John Glen met with Google Cloud’s President Tara Brady at yesterday’s event. Credit: Google Cloud

The Chief Secretary to the UK Treasury, John Glen, has said that the UK government has the potential to be completely hosted by cloud computing. 

Speaking yesterday (11 October) at the Google Next conference, Glen touted cloud computing and AI as having the potential to completely revolutionise the efficiency of public sector work, including healthcare and education. 

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“I passionately believe that the UK government has the potential to be the first national government in the world 100% hosted on public cloud and 100% free of legacy,” he said. 

In a 2023 GlobalData tech sentiment survey, around 62% of respondents across sectors stated that cloud computing had already disrupted their industry. 

The UK government has been working towards implementing cloud computing since 2013 when it implemented its “Cloud First” policy that was applied to all technological decisions it has since made. 

A blog post by the World Bank stated that government transitions to cloud can act as a “catalyst” for businesses to also use cloud solutions by generating trust in the technology. 

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Speaking on incorporating AI into the public sector, Glen stated that data storage costs could be lowered, running capacity could be increased and greater analytical insights could be attained at a faster rate from greater volumes of structured and unstructured data. 

Citing a July 2023 Google study on AI, Glen was optimistic that AI could save workers over 700,000 hours of clerical work a year, easing staff shortages and offsetting costs. 

“Please know that the government is dedicated to creating the conditions for [the public sector] to innovate,” Glen remarked, “We hope to learn from you and work with you as we deliver a more productive public sector that saves taxpayer money.” 

Glen’s speech also referred to the upcoming UK AI Safety Summit this November. 

Citing the success of UK companies Darktrace and DeepMind, Glen stated that he felt confident in the UK’s reputation as a leader in AI and cloud computing. 

Specifically, Glen referred to the government’s 2022 AI Readiness Index in which the UK ranked third globally. This index examined the government of each country, each country’s technology sector as well as its data infrastructure.  

This was despite research this June that suggested only 6% of MPs felt confident in the UK’s ability to govern AI. 

Technological infrastructure, in Glen’s view, was the key to properly adopting AI to reform the workplace. 

Concluding his speech, Glen said that he was currently in the process of a productivity report which is expected to be released in the coming weeks.