SAS AI Cities Index 2025 - where is the most AI ready in the UK?
By Glyn Townsend, Senior Director, Education Services – SAS EMEA
Artificial intelligence (AI) is continuing to transform our global landscape, offering solutions to some of society's most pressing issues. While public perception of AI today is dominated by Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, AI has actually been quietly embedded in our daily lives for decades.
From navigation systems that automatically reroute your journey to avoid traffic, to fraud detection algorithms protecting your credit card transactions. Arguably, AI has never played such a central role in how we live, work and interact, from accelerating clinical health trials, driving efficiency savings, and preventing fraud.
For many consumers, digital assistants like Alexa and Siri are now the most recognisable AI tools in daily life. Meanwhile, search engines are rapidly integrating AI to offer smarter results and recommendations. The dramatic rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has further transformed how people access and engage with AI technology. These developments, alongside emerging agentic AI systems set to revolutionise sectors like banking and financial services, are fundamentally altering the world as we know it.
In January, the UK Government announced the ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’ to position Britain as a global leader in AI, focusing on harnessing AI for economic growth, public service improvements, and national security as well as developing the UK as a centre for AI innovation.
The government’s plan includes targeted investment in key sectors such as healthcare and education, using AI to improve services and drive productivity.
The action plan also addresses the pressing skills shortage in data and AI literacy, and aims to promote education and training programmes focused on building an AI workforce. As part of these efforts, the UK is investing heavily in the AI sector - with approximately £200 million in private investment being channelled into AI initiatives, which equates to about £8.3 million every hour.
However, as these plans are just being set in motion, there are still challenges ahead - especially when it comes to ensuring that AI is accessible, trustworthy and impactful across all regions and communities in the UK.
As we look towards the future of AI in the UK, it's important to recognise that the skills needed extend far beyond understanding how to use LLMs. There's a critical need for expertise in computer vision applications, specialised AI design and development, and trustworthy AI implementation.
With agentic AI poised to transform industries like financial services - potentially changing the nature of roles like city traders - businesses and educational institutions must prepare workers for this broader AI landscape. The cities that can develop talent across this full spectrum of AI technologies will be best positioned to thrive in the coming decades.
What’s the current status of AI across the UK?
With growing climate change and energy efficiency targets, talent shortages, long healthcare waiting lists, and rising concerns around digital safety, it’s crucial that businesses adopt AI across the UK. Embracing AI can help to improve economic growth across regions - not keep it clustered in certain areas. As a result, it will help to drive investment in areas beyond the usual tech hubs and offer further opportunities across the UK.
The risk of inaction can have a major impact on economic growth. If not addressed, the current talent shortages could lead to lower productivity, higher unemployment, and slower innovation. With technology being at the forefront of society - whether that's smartphones, TVs, or even banking - a digital skills gap can quickly separate different age groups. If older workers or low-income groups are left behind without training, it can create challenges and frustrations among them.
Failing to prepare the existing workforce for these roles means surrendering future jobs and industries, ultimately slowing down progress toward global competitiveness.
With this in mind, how are UK cities currently meeting these technological changes effectively?
SAS has created the AI Cities 2025 Index, to understand, for the fourth year running, which cities and London boroughs are leading the way in the UK in terms of being AI-ready, and which ones need more support.
To do this, SAS looked at seven key indicators, including:
- The number of AI-related jobs within a 5-mile radius, according to Indeed.
- The number of AI-related events within 25 miles, according to MeetUp.
- How many official Hackathons have taken place in each city in the last year.
- Average broadband speeds.
- The number of AI-related courses in each university, based on every course that came up with "artificial intelligence" in the course description when searching on all courses.
- The number of businesses based in each city with a focus on AI, according to LinkedIn.
- The average R&D investment spend per business, per city, according to InnovateUK.
SAS gave every city and London borough an index score for each separate data point, with equal weighting, to calculate an overall index score out of 700.
The most AI-ready cities
Manchester once again claims top spot as the most AI-ready UK city for the second year in a row. It has the most AI-related companies listed in our index, the highest number of tech-based jobs, and the biggest R&D innovation grants to businesses outside of London.
The city offers those looking for an AI-related job the most opportunities when it comes to finding a company specialising in artificial intelligence, with over 300 jobs available for those looking for AI-specialised roles - higher than any other city outside of London.
This makes the city a well-known location for those looking to develop their careers in AI, software, and data analytics.
Manchester is rapidly emerging as the fastest-growing fintech hub in the UK, contributing more than £1 billion to the regional economy. The city is home to almost 250 startups and larger fintech companies such as Starling Bank and OakNorth Bank, accelerating developments in AI and green finance. The data also shows that Manchester businesses have received the second-highest number of InnovateUK investments, with an average grant of £74,000 per business.
Given their established AI ecosystems, substantial educational offerings, and proven success in securing innovation funding, Manchester, Leeds, and Bristol represent prime candidates for designation as official AI Growth Zones under the government's AI Action Plan. Formal recognition would further accelerate their development as AI hubs, helping to ensure that the UK's AI leadership extends well beyond London.
Greater Manchester as a whole dominated the leaderboard, with Salford in fifth position, just shy of its third-place role in last year’s rankings.
Salford had the second highest number of AI jobs available, with Media City being home to a number of technology businesses and world-famous companies such as BBC and ITV. Just last year, ITV announced that it will begin using AI to generate programme ideas.
The UK’s most AI-ready cities
1 - Manchester
2 - Leeds
3 - St Albans
4 - Bristol
5 - Salford
6 - Birmingham
7 - Glasgow
8 - Cambridge
9 - Edinburgh
10 - Liverpool
Which cities have climbed the rankings in the last year?
Dundee in Scotland has climbed 41 places due to a vast increase in the number of AI-related courses at the University of Dundee, and it also has some of the fastest broadband speeds of those analysed, enabling smoother access to cloud-based AI platforms, and improving remote work and learning.
SAS research also found that each business that qualified for an AI-related Innovate UK grant was awarded an average of £44,900 - a sign of dedication to AI growth across the city.
St Albans has climbed 17 places, with the city’s proximity to London likely boosting its rankings to get it to fifth place. The city stands out for offering its residents over 40 options when it comes to AI-related university courses or AI-specific events for those looking to increase their knowledge.
The rise of smaller cities in the UK’s AI readiness rankings marks a significant shift in the nation’s technological landscape, and a promising future for a more balanced ecosystem. Cities like Lincoln, Preston and Wrexham breaking into the top 40 highlights a growing trend: innovation is no longer the sole domain of traditional tech powerhouses, but is increasingly taking root across a broader, more diverse range of communities.
This transformation underscores the growing importance of targeted regional investment. Initiatives like AI Growth Zones will further help drive this change, as well as establishing specialised AI training centres and building economic frameworks that align with the unique strengths and opportunities of each local area.
The biggest movers:
- Dundee - up 41 places
- Truro - up 31
- Lincoln - up 31
- Bangor - up 20
- Carlisle - up 17
- St.Albans - up 17
- Durham - up 15
- Chester - up 15
- Canterbury - up 15
- Belfast - up 14
The most AI-ready London boroughs
As in previous years, instead of treating London as a single entity, SAS identified the most AI-ready boroughs across the capital - taking into account factors such as size, economic output, and access to talent. This approach was essential to ensure fairness in the rankings. Given London’s vast scale and unique concentration of resources, including it as one city would have disproportionately skewed the results and overshadowed the progress being made in smaller cities across the UK. By narrowing the focus to a single borough, the analysis offers a more balanced and meaningful comparison across regions, and allows us to understand where government growth zones are likely to be.
Camden has claimed top spot for the second consecutive year, cementing its position due to the volume of artificial intelligence jobs available within a 5-mile radius (4,000), as the borough continues to innovate. Companies like Google, Santander, Carbon Clear and EMI Records are based within the vicinity.
Towards the end of 2024, Camden Council and Camden Learning partnered with Google to launch the London AI Campus, which aims to improve digital skills in the UK. The initiative also focuses on upskilling teachers on the topic of artificial intelligence to help minimise the knowledge gap the UK is currently facing.
Southwark and Tower Hamlets also made the top three. Both areas have moved up the rankings by one place (with Westminster dropping from second place last year to eighth this year). Both Tower Hamlets and Southwark have a minimum of 30 courses available to students, and similar to Camden, there are up to 3,000 jobs readily available.
The least AI-ready cities:
SAS data shows a low number of AI-related jobs in smaller cities with a limited number of AI-focused courses available in areas such as Salisbury, Hereford and Lichfield. These cities also have limited opportunities for extra-curricular activities when it comes to AI events.
- Lisburn
- Salisbury
- Hereford
- Lichfield
- Colchester
- Ripon
- Hull
- Perth
- Portsmouth
- Southend-on-Sea
Why is this research important?
There is a big emphasis on improving digital technology across the UK whether that’s within businesses or education. However, there are still 76% of employers reporting difficulty filling roles due to a lack of skilled talent, especially across engineering, healthcare and technology including data analytics and cyber security.
To improve technology skills across the UK, there must be a stronger focus on education, including universities, but also within current job roles and upskilling opportunities. Hackathons and AI-related events are also important, as they help to nurture people already interested and potentially working in the industry, and they also provide an opportunity to learn from peers.
The UK Government’s AI Action Plan aims to support education by potentially adopting generative AI to relieve teachers of administrative burdens and overly high workloads, and also aims to address the digital and data literacy gaps.
Generative AI continues to gain traction, with over 18 million people in the UK now using models like ChatGPT, and up to 7 million using it for work. Generative AI can lower barriers to entry, making advanced technology more accessible to businesses, local councils and individuals, and can help educators and employers to deliver personalised learning experiences at scale. This is especially true in regions where access to traditional training could be limited.
However, there are precautions that should be taken when using generative AI, and it should not be used as a reliable source of information without human oversight and fact checking, especially in regards to education and healthcare, two of the government’s focus areas.
AI across the UK is set to become further embedded across the workforce, with three major tech companies - Vantage Data Centres, Nscale, and Kyndryl - having committed to a £14 billion investment to further build the AI infrastructure and deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK.
Smaller cities are slowly making their way up the rankings, but to maintain the UK's leadership in this field, all cities need to be prepared to play their part - not just those in large urban areas.
We need to address gaps in digital and data skills, help businesses secure funding, improve our current workers' abilities in this area, and encourage young people’s interest in subjects that underpin use of data and AI. These steps are essential if we want to take advantage of the AI opportunity in the years ahead.
ENDS
Methodology
SAS looked at seven key indicators, including:
- The number of AI-related jobs within a 5-mile radius, according to Indeed.
- The number of AI-related events within 25 miles, according to MeetUp.
- How many official Hackathons have taken place in each city in the last year.
- Average broadband speeds by city, using postcode data for business speeds from Compare The Market.
- The number of AI-related courses in each university, based on every course that came up with "artificial intelligence" in the course description when searching on all courses
- The number of businesses based in each city with a focus on AI, according to LinkedIn.
- The average R&D investment spend, on average per business, per city, according to InnovateUK.
SAS used this data and turned it into an index using a weighted scoring model to rank cities and London boroughs across these metrics to reveal a score out of 700. Data is correct as of March 2025.
