Businesses across the economy, academic experts, and government agree that accelerating technology adoption has extraordinary potential to drive growth and address the UK's productivity lag. From data analytics allowing retailers to better understand their customers, to smart machinery cutting down manufacturing production times, technology adoption can transform productivity levels across the economy. However, we know that businesses, particularly SMEs, face a number of barriers to adopting new technologies including a lack of digital skills, financial constraints, and poor infrastructure.
The CBI has therefore long campaigned for government to support businesses to overcome these barriers, to accelerate technology adoption across the country.
In the last year, the government has taken some important steps in this direction: conducting the Technology Adoption Review, the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce Report, appointing a Minister responsible for adoption of digital technology, and expanding the Made Smarter programme to Professional and Business Services. The CBI has worked closely with government to drive these initiatives forward. For example, in the leadup to the Technology Adoption Review and following a series of regional roundtables, we brought together representatives of our member trade associations across the Industrial Strategy eight growth sectors, alongside Fellows of Royal Academy of Engineering, to share industry insights with the National Technology Advisor, Dr Dave Smith, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for DSIT and DBT, Minister Jones, and the review team
But government needs to go further and faster in this space to ensure UK businesses don't fall further behind international competitors, and businesses across the economy have the support they need to adopt technologies and improve their processes. In our Autumn Budget submission the CBI is calling on government to set out a National Technology Adoption Plan with clear ownership within DSIT, setting out government's plans for intervention informed by the recommendations of the reviews, clear implementation timelines, and mechanisms for review. This would give businesses clarity on how government plans to accelerate technology adoption among businesses, including what interventions will address the persistent barriers businesses face. A key element of this plan should be expansion of technology adoption support programmes to all sectors of the economy. This should build on the successful elements of the Made Smarter programme, which combines expert advice with financial support for manufacturing SMEs to adopt technologies that improve their processes, increase productivity, and drive growth.
Alongside this, we see an opportunity for government to implement their own digital transformation in a way that also supports businesses to transform. Government is rightly investing significant resources in the implementation of its Blueprint for a Modern Digital Government, government's plan for its own technology adoption and digitisation. These investments aim to achieve long-term savings by improving operational efficiency, totalling a planned spend of £23bn per year on public sector digitisation.
Given this significant investment, it is important that money invested not only improves public services, but drives growth across the economy. We think there are significant opportunities for this investment to lead to spillover impacts on the private sector, accelerating technology adoption and growth throughout the economy. The policy briefing here outlines avenues through which this could be achieved:
- Collaborate to innovate: work with the private sector to develop and adopt innovation that addresses government's goals, like Net Zero
- Provide real-life use cases: As the public sector tries out and adopts new technologies, it can publish adoption dos and don'ts, and demonstrations of real-world use cases, so businesses can learn from government's experience and gain confidence to adopt
- Learn together: When the public sector trains its own staff in digital skills, it can share what works well, or support private skills development through peer networks, so businesses can also upskill their employees effectively
- Digitise strategically: As government starts using more digital processes, it can prioritise areas where businesses will follow suit
- Clear regulations and standards: By setting clear regulations in areas like AI and cyber security, government can help businesses feel confident about using technology
Working together in these ways would further the reach and impact of the £23bn investment in public sector digitisation. This is why the CBI recommends that government strategies for public and private sector technology adoption are actively coordinated to ensure maximum benefit that reaches throughout the economy. This coordination should form a key part of a National Technology Adoption Plan, alongside expansion of adoption support to all sectors of the economy. More details on these recommendations can be found in our full policy briefing.
To be involved in our main forum for engagement on this topic, the Technology Adoption Working Group, please get in touch with Melissa McLaughlin.
