A breakneck race to adopt AI is underway, with the smallest startups through to the largest enterprises kickstarting initiatives to train up their employees. But how do you go about upskilling an entire country?
Facing brain drain and a digital skills gap, this is a question recently grappled with by the digital department of the Isle of Man. The crown dependency, an island nestled between the UK and Ireland, is a relatively small territory – but opening training to its 85,000 citizens is no mean feat.
AI skills and GDP growth
Launched in September 2024, an AI-upskilling initiative called Activate AI forms part of the territory’s efforts to more deeply embed tech into its economy.
“The goal of the programme is to increase productivity on the island,” says Lyle Wraxall, the chief executive at Digital Isle of Man. “We want to increase GDP by 10% by 2030 through productivity gains.”
While the Isle of Man was once known as a hotspot for its low tax regime and sometimes controversial offshore finance practices, it has more recently worked to build a digital ecosystem. Its efforts so far have mostly focused on various e-gaming and cryptocurrency businesses, but to encourage a more broad approach to the digital economy, the Isle of Man now hosts a yearly Innovation Challenge, a startup competition in which new cleantech, fintech, design and AI businesses pitch themselves to a panel of judges. It is also working to create data asset foundations, an initiative with legislative backing to turn data assets into financial instruments.
And then there’s Activate AI, designed to equip all of its citizens with AI skills. “It’s really important that you have a diverse tech ecosystem if you’re going to make something of it,” says Wraxall.
Making sure no one’s left behind
Here in the UK, there’s a growing feeling in the halls of power that workers and businesses must urgently adapt to the new AI reality. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought to entwine AI with the inner workings of government, while Peter Kyle, the tech secretary, recently warned that citizens could be “left behind” if they do not upskill now.
Local industry figures have warned that a lack of digital skills on the Isle of Man was hampering the territory’s growth. In a recent survey, 80% of businesses also said they believed young people lacked the skills needed to succeed. And the number of those young people leaving the island has also led to an “extreme” population imbalance as well as recruitment difficulties.
We want to increase GDP by 10% by 2030 through productivity gains
For the island’s inhabitants, AI could potentially help fill those gaps. “If our businesses don’t focus on streamlining their organisations and adopt these productivity tools, they’re going to be uncompetitive in the global market,” Wraxall says. “Most of our businesses, given our size, need to export and they need to compete globally as well. It’s really important that they have those capabilities and skills.”
So on buses and billboards throughout the island the government advertises daily AI upskilling sessions. For those who can’t attend in person, there’s also an online training portal.
How Activate AI works
Activate AI launched with courses designed to teach participants the AI fundamentals, where students could play around with the tooling or learn basic ChatGPT features.
Now more specialised courses are also available, such as guides for building AI into business strategies or how to embed the technology into customer service.
Attendees might come along to sessions that teach them how to manage AI complexity, make use of machine learning in finance or build better governance for executives using AI. Each course tends to run five or six times before being swapped for a new topic, with so-called activation partners – volunteers from the island’s business community – helping to devise the curriculum.
The barrier to entry for AI is much lower than traditional office software like Excel, adds Wraxall. Yet, “sometimes you need people to try AI in their everyday lives before they believe in it.”
So although the initiative aims to boost the island’s business productivity, sessions are open to all. And they have been well-attended to date, with capacity for up to 60 people for each session.
“We’ve been completely open. Even if you’re retired or at school, you can come to these events. Similarly, it doesn’t matter what type of business you are, as long you’re based on the Isle of Man, you can come along,” says Wraxall.
“One of our biggest challenges is having enough talent and people to be able to grow our businesses,” adds Wraxall. “If we can drive productivity in those businesses, we can then upskill and get people into other, more effective areas for those businesses and enable further growth.”
Whether the initiative will help to nail that ambitious target of 10% GDP growth is another question – but even if not, at least the island’s residents will be prepared for a future that its government is certain will be a digital one.
A breakneck race to adopt AI is underway, with the smallest startups through to the largest enterprises kickstarting initiatives to train up their employees. But how do you go about upskilling an entire country?
Facing brain drain and a digital skills gap, this is a question recently grappled with by the digital department of the Isle of Man. The crown dependency, an island nestled between the UK and Ireland, is a relatively small territory – but opening training to its 85,000 citizens is no mean feat.
