Aston University has opened a centre of excellence to bring together businesses, academia and policy-makers to support the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), working with French IT giant Capgemini to establish the Centre of Excellence for Enterprise AI at its campus in the City of London.
Professor Aleks Subic, vice-chancellor and CEO of Aston University, said artificial intelligence is transforming business and society at an unprecedented speed: “For enterprises, it is critical that they harness the power of AI and generative AI [GenAI] to remain competitive and to drive future growth.”
He said that the university wants to build a collaborative AI ecosystem with businesses, researchers and policymakers to create and deploy “responsible AI solutions that benefit both enterprise and society,” adding that the centre will create “future-ready” AI talent through advanced training, including education programmes for executives, and upskilling.
A report from the Capgemini Research Institute found that there is a real commitment to invest in IT, with 74% of business leaders ranking AI and GenAI among their top three technology investment priorities for 2025. However, adopting AI across organisations and realising the benefits is a challenge, said the university.
According to Steven Webb, UK chief technology and innovation officer at Capgemini: “The UK has one of the strongest AI economies, but we need to work together to nurture talent, develop the skills essential for driving future growth, and create favourable conditions for innovators and businesses. Collaborations between academia, the private sector and government will be the key to solidifying the UK as a global AI superpower.”
Businesses and regulators are adopting AI and creating rules around them, therefore requiring new skills. For example, finance regulators Bank of England and the FCA have been tracking how financial services firms in the UK are using AI and machine learning. The results of a 2025 survey from Bank of England covered 120 firms, and it found that three-quarters are already using some form of AI in their operations.
The survey discovered that some of the most common early use cases for AI have been low risk from a financial stability standpoint. For example, 41% are using AI to optimise internal processes, while 26% are using AI to enhance customer support.
Academia plays a key role in supporting the development of AI to ensure the most is made of it and its development is responsible. For example, in 2023, the University of Glasgow opened a centre dedicated to supporting its research in data science and AI, which brought together hundreds of academics with expertise in different disciplines.
The Centre for Data Science will support the university’s efforts to address challenges – through data science and AI – such as climate change and inequality.
Its six programmes of research are: data and AI-driven advances in engineering and the physical sciences; medical, veterinary and life sciences; economic and social sciences; arts and the humanities; innovation; and a programme to support fundamental research in data science and AI across the university.
