Industry reaction to Wednesday’s King’s Speech has been broadly positive across automation, AI, cyber security, and technology sectors, with leaders highlighting a stronger focus on digital infrastructure, cyber resilience, and industrial capability as supportive of long-term automation-led growth.
The speech set out more than 35 bills and draft bills including realigning legislation with the EU, introducing digital IDs, encouraging more nuclear energy generation, and fast tracking green energy infrastructure.
Cyber security and industrial resilience remained central themes throughout the King’s Speech, with the Government recommitting to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.
The Bill, which had its first reading in November 2025, aims to strengthen the UK’s cyber defences and resilience to hostile attacks by ensuring the infrastructure relied on by UK companies is protected. It will also introduce compulsory ransomware reporting and bring data centres into scope by classifying them as an essential service.
Cyber Security and Resilience
“We know AI is changing the threat environment at speed with hostile state and criminal actors using automation and AI to identify vulnerabilities and scale attacks, faster than humans,” said Rob Demain, CEO of threat detection company e2e-assure. “The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill should be seen as part of a much bigger message: Britain’s security increasingly depends on the capability it can build, control and scale at home.”
Demain added that the UK already has a strong domestic cyber security base comprising 2,603 active firms, which between them generated £14.7bn in revenue last year, up 11%, on 2004. “The capability is here, the question is whether procurement and policy now back it as a strategic national asset,” he said.
Graeme Stewart, Head of Public Sector at cyber security specialist Check Point, agreed.
“Ramping up AI security legislation is an absolute must, especially when the technology can so easily be hijacked by hostile foreign powers and cyber criminals to attack our banks, hospitals and public services,” he said.
“As the Government outlines its priorities in the King’s Speech, the continued focus on cyber security and digital resilience is both welcome and necessary,” added Jennifer Holmes, CEO of internet infrastructure provider Linx Net.
Regulating for Growth
Another key piece of legislation included in the King’s Speech was a Regulating for Growth Bill, which is designed to improve the way the UK regulatory system fosters growth by requiring regulators overseeing areas such as the environment and health and safety to prioritise economic growth and investment.
Leigh Thomas, Vice President of EMEA at financial technology platform Intuit, said the Regulating for Growth Bill could help accelerate trusted AI adoption and support the UK’s ambition to become an AI-confident economy.
“Among the 70% UK businesses now using AI, 43% report increased revenue, more than a quarter have reduced their costs, and a similar proportion say it is shortening their working day,” he said.
However, he added that only 7% of firms have embedded AI into core day-to-day processes at scale – significantly behind the US and Canada where that number is closer to 12%.
Nationalising British Steel
As previously announced by the government, the King’s Speech also includes measures to give the Secretary of State powers to transfer ownership of the country’s key steel manufacturing plant into public ownership if it is in the public interest.
The announcement follows months of government control over operations at the Scunthorpe plant in Scunthorpe, where emergency intervention was used to keep blast furnaces running.
Cara Haffey, Leader of Industry for Industrials and Services at PwC, added: “Measures to safeguard domestic steel production and invest in major infrastructure reflect the growing recognition of industrial sectors as strategic national assets, underpinning supply chain resilience and competitiveness,” she said.
Future uncertainty
But, with Prime Minister Kier Starmer increasingly under pressure from a leadership challenge, bosses may worry that the government’s legislative agenda could well change in the coming months.
“The British people expect the Government to get on with the job of changing our country for the better,” Starmer said, adding priorities including “keeping our country safe in an increasingly dangerous world.”
