Summit Round-Up: Digital Ethics Summit 2025
The ninth annual Digital Ethics Summit, hosted by techUK on 3 December 2025, marked a moment of the community coming together to take stock of lessons learned in 2025 and look forward together in 2026. Since 2017, the summit has brought together leaders and experts across the digital ethics landscape to reflect on and assess the progress made.
Reflections on AI and digital ethics in 2025
The summit reflected on a year of rapid AI adoption across industries:
- The maturation of AI assurance and the shift in global discourse from AI safety to security
- Launch of UK government initiatives, including the Trusted Third-Party AI Assurance Roadmap and the Fairness Innovation Challenge
- Building justified trust through robust scientific testing and assurance
- Maintaining human agency and inclusion throughout AI design, development, and deployment
- Strengthening cross-sector collaboration and organisation-wide AI literacy
- Moving beyond compliance-led approaches toward quality frameworks focused on real-world outcomes and human flourishing
- AI tools are now embedded in day-to-day operations, driving productivity and job creation
- At the same time, labour market disruption remains a significant challenge
- AI-enabled cybercrime and deepfake fraud continue to undermine digital trust
- The rise of agentic and autonomous AI systems raises unresolved questions around human oversight, accountability, and liability
View the full analysis here.
Looking ahead: Digital ethics priorities for 2026
The year ahead demands greater regulatory clarity as digital regulation continues to evolve, creating uncertainty for organisations seeking responsible AI adoption pathways. While the UK has strong foundations, including regulatory sandboxes and robust sector laws on privacy and safety, practical guidance and frameworks remain essential as legislation matures.
Looking to 2026, the summit stressed a shift from predominantly risk-focused discourse toward bold, optimistic thinking about AI’s societal impact. Rather than fixating on profitability or job displacement, leaders were urged to focus on human flourishing, community needs, and long-term capability building. The UK’s success depends less on international comparison and more on leveraging national strengths, particularly data strategy, the AI Assurance ecosystem, and the AI Security Institute.
Key priorities identified
- Maintaining people-centered approaches throughout technological progress
- Building organisation-wide AI literacy, including at board level
- Taking calculated risks while challenging overly conservative mindsets
- Extending governance beyond AI to digital twins, robotics, quantum computing, and digital identity
- Addressing governance and legal challenges for agentic systems and companion AI
- Developing stronger sector-specific tools, particularly for education and child safety
- Using procurement, investor due diligence, and AI insurance to incentivise responsible AI and assurance
Trust as a core theme
Above all, trust remains paramount, encouraging transparent systems, collaborative regulatory frameworks that span sectors and borders, clear sources of expert guidance, and a continued commitment to solving the discoverability problem so that responsible AI practices can be shared and scaled across organisations of all sizes.
Summit outputs and acknowledgements
On the day, techUK launched a sector-specific AI assurance paper, examining current implementation across UK industries. In parallel, DSIT announced the Fairness Innovation Challenge results, showcasing innovative approaches to tackling bias across higher education, finance, healthcare, and recruitment.
The event was made possible through collaboration with silver sponsor Clifford Chance, alongside speaking sponsors Kainos, Advai, Synoptix, and KPMG. Our distinguished academic and institutional partners included the Ada Lovelace Institute, The British Academy, The Royal Academy of Engineering, Open Data Institute, The Alan Turing Institute, and The Royal Society.
Thank you to everyone that was able to join us.
Watch: Digital Ethics Summit 2025 Sessions
Digital Ethics Summit 2025: Photo gallery
The realities of implementing digital ethics in 2025: What have we learned this year?
Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK
Kanishka Narayan MP
Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK and Kanishka Narayan MP
Has 2025 been the breakthrough year for AI assurance and could the UK take the lead?
AI in the Public Sector: Lessons learned from Health, Defence, Justice, and Education
Ministerial Fireside with techUK Deputy CEO
The realities of implementing digital ethics in 2025: What have we learned this year?
The realities of implementing digital ethics in 2025: What have we learned this year?
Has 2025 been the breakthrough year for AI assurance and could the UK take the lead?
Has 2025 been the breakthrough year for AI assurance and could the UK take the lead?
AI in the Public Sector: Lessons learned from Health, Defence, Justice, and Education
AI in the Public Sector: Lessons learned from Health, Defence, Justice, and Education
What does the spectrum of open and closed models mean for developers trying to democratise access?
What does the spectrum of open and closed models mean for developers trying to democratise access?
What does the spectrum of open and closed models mean for developers trying to democratise access?
Meet the Responsible AI Practitioners: a view from the frontlines of AI adoption
Meet the Responsible AI Practitioners: a view from the frontlines of AI adoption
Meet the Responsible AI Practitioners: a view from the frontlines of AI adoption
Meet the Responsible AI Practitioners: a view from the frontlines of AI adoption
Afternoon Fireside – Human-Centered Innovation in 2025: What future are we building?
From Safety to Security - Just Semantics or a New Focus?
From Safety to Security - Just Semantics or a New Focus?
From Safety to Security - Just Semantics or a New Focus?
Interactive workshop with Royal Society: Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities! Exploring Inclusive Digital Technologies
Interactive workshop with Royal Society: Happy International Day of Persons with Disabilities! Exploring Inclusive Digital Technologies 2.5
Human-Computer Interaction: Robotics and other Embodied Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction: Robotics and other Embodied Intelligences
Looking to the year ahead: Do we have the institutions, infrastructure and resources we need?
Looking to the year ahead: Do we have the institutions, infrastructure and resources we need?
Looking to the year ahead: Do we have the institutions, infrastructure and resources we need?
Thank you to everyone who joined us. To find out more, get involved, or explore sponsorship opportunities, please contact the team below:
Sue Daley OBE
Sue Daley OBE
Sue leads techUK's Technology and Innovation work.
This includes work programmes on cloud, data protection, data analytics, AI, digital ethics, Digital Identity and Internet of Things as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy.
In 2025, Sue was honoured with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Technology Industry in the New Year Honours List.
She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly's UKtech50 Longlist and in 2021 was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame.
A key influencer in driving forward the data agenda in the UK, Sue was co-chair of the UK government's National Data Strategy Forum until July 2024. As well as being recognised in the UK's Big Data 100 and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries for 2020 Sue has also been shortlisted for the Milton Keynes Women Leaders Awards and was a judge for the Loebner Prize in AI. In addition to being a regular industry speaker on issues including AI ethics, data protection and cyber security, Sue was recently a judge for the UK Tech 50 and is a regular judge of the annual UK Cloud Awards.
Prior to joining techUK in January 2015 Sue was responsible for Symantec's Government Relations in the UK and Ireland. She has spoken at events including the UK-China Internet Forum in Beijing, UN IGF and European RSA on issues ranging from data usage and privacy, cloud computing and online child safety. Before joining Symantec, Sue was senior policy advisor at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Sue has an BA degree on History and American Studies from Leeds University and a Masters Degree on International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Birmingham. Sue is a keen sportswoman and in 2016 achieved a lifelong ambition to swim the English Channel.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2055
- Twitter:
- @ChannelSwimSue,@ChannelSwimSue
Tess Buckley
Tess Buckley
Tess is a digital ethicist and musician. After completing a MA in AI and Philosophy, with a focus on ableism in biotechnologies, she worked as an AI Ethics Analyst with a dataset on corporate digital responsibility (paid for by investors that wanted to understand their portfolio risks). Tess then supported the development of a specialised model for sustainability disclosure requests. Currently, at techUK, her north star as programme manager in digital ethics and AI safety is demystifying, and operationalising ethics through assurance mechanisms and standards. Outside of Tess's work, her primary research interests are in AI music systems, AI fluency and tech by/for differently abled folks.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Website:
- tessbuckley.me
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tesssbuckley/
Margot Stumm
Margot Stumm
Margot joined techUK in September 2022 as the Head of Events and Sponsorship, running the event programme for our flagship events, such as the techUK Annual Dinner, Defence Ethics Summit, Building the Smarter State etc
Prior to this role, Margot managed events and external affairs for the Centre for Policy Studies, a political think tank in Westminster and also worked at the D Group, a London-based business membership organisation, where she was responsible for the events programme, account management and business strategy.
She holds a BA in Technical Translation in English, French and Spanish from Paris 7 - Denis Diderot and a MA in International Relations from the London Metropolitan University.
Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, going to concerts and snowboarding.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Twitter:
- @margot_stumm,@margot_stumm
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/margot-stumm-82ba15128
Dora Pass
Dora Pass
Dora joined techUK in October 2019 as an Events Assistant, coordinating and delivering our flagship events.
Prior to joining the team, Dora worked as a Senior Events Coordinator at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors at Parliament Square managing conferences and high profile ministerial events.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2003
