The AI frontier and the private sector
A year in AI
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AI trend radar
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Frontier models and innovation
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Spotlight: AI in the private sector
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Our AI-native edge
A year in AI
In technology terms, a year is a long time. When considering the global AI race, it can feel like lightyears. And these past 12 months, characterised by unparalleled innovation and strategic shifts, have been a notable inflection point.
Rapid advances in model performance from key players like Anthropic and DeepSeek are fundamentally transforming what’s achievable with AI. And new entrants, such as Perplexity AI, are redefining information access and challenging traditional search.
Beyond capabilities, industry luminaries, such as Open AI’s Sam Altman and design guru Jony Ive, are exploring the possibilities of AI-powered hardware. Technology beyond screens is surely not far away.
Europe leads on regulation and open models
US leads in foundation models and commercial AI
China focuses on state-aligned multilingual models
Asia grows sovereign AI
Middle East invests in national AI
Africa targets local-language and impact-driven AI
Alongside these boundary pushing leaps, growing geopolitical investment and the spread of open-source innovation have transformed the AI landscape into a truly global competition.
From regulatory breakthroughs in Europe to sovereign AI programs in Asia and the Middle East, nations are staking their claims, not just as users of AI, but as shapers of its future. At the same time, frontier models are evolving into real-time, multimodal systems with broad commercial and societal impact, promising to reshape industries and daily life.
Models and applications
Frontier models advance reasoning and tool use
Multimodal systems integrate text, vision, and audio
If this was the past 12 months in AI, what will this time next year look like?
Open-source models scale globally
Small/edge models power mobile AI
Agents emerge for real-time tasks
Enterprise and creative AI expand mainstream adoption
AI trend radar
AI sector trends
Public Sector Healthcare Retail
AI-Driven Operational Efficiency Predictive Analytics
AI-Driven Algorithmic Trading Automated Claims Processing Manufacturing Capital Markets Insurance
AI-Assisted Patient Care and Predictive Diagnostics Accelerated Drug Discovery Personalised Shopping via Recommendation Engines Predictive Maintenance with IoT & ML
Frontier models and innovation
“Frontier models are reshaping what’s possible in AI. To unlock real value, we must go beyond APIs and understand how to tailor these models to our specific needs.”
Filippo Sassi Head of AI Labs, Version 1
DeepSeek R2
Early 2025 release
AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek.
DeepSeek-R2 brings major advancements in understanding multiple languages, writing computer code, and handling various data types like text, images, and sounds. Through efficient training methods, it aims to seriously compete with top Silicon Valley AI.
OpenAI o3 and o4-mini
Reasoning champions
OpenAI’s most powerful AI model, excelling in complex tasks like coding, math, science, and understanding images.
A smaller, faster, and more affordable version, o4-mini, still performs remarkably well for its size, particularly in math, coding, and visual tasks, even topping the AIME 2024 and 2025 benchmarks.
Qwen3
Meta Llama 4 o4-mini
235B-A22B flagship
Qwen3 is the newest powerful AI model in the Qwen family.
Its flagship model performs very competitively in coding, math, and general AI tasks, matching up against other top models like DeepSeek- R1 and Gemini-2.5-Pro. What’s more, even its smaller versions deliver impressive performance, rivaling models significantly larger than themselves.
Scout and Maverick models
A new app uses Meta’s Llama 4 for highly personalized responses, learning from user preferences and profile data (with permission).
It supports voice, text, and image generation, alongside a social “Discover” feed. Meta also offers a free preview of the Llama API for developers to build with Llama 4 models.
14B parameters
Phi-4 models offer powerful, efficient AI for constrained devices.
The 14-billion- parameter version outperforms smaller rivals and matches much larger models (671B parameters). Its 3.8-billionparameter mini version runs on mobile, matching larger models in math. All opensource for unrestricted commercial use.
Ternary architecture
Microsoft’s new BitNet b1.58 model uses a ternary architecture to achieve computational efficiency.
It has a comparable performance to larger models while running on a simple desktop CPU with minimal memory requirements.
Spotlight: AI in the public sector
HEALTHCARE
Enterprise AI adoption is transforming core business operations across healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services.
From diagnostic AI supporting physicians to warehouse robots revolutionising logistics, AI is augmenting human expertise at unprecedented scale.
OpenAI HealthBench
What it is: Comprehensive healthcare AI benchmark with 5,000 conversations across 262 physicians, 60 countries, 49 languages, and 26 specialties.
Why it matters: o3 reasoning model leads performance, followed by Grok and Gemini 2.5 Pro, establishing new standards for medical AI evaluation.
What’s next: Global deployment of diagnostic AI systems matching physician-level accuracy and empathy.
FINANCE
Mastercard Agent Pay
What it is: AI-powered payment platform integrating secure transactions into conversational AI experiences with biometric authentication.
Why it matters: Combines AI agents with best-in-class fraud protection, enabling seamless payment experiences within AI conversations.
What’s next: Expansion to more AI platforms and integration of advanced on-device biometric security features.
MANUFACTURING
Amazon Vulcan Robots
What it is: Advanced warehouse automation robots designed to solve complex cluttered bin picking challenges in fulfilment centres.
Why it matters: Significant advancement in warehouse automation, enhancing operational efficiency and productivity across Amazon’s logistics network.
What’s next: Broader deployment across fulfilment centres and potential licensing to other logistics companies.
An AI native organisation
We empower organisations to define their digital future through the transformative power of AI and data.
With nearly three decades of experience in business transformation, we are a trusted partner to public and private sector leaders across the UK and Ireland— helping them unlock the full potential of AI securely, responsibly, and at scale.
Our approach is underpinned by:
Responsible AI by Design:
Through our partnership with Credo AI and our Responsible AI Board, we ensure that every AI solution is secure, compliant, ethical, and ready to scale.
AI Governance Leadership:
We provide expert guidance aligned with global standards, including the EU AI Act, helping customers maintain visibility and control over their AI systems.
AI Labs:
Our dedicated AI Labs explore cuttingedge technologies in collaboration with customers, supporting business case development with evidence, metrics, and real-world experience.
Our AI vision
We believe that AI is not just a technology, it’s a catalyst for reimagining how organisations operate, make decisions, and deliver value.
By combining AI with high- quality data, we accelerate productivity, boost efficiency, and enable better decision-making for sustained success
Proven Expertise:
Over 30 AI specialists and 170 data experts delivering 40+ AI prototypes and 20+ generative AI solutions across sectors.
End-to-End Delivery:
From proof-of- concept to deployment and governance, we support every stage of your AI journey.
Human-Centred Design:
We put users at the heart of every solution, ensuring AI enhances, not replaces human capability.
