The AI Pulse
Issue #67 — 23rd February 2026
Editor: Professor Alan Brown
This week’s AI Pulse is supported by Sopra Steria Next. For many, AI still feels unclear - complex, overhyped and hard to translate into real, responsible action. AI for Leaders is a three-part AI literacy course designed to create confidence for those in non-technical roles. Click the link below to find out more.
Highlights in this edition include:
AI for Good
Bold bet on AI to keep UK at forefront of science and research breakthroughs from healthcare, to better public services (GOV.UK) - The UK launches its first national AI strategy for research, aiming to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in healthcare and improve public services through smarter technology integration.
AI Digital Twins Are Helping People Manage Diabetes and Obesity (Wired) - Twin Health is using AI and wearable sensors to create digital copies of patients’ metabolisms, offering a potentially cheaper alternative to expensive diabetes drugs like Ozempic by helping people make real-time lifestyle changes.
Can AI Solve Failures in Your Supply Chain? (Towardsdatascience) - AI agents can now analyze supply chain data to pinpoint exactly where delays happen, helping companies stop the blame game between warehouse and transportation teams.
The scientist using AI to hunt for antibiotics just about everywhere (MIT Technology Review) - MIT scientist César de la Fuente is using AI to scour nature for new antibiotics, hunting everywhere from ancient organisms to unusual environments as drug-resistant infections become a growing global threat.
Bias and Ethics
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI (OECD) - Practical guidance to enterprises for implementing OECD standards on responsible business conduct (RBC) and the OECD AI Principles when developing and using AI.
Microsoft has a new plan to prove what’s real and what’s AI online (MIT Technology Review) - Microsoft is proposing that social media and AI companies adopt strict verification systems to distinguish real content from AI-generated material. However, the tech giant hasn’t committed to implementing these standards itself.
AI isn’t the risk — not being able to explain it is (CIO) - Leaders face a bigger AI challenge than system failures: they’re struggling to explain algorithmic decisions they’re accountable for, threatening organizational trust more than technical glitches ever could.
Cyber Security
Adding Fuel to the Fire: AI Information Threats and Crisis Events (Alan Turing Institute) - A report investigating the role AI information threats play during and after crisis events, and their potential impact on democratic stability.
Why 2025’s agentic AI boom is a CISO’s worst nightmare (CSO Online) - AI agents are getting powerful enough to use tools and remember past interactions, but security chiefs worry they could accidentally expose sensitive data or get hijacked by bad actors.
Data & Decision Making
When Every Company Can Use the Same AI Models, Context Becomes a Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review) - When AI models become commoditized, Harvard Business Review argues that companies will gain a competitive advantage from their unique organizational context—the actual workflows, judgment calls, and execution patterns that can’t be replicated by competitors.
A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era (oneusefulthing.org) - AI tools are evolving beyond simple chatbots into specialized agents that can handle complex tasks autonomously, making it crucial for business leaders to understand which AI fits their specific needs.
Insights from the AI Readiness Check (Apolitical) - In 2025, 5,000 public servants from 26 countries completed the Apolitical AI Readiness Check. This unique dataset provides a vital insight into the state of global public sector AI development, identifying areas of real progress and critical areas to strengthen capability.
Innovation & Collaboration
All the important news from the ongoing India AI Impact Summit (TechCrunch AI) - India is hosting a major four-day AI summit this week, bringing together executives from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants alongside government leaders to shape the country’s AI future.
DSIT study finds AI adoption is growing (UKAuthority) - A new government-commissioned study reveals that while UK businesses recognise the potential of artificial intelligence, adoption remains modest and uneven, with only 16% currently using AI technologies.
UK to champion how AI can supercharge growth, unlock new jobs and improve public services at AI Impact Summit in India (GOV.UK) - The UK is hosting an AI Impact Summit in India to showcase how artificial intelligence can boost economic growth, create new job opportunities, and make public services work better for citizens worldwide.
Rishi Sunak: Every CEO is talking about AI — why aren’t our leaders? (The Times) - Britain risks economic decline without leveraging AI to address its productivity crisis, presenting Prime Minister Starmer with a critical opportunity to drive technological transformation across government and industry.
Productivity & Efficiency
AI Agents Are Taking America by Storm (The Atlantic) - AI is evolving beyond simple chatbots into autonomous agents that can actually complete tasks for users, marking a significant shift in how we’ll interact with artificial intelligence in business and daily life.
The bogus four-day workweek that AI supposedly ‘frees up’ (The Guardian AI) - Business leaders are promising AI will create four-day workweeks, but workers may not see those benefits without collective bargaining power to claim their share of productivity gains.
Something Big Is Happening (Matt Shumer) - AI researcher Matt Shumer breaks down the current AI transformation for everyday people, explaining how these rapid changes will reshape work and daily life beyond the tech bubble.
The Financialization of AI is Just Beginning (The Economist) - This year, just five American tech giants are set to make $700bn-worth of capital expenditure, as investment in the data centres needed for artificial intelligence surges.
Singapore’s AI ROI Reality: High Spend, Hard Returns (TechRepublic) - Singapore companies are pouring money into AI projects but struggling to see clear returns, with success depending more on smart governance and cost management than simply cutting jobs.
AI in customer service: Not the cost-saver you think (CIO) - Gartner research shows AI isn’t actually eliminating customer service jobs as expected, challenging the widespread assumption that automation would slash support costs and headcount.
The UK should put AI to work to fix the broken link between work, health and productivity (PublicTechnology) - Former UK cabinet minister Chloe Smith advocates for leveraging AI technology to address workforce challenges, suggesting strategic deployment could simultaneously boost economic productivity and facilitate thousands of workers’ return to employment.
Why New Technologies Don’t Transform Incumbents (Harvard Business Review) - Incumbent companies adopting AI see only marginal gains because they optimize existing work rather than fundamentally redesigning organizational structures and coordination mechanisms to unlock AI’s transformative potential.
Regulation and Compliance
AI and the end of friction as a policy lever (Tom Loosemore) - AI could eliminate the bureaucratic friction that governments use to discourage people from accessing public services, forcing policymakers to confront whether they truly want citizens to receive the benefits they're legally entitled to.
EU slammed on global stage for overregulating AI (POLITICO) - The EU faced sharp criticism at a global summit in New Delhi, with international leaders pointing to Brussels’ AI regulations as a cautionary tale of bureaucratic overreach that could stifle innovation.
Can the government trust AI to answer citizens’ questions? (Civil Service World) - The UK government is grappling with how to deploy AI chatbots for citizen services while ensuring they prioritize official GOV.UK information over potentially unreliable sources online.
Shared infrastructure can enable sovereign AI – if we can make it trustworthy (WEF) - Shared AI infrastructure enables sovereign AI by expanding global access to compute. Success depends on strategic interdependence and building trust to ensure inclusive, resilient national growth.
The OECD’s new responsible AI guidance: A compass for businesses in a complex terrain (oecd.ai) - The OECD released new guidance to help businesses navigate AI risks and build more trustworthy systems that meet emerging global standards.
Sustainability
AI’s energy wake-up call (CIO) - AI’s massive energy appetite is forcing companies to rethink their automation plans, as power costs and infrastructure limits could make some AI projects too expensive to scale.
The Small English Town Swept Up in the Global AI Arms Race (Wired) - Residents of Potters Bar are fighting to protect London’s green countryside from tech companies wanting to build massive data centers for AI computing power.
User Experience
It is an ‘age of confusion’ as consultants try to measure the real value of AI (Business Insider) - Top consulting firms that rushed to deploy AI tools are now scrambling to figure out whether their multi-million dollar investments actually deliver measurable business results.
Thinking—Fast, Slow, and Artificial (Wharton Business School) - A study finds that people often stop thinking for themselves when using AI, a habit called “cognitive surrender.” This “System 3” AI can boost accuracy but also leads to overconfident, uncritical errors.
Workforce & Skills
Adopting AI is a major priority for businesses - but many are behind on education (TechRadar) - Companies are rushing to adopt AI, but workers at every level—including CEOs—lack the basic education needed to use these tools safely for cybersecurity.
Why AI Adoption Stalls, According to Industry Data (Harvard Business Review) - New research reveals that AI projects fail not from technical issues, but because employees use tools superficially when they’re anxious about job security—making adoption success more about psychology than technology.
The US Department of Labor’s Artificial Intelligence Literacy Framework (US Dept of Labor) - The US Labor Department has published its framework to guide nationwide artificial intelligence efforts across workforce and education systems with five foundational content areas and seven delivery principles for AI literacy.
The great computer science exodus (and where students are going instead) (TechCrunch) - Students are cooling on traditional computer science degrees but flocking to AI-focused programs instead, signaling a shift toward more specialized tech education that promises direct paths to today’s hottest job market.
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