Wales launches national AI strategy with focus on public service transformation

The Welsh Government has published AI Cymru: Shaping a Smarter, Fairer, More Prosperous Wales, a new national strategy setting out how Wales will harness artificial intelligence to modernise public services, grow the economy and build a digitally confident, bilingual nation.

The strategy outlines how AI will be embedded across health, education, local government and the wider economy, while ensuring adoption remains ethical, inclusive and aligned with Welsh values. It also places long-term wellbeing at the heart of AI governance, reflecting Wales’s unique legal requirement under the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

The plan was launched by Jeremy Miles MS, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, who said Wales must embrace the opportunities of AI while protecting fairness, trust and social partnership. “By embracing AI, we can transform public services, support our private sectors to adapt and thrive, boost productivity and create high-quality jobs. AI can make it easier for more people to use Cymraeg in everyday life. But we must ensure AI is used responsibly, ethically and ambitiously.”

The Welsh Government has already taken steps to support the strategy, including establishing an Office for AI to build internal capability and forming a Strategic AI Advisory Group made up of experts from industry, academia and the public sector. A Public Sector AI Leadership Group will coordinate adoption across health, councils, schools and arm’s length bodies.

Wales positions itself as an agile testbed for AI innovation thanks to major infrastructure investment such as Vantage Data Centres and Microsoft’s new AI-focused facility in Newport. The creation of AI Growth Zones aims to accelerate planning and energy access for data centre expansion and AI service development.

AI Cymru emphasises practical, responsible deployment of AI across public services.
In health and social care, Wales is scaling AI tools for imaging, diagnostics, cancer pathways, population health analytics and transcription support for staff. Local authorities are exploring AI for case management, automation, traffic planning and citizen engagement. Schools and colleges will see updates to the Digital Competence Framework, teacher training on safe AI use and increased access to personalised learning tools.

The plan stresses that human oversight, transparency and safeguarding must underpin all adoption, ensuring AI augments rather than replaces frontline work.

A defining element of the strategy is the commitment to ensure AI works equally well in both Welsh and English. This includes improving access to Welsh-language datasets, encouraging multilingual AI tool development and ensuring AI services support the Cymraeg 2050 goal of increasing daily Welsh language use.

The government also highlights the need to prevent AI from reinforcing inequalities. Public bodies will be expected to assess risks to vulnerable groups, consider offline users and involve communities in co-designing AI-enabled services.

Wales aims to build a strong sovereign AI ecosystem by leveraging its strengths in compound semiconductors, cybersecurity, green energy and research. The government plans to support SMEs to adopt AI, expand university-industry research, attract inward investment and encourage the creation of AI Centres of Excellence.

To assure safe deployment, Wales will introduce a national public-sector AI register, develop shared guidance for local authorities and arm’s length bodies, and provide a shared platform for testing AI tools. Early proofs of concept include a planned AI assistant for the redeveloped StatsWales service.