Some British firms ‘stuck in neutral’ over AI, says Microsoft UK boss
Some companies are “stuck in neutral” in their approach to artificial intelligence, according to Microsoft’s UK boss, who said a significant number of private and public sector organisations lack any formal AI strategy.A Microsoft survey of nearly 1,500 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors, as well as 1,440 employees, found that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan.Roughly the same proportion report a growing gap in productivity – a measure of economic efficiency – between employees who use AI and those who do not.“Some organisations appear to be stuck in neutral, caught in the experimentation phase, rather than in the deployment [of AI],” said Darren Hardman, the tech company’s UK chief executive.Microsoft, the biggest financial backer of the ChatGPT developer, OpenAI, has been pushing AI’s deployment in the workplace through autonomous AI agents – tools that can carry out tasks without human intervention.
Early adopters of Microsoft’s Copilot Studio product, which deploys bots, include the blue-chip consulting firm McKinsey, which is using agents to carry out tasks such as scheduling meetings with prospective clients,The Tony Blair Institute, a thinktank, has estimated AI could displace up to 3m jobs in the UK, although it expects the net loss to be in the low hundreds of thousands as the technology creates new roles,Speaking to the Guardian, Hardman said AI agents would remove the “digital drudgery” of people’s jobs and allow them to focus on the “creative aspects” of their jobs, potentially creating new roles as the first wave of the internet did for the retail sector,Referring to the creation of new roles in retail such as data analysts, web designers and social media managers, he said: “The nature of that industry changed with the onset of the internet,And I think the creation of an agentic workplace is going to do the same.
”Hardman said proposed reforms to UK copyright law, which are fiercely opposed by Britain’s creative industries, would provide “wider economic growth for the UK”.He said: “We think it’s going to provide clarity.We think it’s going to support AI development.”The UK government is proposing to allow tech companies such as Microsoft to use copyright-protected work without permission in order to train their models.Critics of the proposals have described them as a “wholesale” transfer of wealth from the creative industries to the tech sector.
Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionSeparately, the former chief executive of BP Bernard Looney has been appointed the chair of the UK technology startup ExpectAI,Looney left the oil and gas company in 2023 after admitting he had failed to fully disclose a series of personal relationships with his colleagues to the board,He has been appointed to help accelerate the expansion of ExpectAI, which uses data to help small and medium-sized businesses cut costs and reduce emissions,
Australian Tesla sales plummet as owners rush to distance themselves from Elon Musk
Australian Tesla owners troubled by the increasingly extreme rightwing politics of the company’s co-founder, Elon Musk, are offloading their electric vehicles or using bumper stickers to distance themselves from the Trump-aligned billionaire.Fresh vehicle sales data for February – which covered the weeks after Musk’s apparent fascist salute at a Trump inauguration rally – showed a steep decline in Tesla purchases. Sales were down about 72% compared to the same month in 2024.Sales of Tesla’s Model 3 – the company’s entry-level model which had been the second-best selling EV in Australia in 2024 – were down 81%.Tesla’s sliding popularity in Australia comes amid several other trends in the market such as the move away from pure battery electric cars in favour of hybrid vehicles; the increasing availability of cheaper Chinese rivals; and the broader waning appetite for cars that saw Australians buy 10,000 fewer vehicles in February than the same month in 2024
‘Trump Gaza’ AI video intended as political satire, says creator
The creator of the viral “Trump Gaza” AI-generated video depicting the Gaza Strip as a Dubai-style paradise has said it was intended as a political satire of Trump’s “megalomaniac idea”.The video – posted by Trump on his Truth Social account last week – depicts a family emerging from the wreckage of war-torn Gaza into a beachside resort town lined with skyscrapers. Trump is seen sipping cocktails with a topless Benjamin Netanyahu on sun loungers, while Elon Musk tears flatbread into dips.The video first emerged in February, shortly after Trump unveiled his property development plan for Gaza, under which he said he wants to “clean out” the population of about 2 million people to create the “Riviera of the Middle East”.Trump then posted the clip without any explanation on his Truth Social platform on 26 February
UK watchdog drops competition review of Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership
The UK’s competition watchdog will not hold a formal investigation into Microsoft’s partnership with the startup behind the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, stating that while the $2.9tn (£2.3tn) tech company has “material influence” over OpenAI it does not control it.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest financial backer with a $13bn investment, acquired material influence over the San Francisco-based business in 2019 but did not exercise de facto control over it – and therefore did not meet the threshold for an official inquiry.The decision follows expressions of disquiet over the appointment of the former boss of Amazon UK, Doug Gurr, as the CMA’s interim chair
Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon among tech companies making $27bn from Australians
The top 16 tech companies are collectively making $26.7bn in revenue each year from Australians, a Parliamentary Budget Office analysis has found, as the Greens call for a 3% tax on the biggest players that would bring in more than $11bn.The analysis, conducted on behalf of the Greens, found in 2022-23 Google made $8.7bn across advertising and cloud services, Microsoft made $2.9bn, Meta made $1
Tesla’s UK sales rise despite threat of backlash over Musk’s political role
Sales of Teslas in the UK rose by more than a fifth last month as demand for battery-powered cars increased, despite the prospect of a buyer backlash over Elon Musk’s controversial and divisive behaviour since becoming a key figure in Donald Trump’s administration.Almost 4,000 Teslas were sold in the UK in February, with the Model 3 and Model Y proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper, according to the latest new car registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).Tesla sales were up 20.7% year on year, lifting the company’s market share from 3.75% in February 2024 to 4
Some British firms ‘stuck in neutral’ over AI, says Microsoft UK boss
Some companies are “stuck in neutral” in their approach to artificial intelligence, according to Microsoft’s UK boss, who said a significant number of private and public sector organisations lack any formal AI strategy.A Microsoft survey of nearly 1,500 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors, as well as 1,440 employees, found that more than half of executives feel their organisation has no official AI plan. Roughly the same proportion report a growing gap in productivity – a measure of economic efficiency – between employees who use AI and those who do not.“Some organisations appear to be stuck in neutral, caught in the experimentation phase, rather than in the deployment [of AI],” said Darren Hardman, the tech company’s UK chief executive.Microsoft, the biggest financial backer of the ChatGPT developer, OpenAI, has been pushing AI’s deployment in the workplace through autonomous AI agents – tools that can carry out tasks without human intervention
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