AI startups to watch: The hottest machine learning startups in the UK | Industry

Artificial Intelligence could contribute an additional 1.2 percent to annual GDP growth for at least the next decade, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, which expects around 70 percent of companies to adopt at least one form of AI by 2030.

Startups in the UK are set to cash in on the boom. An AI venture capital firm called Asgard estimates that the country’s ecosystem of 121 AI startups is the largest in Europe, while London has more than three times as many as any other city in the continent.

The UK has developed a global reputation for AI thanks in part to four of the biggest AI startup acquisitions of the last five years, beginning in 2014 when Google swept up DeepMind in 2014 for a reported £400 million.

Next came Apple’s purchase of natural language processing (NLP) specialists VocalIQ, which was followed by Microsoft’s purchase of machine learning-powered keyboard SwiftKey, and Twitter’s acquisition of Entrepreneur First alumni Magic Pony.

This year looks set to follow a similar pattern as AI moves beyond the hype to practical use cases. Here are some of the most interesting startups working in the area of AI in the UK today. Could the next DeepMind be lurking among them?

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