1st March 2026

This month we are looking at the UK’s AI readiness. The UK government spends £26 billion every year on digital technology. It employs nearly 100,000 digital and data professionals. It has been running large-scale digital transformation programmes for over thirty years. Given all of that investment and accumulated experience, what percentage of the government's major technology programmes were assessed as "Green" (i.e., successful delivery is considered highly likely) in the government's own review, published in January 2025?

Have a guess. How about 70%? 50%? 30%?

The answer is 9%.

Less than one in ten. And those same technology programmes are 60% more likely to be rated "Red" (i.e., successful delivery is considered highly at risk) than non-technology projects sitting alongside them in the same portfolio.