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The British government’s artificial intelligence unit responsible for targeting £45 billion in savings across civil servants, spending less than half of last year’s budget for recruitment challenges as global companies compete to attract top talent.
The Artificial Intelligence Incubator (I.AI) spent £5 million on its budget of £12 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025.
The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which oversees I.AI in response to the freedom of information requests by the Financial Times, says the shortage is “mainly driven by delays in recruitment.”
The incubator had 46 staff members at the beginning of June, but in February 2024, former vice-prime minister Oliver Dowden had 38 employees, with 46 staff members.
The i.ai job, which has been advertised recently, has gathered almost 250 applications, said someone familiar with the issue.
Prime Minister Rachel Reeves has banked the government to AI and automation to provide a “major overhaul” in “productivity and efficiency.”
However, the House of Representatives Accounting Committee in March warned that the public sector is not ready for AI overhauls due to staff recruitment and retention issues.
Median staff salary provided by I. The AI was 67,300 pounds in 2024-25, almost twice the £35,680 for civil servants.
But the offer of far lower pay is much lower than the private sector, where poaching war for AI talent has skyrocketed wage packets.
The best AI engineers attract annual salary of over $10 million. According to the pay tracking website level, software engineers will see a pay rise from around $238,000 to $1.34 million at OpenAI, while Meta’s wages will rise to $1.34 million.
The previous conservative government launched an incubator in November 2023 to develop AI tools to promote the efficiency of civil servants.
Announcing the unit in 2023, Dowden said: “This is about trying to get a hit team, a kind of crack team. It’s about bringing a high level of expertise to try to identify innovative solutions for the project.”
The Labour Party has since expanded its plan, saying I.AI will be used for “targeting” efficiency of up to £45 billion a year.
Over 3,100 civil servants have access to “Red Boxes” in past fiscal years, condensed information from official sources such as Hansard. At the beginning of April, Red Box had over 2,000 users each month.
“Consultation” Tool I.AI develops triage and summarises the responses to government consultations. This usually takes three months involving 25 civil servants. Pilot testing showed that the work did not require changes to 60% of cases.
DSIT states: “We don’t recognize these claims (on employment issues). AI incubators are leading AI labs using new technology to make public services more efficient.”
The tool said it was accelerating government consultations, reducing management systems and transforming planning systems.
