Industrial AI sprint campaign awareness day – expressions of interest
As part of techUK’s Industrial AI sprint campaign, we invite expressions of interest for contributions to "Unlocking the Potential of Industrial AI", an awareness day taking place on 31 July 2025.
Please note the deadline for expressions of interest is 17 July
Submission details:
We encourage submissions in the following formats:
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Blogs: 600 to 1000 words
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Vlogs: 3 to 6 minutes
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Video statements: up to 2 minutes
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Short quotations
Please read our contributor guidelines here before submitting
Please send your submissions to:
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Usman Ikhlaq: [email protected]
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Victoria Njururi: [email protected]
techUK reserves the right to exercise its editorial judgment. Editorial decisions to publish, or not to publish, are made at our discretion.
About techUK's Industrial AI sprint campaign
This awareness day is part of techUK’s Industrial AI Sprint campaign—a cross-programme initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption and impact of Industrial AI across the UK economy, focusing on R&D-heavy sectors such as advanced manufacturing, energy, defence, and the life sciences.
The sprint campaign kicked off earlier this year with a dynamic launch event, bringing together industry leaders, innovators, and policymakers to spark vital conversations around unlocking the potential of AI in industrial and R&D intensive sectors such as manufacturing and construction. The launch featured a fireside chat, expert panel discussions, industry presentations, and networking opportunities, with insights from speakers including Dr. David Smith (AVEVA), Ella Shoup (GSK), Dr. Saleh Seyedzadeh (The Data Lab), Nathan Brown (Autodesk), and Cormac McAteer (Seagate Technologies).
Key themes explored included predictive maintenance at scale, human AI collaboration, data foundations for AI adoption, and practical strategies for moving from hesitation to confident action. The event highlighted ongoing challenges such as skills gaps, data access barriers, cybersecurity, and the importance of human centric adoption approaches.
Building on the momentum of the launch, the campaign continued with an in person event on scaling Industrial AI held on 17 June 2025 at techUK’s. This session gathered stakeholders to share success stories and focus on overcoming barriers to deploying Industrial AI technologies at scale. Through panel discussions and networking, participants discussed enablers, blockers, infrastructure needs, partnerships, and cultural shifts required to operationalise AI effectively in industrial environments.
Through a series of events, thought leadership, and insight sharing, the Industrial AI Sprint campaign explores how Industrial AI can unlock productivity, drive innovation, and support a resilient and sustainable industrial future. It also surfaces barriers to adoption from data interoperability to workforce readiness and promotes real world solutions from across sectors.
Why contribute?
The awareness day and the wider campaign offer a unique platform to position yourself or your organisation at the forefront of the UK’s Industrial AI conversation. Contributions help:
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Showcase expertise in one of AI’s fastest growing fields
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Raise profiles within the AI and industrial technology communities
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Highlight real world examples demonstrating Industrial AI’s transformative value
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Influence discussions on challenges and priorities for wider adoption
Whether advancing predictive maintenance, quality control, supply chain optimisation, or sustainability, your insight helps illustrate Industrial AI’s impact and future potential.
What we seek
We welcome content exploring topics such as:
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The shift from automation to autonomy enabling self optimising factories and intelligent supply chains
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Smarter decision making and organisational resilience with AI
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Hyper personalisation in manufacturing, life sciences, defence, and other growth-driving sectors identified in the UK Government's Industrial Strategy
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Sustainability and circular economy benefits driven by AI
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AI’s role in improving safety through predictive maintenance, hazard detection, and compliance
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Addressing barriers like trust in AI, data challenges, and workforce readiness
Let’s unlock the potential of Industrial AI together!
The Industrial AI Sprint campaign continues throughout 2025 with further opportunities for engagement and insight sharing. By contributing to this awareness day, participants help build a stronger, smarter, and more sustainable industrial future powered by AI.
techUK - Seizing the AI Opportunity
The UK is a global leader in AI innovation, development and adoption.
The economic growth and productivity gain that AI can unlock is vast, but to fully harness this transformative opportunity, immediate action is required. Our aim is to ensure the UK seizes the opportunities presented by AI technology and continues to be a world leader in AI development.
Get involved: techUK runs a busy calendar of activities including events, reports, and insights to demonstrate some of the most significant AI opportunities for the UK. Our AI Hub is where you will find details of all upcoming activity. We also send a monthly AI newsletter which you can subscribe to here.
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Contact the team
Usman Ikhlaq
Usman Ikhlaq
Usman joined techUK in January 2024 as Programme Manager for Artificial Intelligence.
He leads techUK’s AI Adoption programme, supporting members of all sizes and sectors in adopting AI at scale. His work involves identifying barriers to adoption, exploring solutions, and helping to unlock AI’s transformative potential, particularly its benefits for people, the economy, society, and the planet. He is also committed to advancing the UK’s AI sector and ensuring the UK remains a global leader in AI by working closely with techUK members, the UK Government, regulators, and devolved and local authorities.
Since joining techUK, Usman has delivered a regular drumbeat of activity to engage members and advance techUK's AI programme. This has included two campaign weeks, the creation of the AI Adoption Hub (now the AI Hub), the AI Leader's Event Series, the Putting AI into Action webinar series and the Industrial AI sprint campaign.
Before joining techUK, Usman worked as a policy, regulatory and government/public affairs professional in the advertising sector. He has also worked in sales, marketing, and FinTech.
Usman holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a GDL and LLB from BPP Law School, and a BA from Queen Mary University of London.
When he isn’t working, Usman enjoys spending time with his family and friends. He also has a keen interest in running, reading and travelling.
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Authors
Usman Ikhlaq
Usman joined techUK in January 2024 as Programme Manager for Artificial Intelligence.