GUEST COLUMN:
Ben Lucas
CEO
Amundi Technology
Growing up in North Wales, I confess I hadn’t imagined I would one day be running a global technology business. For years, high-skilled digital roles were something people assumed were based elsewhere – London, Paris, New York – and certainly not something they imagined building a career around at home. But in the last five years, much of that has changed. And as artificial intelligence reshapes the global economy, the challenge now is not whether North Wales can catch up, but how can it find its edge.
In my own line of work – providing AI-enabled technology solutions to the financial services industry – we’ve seen how quickly assumptions are being overturned. Data centres were not long ago described as the “oil fields of the future”, but then we saw the narrative pivot almost immediately post-DeepSeek. The infrastructure requirements we once thought immovable are no longer as fixed as they seemed.
And this matters because North Wales has a genuinely strong hand to play. The region has high-quality fibre-optic infrastructure and is already digitally distributed in a way many countries and regions would envy. We’re not just talking about comparisons with London. This is about how we compare globally, and on that front, North Wales has a real opportunity.
AI is already making an impact across sectors. In healthcare, social care, manufacturing and beyond, the most forward-looking organisations are not asking how to bolt on AI to what they do. They’re stepping back and asking a different question: what would it mean to reimagine what we do with AI at the core of it?
Too often, we mistake speed or automation for transformation. Taking a broken process and running it slightly faster with the help of AI is not transformation. It’s duct tape. The real change happens when you fundamentally rethink what you’re offering – what it could look like if you built it for this era. That mindset shift is where the greatest opportunities lie.
For North Wales, this means building on strengths that already exist. It also means investing time and energy into supporting startups that are genuinely innovating. That support can take many forms. The first – and most obvious – is funding. Startups don’t plan for the long term the way corporates do. They need capital now to test ideas, build teams and deliver. But just as important is convening power: the ability to bring people together, build partnerships and share challenges.
The most effective ecosystems are those where public and private sector leaders work together. In North Wales, that means developing a shared narrative about what the region can offer. The fundamentals are there – energy assets, fibre infrastructure, strong academic institutions – but unless we tell that story clearly and ambitiously, others will do it for us.
And time is not on our side. AI is not something that might change things in five or ten years. It is changing them now. The only question is whether you – and your organisation – choose to be part of that change or whether it will happen without you.
That’s why this matters so much to me. Because I know the talent exists in North Wales. I see the potential for a generation of young people to play a central role in shaping this next wave of change. But it will take effort – from schools, from government, from business – to support them.
AI won’t wait. But with the right mindset, North Wales can help define what comes next.
