GOV.UK founder Mike Bracken warns that Britain is sleepwalking into a dangerous AI dependency crisis
Mike Bracken, founder of the Government Digital Service, has warned that government, businesses and public institutions are "dangerously dependent " on AI systems they increasingly struggle to control.
Mike Bracken warns that growing reliance on AI platforms and technology providers could leave governments and institutions with less control.
As organisations around the world race to adopt artificial intelligence, they are becoming exposed by relying on a small number of technology providers, reducing their ability to act independently.
This challenge isn’t limited to governments and large companies. Universities and charities, as well as other major institutions, are facing similar risks as their dependence on outsourced technology and AI platforms grows.
Bracken says: "Institutions rarely lose sovereignty in a crisis. They lose it one reasonable decision at a time. The biggest risk facing many organisations today is not that somebody takes control away from them. It's that they gradually give it away. Every technology decision can make it harder or easier to change direction in the future. Too often, institutions only discover they have lost that flexibility when circumstances demand it."
Bracken, as founder of the Government Digital Service, has led the creation of GOV.UK, before going on to advise governments and major institutions around the world through Public Digital (PD), the consultancy he co-founded.
He argues that as governments around the world race to secure a strategic advantage in AI through investment in sovereign AI models, domestic computing infrastructure, and national technology strategies, policymakers focus too heavily on who owns the technology rather than who has the power to make decisions about it.
The result is a growing loss of control hidden beneath the language of modernisation and transformation. By the time institutions realise it, it is often too late.
Bracken comments: “This challenge extends far beyond technology. Questions about artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, national resilience, economic competitiveness, and state capacity are increasingly linked by whether institutions retain the ability to make decisions and act on them, or become constrained by systems, suppliers, and dependencies they no longer control.
"Every institution depends on technology. The question is whether that technology expands your freedom to act or quietly narrows it. The organisations that succeed in the coming decade will be the ones that understand the difference before it is too late.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
AI will be a key focus area at our sister title RTIH’s 2026 Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out the 2025 winners here.
RTIH’s 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
