🎙️ Episode Title: "What’s Holding the UK Back from AI Leadership?"

👤 Guest: Simon Lambert, Chief Learning Officer, Microsoft UK Leads strategy for digital skills and learning culture, driving initiatives like Microsoft’s Get On campaign and AI skilling partnerships.

🧠 Episode Summary: In this episode, host Paddy Dhanda explores the UK's ambition to become a global AI leader in conversation with Microsoft UK's Simon Lambert. They unpack the UK’s AI Action Plan, the critical role of AI literacy, and how tools like Microsoft Copilot are reshaping productivity. Simon shares insights on leadership, lifelong learning, and the evolving human-agent workplace dynamic.

💡 Key Topics Covered:

·       The UK’s AI Action Plan: infrastructure, adoption, skills, investment

·       Microsoft’s £2.5B investment in UK data centres

·       The Get On campaign and AI skilling goals

·       AI literacy for all - not just technologists

·       Leadership’s role in modelling curiosity and enabling learning

·       The rise of “agent bosses” and hybrid human-agent teams

·       Copilot use cases in healthcare, telecoms, and personal productivity

📌 Notable Quotes:

“AI skills are going to be a non-optional thing for people.” “Learning is a permanent requirement of work.” “If knowledge is power, then learning is a superpower.” — Jim KwikResources: Check out Microsoft’s Work Trend Index for 2025.

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