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Chancellor’s timing “just right” on funding for AI and 5G

Philip Hammond announced £500 million investment as part of his Budget

The chancellor’s announcement that the government is investing £500 million into supporting artificial intelligence, 5G and fibre broadband has come at the right time, according to one media analyst.

Martyn Whistler, lead analyst, media and entertainment, at Ernst & Young told TVBEurope he expects to see an “exponential acceleration” in AI over the next 12-18 months.

“I think in many ways you could argue the timing is just right,” said Whistler. “It’s an industry that’s about to take off, so giving it a little bit of an extra boost now is probably going to help it along its way.”

“In the UK we have a really strong start up community with lots of people with ideas, innovation and lots of people tackling things like artificial intelligence,” Whistler said.

“We’ve also got a lot of companies that are focused on technology within the media industry so what I think we’re going to see is a lot of the investment flowing into the start ups that enables them to deliver their ideas into the industry environment.

He added: “That’s where we’re going to see the flow-through of benefit taking place. I don’t see today’s money as directly impacting the industry itself but I think it will impact the ecosystem that will ultimately bring a benefit to the industry.”