Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what purposes the Competition and Markets Authority has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is as the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.

Internally, the Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) works with AI in two important and mutually reinforcing ways.

Firstly, the CMA carries out research into AI – including hands-on technical work – to ensure it has a strong technical understanding of frontier technologies, can assess their implications for consumers and competition, and ensure its work helps unlock the AI opportunity for the UK.

Secondly, the CMA pilots and implements uses of AI internally as part of its digital transformation, with the aims of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the CMA’s frontline work, horizon scanning, cases and investigations – as well as to transform day-to-day operational productivity.

Over the last 12 months the CMA has used AI in a range of ways to serve these purposes. This includes testing off-the-shelf AI tools for day-to-day operational productivity and cyber security, as well as developing and piloting more bespoke in-house applications of generative AI to support horizon scanning, market monitoring, and analysis on cases and investigations.

The CMA draws on a range of resources to inform its use of AI including internal and external expertise from across academia, industry, international counterparts and the wider public sector. This includes utilising resources on GOV.UK, such as the Generative AI Framework, and liaising with the Government Digital Service and the Department for Business and Trade.