Business & Technology
One in five UK firms move AI workloads abroad over power costs
One in five British firms have moved AI workloads out of the UK because of high power costs, according to research commissioned by CUDO Compute, adding to concerns about the country’s ability to keep more AI activity on home soil.
The survey covered more than 700 senior AI decision-makers across the UK, US and Europe, including 200 in the UK. Among UK respondents, 33% said energy costs were limiting their ability to scale AI operations, while 43% said cost and performance outweighed sovereignty when deciding where to deploy AI.
The findings suggest the UK’s push for AI sovereignty is running up against infrastructure constraints. Businesses may want to keep workloads in domestic or regional markets, but power prices, available land and access to grid capacity are proving more decisive.
Geopolitics is also shaping deployment choices. Among UK respondents, 46% said geopolitical instability was pushing them to keep AI workloads within home markets, compared with 36% across the full sample.
Even so, commercial pressures remain strong. Almost a third of UK organisations (32%) said they were actively considering relocating workloads due to geopolitical pressures, while 45% said data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, or national security concerns were shaping their AI deployment strategy. At the same time, 31% said they were prioritising sovereign or regionally controlled compute even at a higher cost.
Where Workloads Go
When asked which markets looked most attractive for new AI cluster capacity, respondents ranked the US highest, with 72% viewing it positively. India followed at 62% and Eastern Europe at 58%.
Eastern Europe ranked ahead of Western Europe at 45% and the Nordics at 44%. China scored 55%, ahead of Latin America at 40%, the Middle East at 39%, Africa at 38% and APAC at 29%.
The pressure appears sharper for businesses that depend more heavily on compute. Among AI-first businesses, 32% said they would consider moving workloads overseas because of power costs, compared with 18% of enterprise organisations.
That gap suggests companies running the most demanding AI systems may be quickest to shift work to lower-cost locations when domestic operating conditions worsen. For policymakers, it highlights the challenge of matching AI ambitions with the industrial base needed to support them.
Infrastructure Strain
The findings reflect a broader issue in the AI market: infrastructure supply is constrained not only by access to chips and software, but also by physical requirements such as land, energy, cooling and grid access. In that context, electricity costs become a central part of the cost of compute.
CUDO Compute commissioned the research with Censuswide as part of its Land. Power. Compute report. Respondents included decision-makers responsible for AI workload and infrastructure decisions, budget input, vendor selection or active deployment planning. The sample included enterprise businesses with turnover above GBP £50 million and AI-first companies with turnover above GBP £1 million.
Matt Hawkins, chief executive of CUDO Compute, said the UK risked a widening gap between policy goals and operational reality if it did not address infrastructure constraints.
“AI sovereignty is being hotly discussed as a priority for UK organisations, but it only works if the infrastructure exists to support it,” Hawkins said. “What we are seeing is a growing tension between where businesses want to run AI and where they actually can.”
“AI is not abstract software. It is physical infrastructure that depends on power, land, cooling and grid access. When those constraints tighten, economics take over. If it is cheaper or easier to run workloads elsewhere, they will move, regardless of sovereignty ambitions.”
“Right now, every UK boardroom is talking about AI, but almost nobody is talking about the infrastructure needed to power it. Until we close that gap, there will continue to be a disconnect between policy, ambition and reality. The countries that solve this first will shape the future of AI, and the UK still has a window to lead, but it needs to act quickly.”
As reported, liquidators have been appointed to wind down Witney-based Sherwood Kitchens Limited having been founded 24 years ago.
The business, in the town’s High Street, was set up by Steve and Bobby Pidsley in 2002 and specialises in kitchen design, supply, and installation.
Steve’s son Robert Pidsley has set up a new company Kiss Kitchens and Doors Ltd, reportedly operating from the same place as Sherwood Kitchens.
One disgruntled former customer of Sherwood Kitchens claimed Steve told them that ‘Kiss’ stands for ‘Keep it Simple Stupid’.
She said she found the new name “very disrespectful to customers” and added: “[Steve] told me moving forward he would only take cash or bank transfers and sent me his bank details.
“He said that if I wanted my £1,400 it would be £1 a week or month via the liquidation company. He hasn’t paid shop staff nor paid redundancy to them.”
Another source alleged: “Sherwood Kitchens made two members of staff redundant with immediate affect on January 31, 2026 owing them both the wages for the hours they worked in January, redundancy pay and redundancy notice pay.
“They have also not had any pension contributions since October 2025 despite contributions being taken out of their wages.”
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Former Sherwood Kitchens director Steve said: “Due to the current economic climate, Sherwood Kitchens Ltd has had to go into liquidation so two staff and four family members are seeking redundancy.
“We are a local business and local people and want to do the right thing by our customers and staff.
“With that in mind, Sherwood Kitchens Ltd is in liquidation.”
UK company administrations surged 52 per cent between February and March to 235, and were 82 per cent higher when compared with March 2025, while compulsory liquidations jumped 18 per cent.
Experts have previously warned the underlying picture is worrying for businesses as cost pressures bite.
Steve said that Kiss Kitchens and Doors Ltd is a new business in his son 36-year-old son Robert’s name and has “nothing to do with” Sherwood Kitchens.
Robert remains a director at Sherwood Kitchens, Companies House records show.
“But he will be honouring all Sherwood Kitchens guaranteed work,” the 61-year-old added.
“We also managed to complete all jobs outstanding without them paying any extra money with the exception of one who we offered to complete, but she decided to claim back her deposit.
“We even managed to pay a proportion of outstanding wages in cash out of our own pockets.
“Going forward after this terrible start of the year we are confident my son will be able to make Kiss Kitchen’s and doors into a successful local brand.”
An application has been submitted to Cherwell District Council, the planning authority, to install two Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points at Lidl, the German supermarket in Launton Road.
J Butterworth Planning and Parco Civil Engineering & Groundworks Ltd prepared the application on behalf of Lidl GB.
The plan proposes installing two EV charger upstands and associated feeder pillar cabinet and car parking layout amendments to provide charging for four electric vehicles.
Each Terra 60 EV Charger will be capable of charging two vehicles and will be 1,210mm in width, 2,215mm in height and 656mm in depth.
The proposed W2 GRP Walk-In Cabinet will be 2m in width, 2m in height and 1m in depth.
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Planning permission for the 1,616sqm site was granted in 2010 and allowed for 75 car parking spaces but with the installation of two EV charging spots, there will be a loss of two spaces to 73
Lidl hosts one of the highest proportions of rapid charges in the retail sector, supporting the Governments goal of installing 300,000 public EV charge points by 2030.
Comments are due on the council’s planning portal until Friday, May 1, and a decision is expected by Friday, May 15.
Revolut has launched an in-app artificial intelligence assistant called AI by Revolut, joining a broader push by banks and fintech groups towards conversational banking.
The assistant, known as AIR, lets customers ask questions about their money by text or voice within the Revolut app. It is designed to handle routine account tasks such as breaking down spending, freezing a lost card, and helping users plan a travel budget without requiring them to navigate multiple menu screens.
The launch puts Revolut alongside other financial groups that are shifting user interaction away from fixed app navigation and towards natural language prompts. Starling has also introduced an AI assistant in its banking app, while payments groups are developing tools that allow software agents to complete transactions on customers’ behalf.
Shift in interface
The change reflects a broader redesign of digital finance products. Rather than asking users to choose functions from menus and tabs, banks are increasingly building chat-based interfaces that aim to complete tasks once a customer describes what they want.
That approach is now spreading beyond customer service. In banking apps, conversational tools are being positioned as a way to manage budgeting, subscriptions, card controls and account information. In payments, the same model is emerging in systems that allow AI agents to discover products, make selections and complete checkout steps.
Visa has outlined a platform intended to connect merchants with AI shopping agents through a single integration. The concept points to a market in which customers could instruct software to reorder household goods or complete routine purchases, while established payment networks continue to process the underlying transaction.
Other parts of the sector are making similar changes. Business payments platform Melio has introduced an AI assistant for accountants and small companies that answers questions about bills, vendors and cash flow. At the same time, the Bank of America has developed an internal AI tool for staff in its global payments operation.
Competitive pressure
For consumer finance groups, the race to introduce conversational services is also becoming a competitive issue. Apps that reduce the number of steps required to complete common tasks may improve customer retention, particularly as digital banks compete on ease of use as much as on price and product range.
Revolut’s move comes as fintech groups try to make their apps the main place where customers manage day-to-day finances. By embedding an assistant that can answer questions and perform simple actions, Revolut is trying to keep users within its system for a larger share of their money-management tasks.
The stakes go beyond convenience. If conversational tools become the standard way to interact with banking and payments services, the companies that control those interfaces could gain greater influence over customer behaviour, product discovery and transaction flow.
Regulatory focus
Supervisors are also paying closer attention to the use of AI in finance. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority has begun examining how agentic AI could reshape retail financial services and affect consumers and markets. In the US, authorities have issued guidance intended to help financial institutions manage AI-related risk.
That scrutiny reflects a core concern across the sector. As banks and fintech groups move more customer activity into AI-led systems, they must show that the tools can operate safely, protect data and give users confidence that tasks are being completed correctly.
Privacy is likely to remain central to that debate, particularly as conversational systems sit between customers and sensitive financial information. The more these assistants are used for payments, transfers and account management, the more questions will arise about data handling, audit trails and accountability when something goes wrong.
For now, the most immediate effect is a visible change in how financial products are designed. The app screen is becoming less a map of buttons and more a prompt box, as banks and payments companies bet that customers will increasingly prefer to type or say what they need rather than search for the right feature.
Taken together, these shifts suggest that, for many routine tasks, natural language may become the main interface for digital money services.
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