support CoreWeave, the US AI cloud infrastructure provider.
The funding supported the initial phase of the expansion enabling construction work to progress while HFD Group completed its long-term financing package for the wider development.
Once complete, the expanded facility will significantly increase DataVita’s AI-ready capacity, further strengthening Scotland’s digital infrastructure and helping meet the growing demand for cloud computing and AI workloads across the UK.
William Hill, Chief Executive Officer of HFD Group, commented on the transaction: “The expansion of our flagship data centre marks a significant milestone for DataVita and reinforces Scotland’s position as an emerging destination for AI and cloud infrastructure.
“Demand for secure, resilient, high-performance data centre capacity continues to grow, and this investment will enable us to support that demand while creating infrastructure capable of underpinning the next generation of digital innovation.
“Fraser and the OakNorth team understood both the strategic importance of the project and the pace at which we needed to move. Their support enabled us to continue progressing the development while our long-term financing was being finalised, and we look forward to building on our relationship as we continue to grow.”
Fraser McPhail, Senior Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth, added: “The UK’s data centre market is entering an exciting new phase of growth, with investment increasingly expanding beyond traditional hubs as operators seek the power, land and renewable energy needed to support next-generation AI infrastructure.
“Scotland is particularly well placed to benefit from this shift, combining strong digital connectivity with abundant renewable energy and an increasingly attractive investment environment. DataVita has built an outstanding business serving both public and private sector customers and has ambitious plans to further strengthen Scotland’s digital infrastructure.
“We’re delighted to have supported HFD Group during this important phase of its expansion, providing the flexible funding needed to maintain momentum while the long-term financing was completed.”
HexSeed Technology, the semiconductor startup, has raised over £600k in early funding, led by Carbon13, with participation from Net Zero Technology Centre and Vento Ventures.
The cumulative investment unlocks a Partnership Grant from Innovate UK, awarded on a provisional basis earlier this year.
Data centres already draw a significant share of global electricity, and the IEA expects that to reach 945TWh by 2030 as AI-optimised facilities scale. A large share of that power is lost as heat.
Gallium nitride transistors convert power far more efficiently than the silicon devices they’re replacing, but they run hot, and heat is the main barrier standing between GaN and its full potential.
Diamond is the best thermal conductor known, but growing it the conventional way requires temperatures that would destroy a finished semiconductor device.
The company was founded in late 2025 by Mark Tandy (CEO, Oxford MBA), Dr Leonardo Santoni (CTO, PhD in chemistry from UCL) and Dr Michael Glerum (COO, PhD in Engineering from Cambridge).
Together with researchers from the University of Bristol HexSeed is developing a low-temperature microwave plasma process that grows diamond coatings directly onto finished GaN devices, pulling heat away from the active regions so they run harder, last longer, and use less energy.
The funding will be used to demonstrate the coating process on commercial GaN power devices and progress toward pilot customer engagements, with data centre power conversion hardware as the initial target market.
“Data centres are on track to consume a significant share of UK grid capacity within the decade, and a large proportion of that energy is lost as heat in power conversion,” said Mark Tandy, HexSeed CEO.
“This funding will allow us to take our low-temperature diamond coating technology which we are developing from laboratory demonstration to working GaN devices.”
UK consumers will now be able to access personalised credit scores from ChatGPT thanks to a new offering from Experian.
The new update will allow UK users to link their authenticated credit scores to an AI platform, allowing them to see live credit scores, track their history, and review any factors that impact their credit.
The plugin would also allow users to compare current account offers in an effort to help customers pick the best current account for them.
Experian says that the credit information is not exposed to, or used by, the AI model when generating responses, saying that the AI tool was developed with security and privacy as a priority.
“As people increasingly seek money advice on a range of different channels, it’s important the information they get is accurate and genuine,” said Edu Castro, managing director of Experian consumer services for UK and Ireland.
“This is fundamental to our strategy of meeting people wherever they choose to engage with us and helping make credit understanding truly accessible, especially for younger consumers who are growing up with AI as their first port of call for financial questions.”
Meta glasses are being banned in an increasing number of public spaces, as cinemas across the UK review their policy surrounding smart glasses as concerns around piracy mount.
Pubs and theatres have already started to restrict the use of the Meta glasses, which appear like regular eye glasses but have the ability to take video and pictures.
The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) has found that many cinemas are reviewing their policies concerning the smart glasses, with many locations already restricting the use of the glasses, or banning them outright.
“UK cinema operators are aware of the increasing availability and use of wearable technology such as smart glasses and the extent to which these can provide benefits to those with specific access requirements,” a UKCA spokesperson said.
“However, they are also mindful of the issues around privacy and film piracy that arise around the use of such technology in cinemas, and as a result many are introducing policies to prohibit and/or restrict the wearing of camera-enabled smart glasses in particular in their venues.
“This is clearly a developing area, and we will continue to work with our members to ensure their approach remains relevant and proportionate.”
Demand has grown for the Meta smart glasses, which were first released back in 2021, as the firm benefits from Ray-Ban and Oakley brand deals. The firm behind Facebook sold seven million pairs of the controversial glasses just last year.
A Meta spokesperson said: “People use our glasses because they’re helpful and let them stay in the moment, from listening to music to live translation or hands-free calls.
“They also provide critical new technology for people in the blind and low vision community and limiting how people can use this technology would be a major step backwards.
“Naturally some places shouldn’t be filmed at all and that’s reasonable but rules should be applied consistently.”
HM Revenue and Customs sent over 81,000 letters warning holders of cryptocurrency that they may owe capital gains tax in the UK over the past year.
The number of letters was revealed via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request issued by UHY Hacker Young.
The letters show that cryptocurrency investors could face fines if they do not declare their cryptocurrency profits, through either the trade, selling, or exchanging of crypto.
These warnings come ahead of new rules which will empower HMRC to more easily go after crypto investors who may not be paying their capital gains tax in relation to crypto.
In the 2025-26 financial year, HMRC sent 81,172 letters warning crypto investors that they may have unpaid taxes, while in 2023-24, this number sat at just 27,714.
“We’re committed to helping people pay the right amount of tax, and the vast majority do,” an HMRC spokesperson said.
“We regularly send letters to educate, remind or prompt customers to review their tax affairs, including customers who use crypto assets.”
From 2027, new regulations will oblige cryptocurrency platforms to share information about their customers with HMRC in an effort to prevent tax evasion on profits made from crypto exchanges and sales.
A full-day event for technical professionals and leaders in the sector, ScotSoft has remained Scotland’s biggest software conference for over 25 years – and on September 24th, it returns bigger and better than ever.
Taking place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, ScotSoft will bring together leaders from across the Scottish technology spectrum for discussions and insight on the technological concerns and opportunities facing not only Scotland, but the global tech industry as a whole.
“ScotSoft has always been a place where Scotland’s digital and technology community across business, government and academia comes together to share ideas, challenge thinking and explore what comes next,” ScotlandIS CEO Andrew Weir said.
“As a new CEO and first-time attendee, I’m particularly looking forward to experiencing that energy first-hand. This year’s programme brings together inspiring speakers, deep technical insight and opportunities to connect with the people driving innovation across our sector. I’m excited to be part of the conversation and to see how, together, we can help shape Scotland’s digital future.”
From tectonic shifters like AI and quantum to international scaling and energy – the day will be full of in-depth looks at evolving ecosystems and emerging trends, giving you key intel that you can bring back to your organisation.
Emma Logan, Depute President of BCS, the Chartered Institute of IT, will deliver the ScotSoft’s keynote, unpacking why trust in technology isn’t a technical feature but a professional obligation, through real stories from industry and the public sector.
The day will also delve into emerging and proliferating trends, with William Wright, CEO, Closed Door Security, and Cian Heasley, Principal Consultant and CTI Lead, Acumen Cyber, discussing the already all-to-common occurrence of AI models infiltrating systems in unprecedented cyber-attacks.
The conference will also feature Scottish industry insights – with Brian Williamson, CEO, Synlata discussing some of the major barriers to growth in the sector.
This year has already seen dramatic shifts and transformations, as AI continues to be the topic of government initiatives and security breaches, a governmental leadership change shifts the technology department, and ScotlandIS sees a new leader take the helm by way of digital transformation stalwart Andrew Weir.
AI Scotland, the national AI adoption programme for SMEs, sponsored by the Scottish Government, will be presenting several talks throughout the day including panels on research and development and AI infrastructure.
ScotSoft aims to provide an informative yet grounding event where technologists, industry stalwarts and fledgling founders can find their feet, ready to hit the ground running to keep up with the ever-changing tech landscape.
From informative talks delving into emerging research on nascent technology such as quantum and blockchain, to a fireside chat on digitalising the energy industry, the day will seek to provide keen and practical insight on what’s coming next.
Bringing together members and top organisations, the conference provides plentiful networking opportunities to rub shoulders with top companies, academic institutions, regulatory bodies, and rising stars in Scottish tech.
With over 30 speakers, the event is sure to have something for everyone in the vibrant tech community in Scotland.
ScotSoft is made possible thanks to sponsors Lloyds Banking Group, KAL, Leidos, Sopra Steria, BCS, Resillion, 2i, Craneware and Telefonica Tech.
OpenAI says it slowed down the training of some of its AI models after security breaches occurred during cyber testing.
In a blog post, the firm behind ChatGPT said that it was introducing new safety measures following at least two instances of cyber hacking by its more advanced models, including the hacking of Hugging Face.
The training of models were slowed for two weeks, the firm said, while it upgrades its safety measures.
OpenAI will not stop all training of its AI models; it will instead opt to pause “reinforcement training on our latest models.”
The AI firm will continue to hold off on its largest planned reinforcement learning run, though it will conduct smaller-scale training and evaluations as it validates the updated safeguards.
OpenAI will also expand its monitoring systems and introduce further safety checks prior to engaging in larger training tests.
“Model progress is now extremely rapid, and we always said we would take action if we felt that model capabilities were outstripping the pace of safety,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.
“We care very deeply about AI safety. We believe the entire field will have to coordinate on shared safety standards, but will act unilaterally in the meantime.”
OpenAI’s disclosure of the cyber-attack against Hugging Face triggered scrutiny as well as self-evaluations from other AI firms – Anthropic and Meta soon disclosed their own cyber breaches during model tests.
The UK’s AI Security Institute also found that AI models breached security measures during their own tests.
While OpenAI looks poised to continue its testing, it begs the question of just how much emphasis the AI firm placed on safety and security in its initial tests.
While it was often reported that the AI model ‘went rogue’ in the testing environment, it was found to have made sloppy moves and often nonsensical decisions in its hack, a review from the Cloud Security Alliance found. Still, the OpenAI model managed to hack more firms than just Hugging Face, the AI titan later admitted.
In the case of Anthropic and Meta’s testing debacle, the firms pointed to vulnerabilitiies in the same third-party service, Irregular.
