CAIO Weeknote #35
Launch news, new faces, and why creating the right conditions for people matters as much as the technology.
I’m changing up my weeknote formatting.
Some of the same tasks span different days, so I want to avoid repetition, whilst sharing the long list of work we get up to, but really dive into the more interesting parts in more detail. Any feedback welcome.
Our big news item: we launched the AI Summit Save the Date and call for exhibitors this week.
LCR AI Summit 2026
Liverpool City Region AI Summit is back with a special showcase of ideas, innovation, collaboration and conversation shaping the future of AI ✨
Taking place at the award-winning Liverpool Experience Campus (previously ACC Liverpool), on the iconic Mersey waterfront, the third annual summit will bring together leaders from industry, academia, healthcare, education, government and the wider tech community on Tuesday, 27 October 2026.
The summit will explore how AI is already making a real difference across society, from public services, supporting businesses, healthcare, education and smart places/cities. The event will also showcase several major AI Programme initiatives currently being explored across the Liverpool City Region.
There will be keynote sessions, panel discussions and a vibrant exhibition space featuring pioneering organisations, emerging technologies, and cutting-edge AI solutions from the City Region and beyond. The event will also provide plenty of opportunities for networking and collaboration throughout the day.
Whether you work in AI, are exploring its potential, or simply want to get a better understanding of where the technology is heading, register your interest in attending the summit now and be the first to hear about registration and programme announcements.
Here’s the link to the webpage to register interest to attend.
We also put out the call for exhibitors:
We’re looking for brilliant organisations who want to showcase their AI products at the summit on Tuesday 27 October at Liverpool Experience Campus (LEX) - previously ACC Liverpool.
We are interested in organisations that are helping shape the future of AI in meaningful, impactful and responsible ways.
If you are developing AI technologies, leading research, delivering innovative projects, or driving important conversations around the future of AI, we’d love for you to apply.
We are particularly interested in organisations delivering/supporting:
- Health and Social Care
- Education
- Transport solutions
- Ethical and responsible AI
- Digital inclusion and accessibility
- Smart places/cities and public services
- Business innovation and productivity
- Sustainability and emerging technologies
In other news:
AI Test Bed
We have kicked off our work on the governance and planning for our AI Test Bed. We’re looking to develop a system and process for rapid prototyping that will involve our brilliant universities, STFC Hartree, local businesses, young people and residents to evolve services we need in the region and allow businesses to commercialise products and services built.
We’re interviewing the appropriate teams internally and key regional stakeholders and looking at good examples of other test beds from South Korea to Sweden, from the NHS to Connected Catapult.
If you know of any good public/private sector AI Test Bed examples we want to hear from you.
Future Regional Skills
We are working to understand our future skills needs in the region over the next 3-5 years to be able to better serve emerging talent in the region and work towards future-proofing future talent as much as we can.
We’ve begun this week with interviews with our universities: Hope University, University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University to test appetite for new ways of working.
The Conditions for Innovation in the Age of AI
I had a brilliant conversation this week with Caroline from our Office for Public Sector Innovation, where I shared the recent interest in my call for the need for leadership psychology in the age of AI for innovation.
It started from a panel I was on at techUK’s national conference a few weeks ago where smart colleagues were calling for the need for public servants to take more risks. I extolled that the way in which we can enable more risks to be taken was through creating better conditions for innovation, with constructive dissent being the biggest lever with psychological safety, the ability to challenge leadership and ourselves to help the organisation.
With Caroline, I recalled working with the BBC, where I wrote their guidance for the 12 biggest questions they had for product transformation and how to enable that from a people perspective. The same rationales still stand, and it seems there is evermore interest in helping people with the necessary changes that AI is bringing to the workplace.
Operationalising the conditions for employee voice, helping leaders and organisations create the conditions to motivate, inspire and reward people to speak up is a critical component and the focus of my capstone dissertation, writing the course for this. More than this, helping people to navigate change and quickly build trust is also key. I will look at how to operationalise this outside of working hours and see where I can bring it into my team and the LCR where appropriate.
Day-to-day work tasks
Running the AI Programme Team
Orientation call with new team starter Lisa, our permanent Project Support Officer, we’re delighted to have her on board.
Negotiating support for more Project Managers for my team from both the PMO and Digital Services
Speaker briefing for an event at the Danish Embassy, I’m speaking at the week after next
Speaker briefing for Global AI Cities that I’m speaking at next week
Developing our Smart Place Strategy planning event with EY
Presentation development for speaking events for the next two weeks
121 calls with my Director, Lorna, for updates, support and steering
Team discussion on our data centre planning and climate, welcoming our new Director for Clean Energy and Net Zero, Andy King
Calls with potential suppliers
We say goodbye this week to brilliant part-time team member Isobel Cromby-White and wish her well in her bright future career in tech
In other news, released this week from UK GOV:
Skills for AI: What works for AI upskilling in the UK - GOV.UK
Events that I’m speaking at - coming up
16-17 June: Global AI Cities 2026, Manchester
10 Sept: Connected Britain, London
10 Nov: Brilliant Festival, Liverpool
Tiffany St James
Chief AI Officer, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority