Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – AI Summit

Over 300 people from a range of organisations, sectors and regions gathered at the Liverpool City Region (LCR) AI Summit on November 21, 2024, organised by the Combined Authority. Building on the LCR’s highly focused place-based innovation approach at the UK forefront, the summit highlighted Mayor Steve Rotheram's vision to establish the region as a national exemplar in the application of “AI for Good”, underlining the twin emphasis on delivering both economic growth and solving local challenges.

The AI Summit delivered on multiple fronts. It strategically positioned the Liverpool City Region as a prime location for technology companies, profiling the area's infrastructure, innovative spirit and thought leadership to key industry figures. The message landed overseas with US digital infrastructure giant Kyndryl later announcing the creation of a major AI-related hub with up to 1,000 jobs in the city region and citing ‘Liverpool’s growing reputation as a hub for digital excellence — reinforced by the success of last year’s International AI Summit’ as a reason to invest.

Beyond showcasing distinctive competitive strengths, the summit fostered valuable new connections, strengthening partnerships between organisations and solidifying the Combined Authority's convening and advocacy role within and for the region's expanding tech ecosystem.

The event underscored LCR’s openness to business and investment-readiness, building on world-leading assets such as the STFC Hartree Centre, and the University of Liverpool’s Materials Innovation Factory, Digital Innovation Facility, and Civic Health Innovation Labs, working with major industry partners IBM, Unilever, and Microsoft.

The Liverpool City Region already has world-leading capabilities in AI solutions, centred primarily on the STFC Hartree Centre – which houses one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers dedicated to solving industrial challenges. The Hartree Centre anchors the national UKRI science and innovation campus at Sci-Tech Daresbury and is co-located with IBM Research. However, the region is also committed to applying technology for the benefit of people and communities. By attracting a broad audience, the summit effectively communicated the region's AI ambitions and capabilities and shared best practices to a national and international audience.

The AI Summit blended local voices, featuring speakers from a wide range of city region organisations, local universities, businesses, and public bodies, with national and international speakers. These included a keynote from Dr. Nicola Hodson, CEO of IBM UK and Ireland, who emphasised Liverpool's impressive 20% growth rate and its promising future as a leader in responsible AI. Other headline speakers included Alois Krtil, CEO, Artificial Intelligence Centre Hamburg (ARIC); Erica Lewis, CEO of the Connected Places Catapult; Zephaniah Chukwudum, Director – Local Government, Microsoft UK; Sital Mistry-Lee, Associate Director of Digital Inclusion Delivery, Good Things Foundation; Sara El-Hanfy, Head of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Innovate UK; plus a personal video address by DSIT Secretary of State Peter Kyle. 

The full programme is available online.

The AI Summit prominently featured the city region's ambition to become a leader in "AI for Good," a 3^rd term manifesto commitment from Mayor Steve Rotheram. His vision emphasises harnessing AI's potential to improve public services, stimulate new business growth, and position the region at the forefront of AI implementation, all while prioritising appropriate safeguards. A key vehicle for delivery is the national pilot Office for Public Service innovation (OPSI).

The focus on "AI for good" was evident in the diverse make-up of the panels, which included representatives from universities, businesses large and small, charities, and other organisations committed to ethical AI development. It was equally reflected in the thematic sessions, exploring issues such as trust, education, and skills. These discussions underscored the importance of careful consideration when deploying AI, both within the city region and beyond, reflecting the Combined Authority's advocacy for responsible AI practices.

The summit's exhibition provided a platform for local technology providers to showcase their "AI for good" solutions, highlighting regional innovations aligned with the Combined Authority's aims. These included transferable tools designed to assist with:

• Diabetic eye-screening, improving early detection and treatment.
• Educational analytics, enabling teachers to make targeted interventions and personalise learning.
• Digital companion chatbots, designed to reduce social isolation and improve well-being.
• Enhanced cardio imaging, improving the accuracy, precision, and consistency of cardiovascular diagnostics.

The AI Summit proved highly effective in strengthening partnerships and building new strategic links. The LCR’s UK-leading innovation ecosystem is driven by exceptional collaborative leadership anchored in the UK’s first sub-national Innovation Board created 11 years ago, and founded on excellent local and external relationships across sectors. This was reflected in the integral involvement of national body Tech UK in the programme, plus the panel presence of both leading global quantum computing company PsiQuantum, and Alder Hey – one of Europe’s largest children’s hospitals and most innovation-focused NHS trusts.

The Combined Authority enjoys a very strong, long-standing relationship with its regional anchor institutions and universities in particular. This is demonstrated by seeking expert input from leading local academics to inform the recruitment of a Chief AI Officer and AI Task Force, rather than employing external consultants. Similarly, the Summit saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the University of Liverpool, the Combined Authority, and Science & Technologies Facilities Council. The MoU was linked to the development of “Meta-Liverpool”, which is one of the world’s first independently developed city region scale AI-enabled digital twinning, policy modelling and decision-support platform.

Beyond the established university partnerships, the summit helped enhance the profile of and opportunities for local tech firms. For example, a firm showcasing "digital humans" at the event, which is also benefiting from an accelerator programme by the CA-funded Baltic Ventures, is now in discussions with local authorities about their potential use as digital tour guides.

The AI Summit was always intended as a catalyst to further action, and the Combined Authority is busy capitalising on the connections, profile and momentum it generated in order to drive other ambitious plans, priorities and opportunities to scale up the region's AI capabilities and opportunities. These include: 

• Recruitment of a Chief AI Officer and AI Task Force: in line with the Mayor’s manifesto and as part of a wider internal digital transformation programme as well as civic AI leadership agenda.
• Office for Public Service Innovation: translating this national pilot project into action, focusing on using big data and community collaboration to identify pre-emptive measures and solutions across a range of public services to improve the lives and opportunities of local residents and to tackle deep-rooted deprivation.
• Leveraging Meta-Liverpool and other digital innovation tools: to address local use cases, unlock new opportunities, and deliver challenge-based approaches, linked to excellent relationships to the likes of IBM and Bloomberg Philanthropies to partner on new global approaches.
• Digital inclusion and AI literacy: continuing the LCR’s award-winning digital inclusion programmes to engage and upskill residents and communities, PLUS building AI literacy across local government itself to empower officials and enhance efficiency, mirroring national government.
• Maximise Kyndryl investment: Announced by the Prime Minister in January, tech giant Kyndryl will be establishing a new tech hub in Liverpool and creating up to 1,000 AI-related jobs. The deal followed a meeting between the Mayor and Kyndryl during an LCR trade mission to New York last autumn.
• Major AI and tech infrastructure projects: the LCR is in the running for AI Growth Zone development, looking at a NW AI Skills Factory for large language model training, scaling up 10-fold the existing facilities at STFC Daresbury to create a National Cryogenic Facility, and supporting PsiQuantum Phase 2 quantum cluster development.
• 2025 LCR AI Summit: building on the success of the inaugural summit, the Combined Authority plans to host an even larger event in late 2025.