Google Cloud & UK Government Aim to Unlock £400bn AI Impact
Google Cloud has formed a partnership with the UK Government to modernise public services and committed to providing free cloud and AI skills training for up to 100,000 public sector workers.
The announcements were made at the Google Cloud Summit London, where the company outlined its strategy to help the UK capture AI’s potential £400bn (US$544bn) economic impact by 2030.
“This collaboration marks a significant shift, exploring the use of advanced tech and AI to move beyond decades-old legacy contracts that can leave essential services vulnerable,” says Maureen Costello, Vice President UK, Ireland, Sub-Saharan Africa at Google Cloud. “It supports the UK Government’s blueprint for a modern digital government by aiming to streamline services, reduce costs and lay the digital foundations for AI success.”
“We’re looking to the sector to help shake off the legacy technology that costs the taxpayer an absolute fortune and leaves us vulnerable to outages and to cyber attacks,” Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, said at the event. “More than one in four public sector systems run on this ball-and-chain tech, rising to 70% when it comes to police forces right across our country. I’m determined to break free from those costly chains once and for all.”
Enterprise cloud infrastructure reaches operational milestone
The company says its data centre in Waltham Cross will become fully operational by the end of the year, providing British businesses with high-performance, low-latency cloud infrastructure needed for global competition and representing part of Google Cloud’s continued investment in UK digital infrastructure to support enterprise AI adoption across industries.
The infrastructure investment coincides with Google Cloud’s focus on agentic AI, which the company positions as a change in enterprise technology. Through its Vertex AI platform and Gemini models, Google Cloud is enabling enterprises to deploy intelligent agents that drive measurable results across business operations.
Several organisations are already implementing these enterprise AI capabilities. Imperial War Museums has become the first museum to use AI at scale for digitising and transcribing oral histories. The Gemini-engineered system, implemented by partner Capgemini, will make more than 20,000 histories from 1945 to the early 2000s searchable and accessible.
Starling Bank has introduced Spending Intelligence, an AI tool powered by Google’s Gemini models that enables customers to understand spending habits through natural language questions.
“We wanted to develop a tool to help customers to be able to ask really simple questions about their finances and get really simple answers,” says Harriet Rees, Chief Information Officer at Starling Bank. “Spending Intelligence, powered by Gemini, allows customers to use natural language – text or voice – to ask really simple questions like: ‘How much did I spend on transport last month?’ or ‘What did I spend on holidays last year?’”
Major retailers deploy Vertex AI for customer operations
Supermarket chain Morrisons has launched an in-app Product Finder built with BigQuery and Gemini that helps customers locate products in grocery stores. The tool processed 50,000 queries daily during the Easter period, demonstrating practical value for retail operations and showcasing how enterprise AI can scale to handle high-volume customer interactions.
LUSH is using Vertex AI and Cloud Storage to reduce packaging waste through AI-powered product recognition at checkout in its beauty shops. The cosmetics retailer's approach demonstrates how enterprise AI platforms can support sustainability objectives whilst improving operational processes across multiple retail locations.
Meanwhile, Toolstation has implemented Vertex AI Search for Commerce to provide accurate product search results online and in-store, boosting customer satisfaction and sales. The home improvement retailer's system helps customers find specific products across thousands of items using enterprise search capabilities.
Cloud security capabilities expand with data residency options
Google Cloud has also expanded its data residency commitment to include Gemini 2.5 Flash processing, enabling organisations to keep data processing entirely within specific geographical boundaries. The expansion opens additional use cases for enterprises operating under strict data sovereignty requirements.
The security approach combines Google Cloud’s existing enterprise tools with planned integration of Wiz’s multi-cloud visibility capabilities and Mandiant’s threat intelligence. Lloyds Banking Group and Vodafone are sharing their use of Google Cloud security tools to protect operations whilst innovating for millions of customers across enterprise-scale deployments.
The data residency commitment addresses regulatory requirements that prevent some enterprises from using cloud services where data processing occurs outside national borders. Financial services firms and government agencies benefit from this localised approach to enterprise cloud computing.
“This deep commitment to security is why Google Cloud announced plans earlier this year to acquire Wiz,” notes Maureen. “By integrating Wiz’s best-in-class, multi-cloud visibility with Mandiant's unmatched threat intelligence, we will offer UK businesses proactive, comprehensive protection across their entire cloud estate.
“Whether it’s a bank securing its services, a retailer reimagining the customer experience, or a startup building the next big thing, our goal is to provide the tools and the trust to build boldly.”
