Government AI readiness is a new area, and Oxford Insights looks forward to refining our methodology. We welcome any comments and suggestions at research@oxfordinsights.com. We plan to publish the Index annually; the 2018 edition of the index will be released in April 2019.

Analysis

The UK is first in our rankings, reflecting its world-leading centres for AI research and strong technology industry. Although the UK has great starting conditions for AI development, it faces stiff competition from other countries seeking to be top of the global rankings. China, the US, Russia and Canada have all announced plans to be world leaders in AI. If the UK wishes to retain its high ranking in our capacity index, the government will need to continue to invest in order to remain competitive in future years.

The US lags behind the UK on measures including digital skills and data quality. Our index highlights a number of key areas for investment if the US is to prepare better for the AI revolution, such as a stronger focus on digital skills training and data infrastructure. Although the US is likely to continue to do well due to tech clusters such as Silicon Valley, without government focus and investment the digital skills gap will continue to grow. As a result, the US will need to import more and more AI experts, potentially missing out on developing in-country talent.

We also found that there is no clear geographical clustering in terms of AI readiness: the top five ranked countries are from North America, Europe and Asia. The expertise and conditions needed to capitalise on AI’s potential are not area-specific, which suggests that many other governments are well-placed to begin climbing up the rankings. Estonia’s e-government drive, for example, shows what may be possible with other smaller countries, and has helped it to perform well on grass-roots indicators of innovation such as digital skills and AI startups.

Our Government AI Readiness Index provides a timely insight into the capacity of governments to capitalise on the innovative potential of AI. We hope it also offers a useful starting point for policymakers seeking focus areas in their drive for AI readiness. We believe that AI offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform the public services of the future. It is now up to governments to ensure that they are well placed to take best possible advantage of the AI revolution.