Alan Brown

Alan Brown

Alan is a digital technologist, researcher, and entrepreneur. He holds a Professorship in Digital Economy at the University of Exeter, UK and held a Fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK National institute for data science and AI.

Digital Economy Dispatch #288 -- How to Rewire the State

Digital Economy Dispatch #288 -- How to Rewire the State

UK Parliament's "Rewiring the State" report quotes my work and confirms my book's diagnosis: end vendor lock-in, build sovereignty. The right diagnosis, but still too little on how to deliver it.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #287 -- How Much AI Does the UK Government Actually Use?

Digital Economy Dispatch #287 -- How Much AI Does the UK Government Actually Use?

The UK government declares it uses just 131 AI systems. That is clearly too low. The mandated register reveals only the safest tools, leaving real deployment unknown and unknowable.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #286 -- Seven Hard Lessons from One of AI's Toughest Operating Environments

Digital Economy Dispatch #286 -- Seven Hard Lessons from One of AI's Toughest Operating Environments

Bad data, brutal experimentation ratios, turf wars, and a programme that refused to die. Seven important leadership lessons from Project Maven.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #285 -- Find. Fix. Finish

Digital Economy Dispatch #285 -- Find. Fix. Finish

The Pentagon's AI playbook has three steps. Katrina Manson's new Project Maven book explains why most organisations — and Britain in particular — can’t get past the first.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #284 -- From Digitizing Government to Making AI Work for Britain

Digital Economy Dispatch #284 -- From Digitizing Government to Making AI Work for Britain

The GDS era showed Britain how to make progress in digital transformation, then ran into significant roadblocks. A decade later, AI is repeating the same structural mistakes. The key lesson for UK’s AI delivery is to ensure we focus: consolidate demand and diversify supply.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #283 -- Why AI Adoption is Not AI Delivery

Digital Economy Dispatch #283 -- Why AI Adoption is Not AI Delivery

AWS published its annual Unlocking the UK’s AI Potential report last week. Read alongside Making AI Work for Britain, which I launched the same week, the two documents broadly agree on the diagnosis. Where they part company is more interesting.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #282 -- It's Time to Make AI Work for Britain

Digital Economy Dispatch #282 -- It's Time to Make AI Work for Britain

Four forces converged in 2026 to make the case for institutional AI reform undeniable. My new book, Making AI Work for Britain, lands on Tuesday, offering five practical steps to close the gap.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #281 -- Can Britain Turn the Power of AI into National Advantage?

Digital Economy Dispatch #281 -- Can Britain Turn the Power of AI into National Advantage?

Anthropic has built an AI model it considers too dangerous for public release. That’s not a reason for alarm. But it is yet another reason for the UK to move focus, urgently, from AI strategy to AI delivery.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #280 -- Why the "Fastest AI Adoption in the G7" is the Wrong Goal

Digital Economy Dispatch #280 -- Why the "Fastest AI Adoption in the G7" is the Wrong Goal

Britain has real AI ambition. What it still lacks is a theory of how that ambition becomes embedded practice, and the Chancellor's Mais lecture didn't provide one.

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
Digital Economy Dispatch #279 -- The Rise of AI Factories: Will They Succeed Where Software Factories Failed?

Digital Economy Dispatch #279 -- The Rise of AI Factories: Will They Succeed Where Software Factories Failed?

AI factories, purpose-built infrastructure for training and running AI, are becoming a real, fast-growing category with a big role to play in AI sovereignty. The UK must act strategically or risk increasing its infrastructure dependencies..

Alan Brown
Alan Brown