The UK government’s ‘Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps policy paper’ and the Lloyds Bank 2024 Consumer Digital Index estimate that 1.6 million people in the UK are offline, and around a quarter of the UK population have the lowest level of digital capability compared to the rest of the population as categorised by Lloyds’ digital capability segmentation.

Experts in this research identified systemic barriers to AI training in the UK. These are rooted in practical, structural and cultural issues such as:

• digital infrastructure
• adult education
• funding inequalities
• institutional responsiveness