Scotland’s AI Strategy 2026-2031
Adoption of AI across Scottish industries and businesses is accelerating at speed – our work exploring and implementing AI in EiB is a prime example of this. The Scottish Government has responded to its wider adoption by setting out Scotland’s AI Strategy 2026–2031. This strategy recognises that the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) depends on both strong digital and physical infrastructure. While the strategy focuses on economic growth, public services and the responsible use of AI, it repeatedly highlights the expansion of digital infrastructure in Scotland as an enabling factor in delivering these ambitions.
The purpose of the strategy is: “To harness the potential of AI to drive responsible and inclusive growth across our economy and make a positive difference at every level of society.”
There is no doubt that the Scottish Government’s investment in compute capability, data centres, renewable energy supply and digital systems support will shape the scale at which AI infrastructure can be developed and used across sectors in Scotland.
Infrastructure as a foundation for AI adoption
The strategy is explicit that Scotland’s AI capability depends on an integrated set of enabling layers that must function together if it’s going to be adopted effectively.
In more detail, the strategy introduces an ‘AI Stack’ model which sets out interdependent layers that will combine to deliver social and economic good. It specifically brings together:
- Users
- AI Adoption & Skills
- Companies & Products
- Innovation & R&D
- Data Centres & Infrastructure
- Semiconductors
What does this model mean?
Scotland’s digital infrastructure will be heavily supported by layers 1-4 which focus on building transparency, confidence and trust with Users, successful AI adoption and upskilling by organisations, producing world-leading AI companies and products, and funding AI related research and development in universities and colleges. Layers 5 and 6 in this model explicitly emphasise both a current and future increase in demand for digital infrastructure in Scotland such as data centres and microprocessor technologies.
Compute infrastructure and data centres
A particular focus of the strategy is the availability of AI compute capability. It recognises that advanced AI systems are resource-intensive and depend on high-performance computing infrastructure to operate at scale.
There’s a clear example of infrastructure investment in this area; the AI Growth Zone in North Lanarkshire. The plan for this major development is to support large-scale AI deployment and attract further investment. The strategy details how this will result in AI-enabled economic transformation. That’s looking like new industries, jobs and opportunities for the surrounding areas. Alongside this there are already facilities supporting AI research and innovation include existing national assets, such as supercomputing infrastructure hosted by universities. All of these examples are going to support the strategy’s focus to access AI compute capability in Scotland.
Infrastructure, resilience and public services
A strong digital infrastructure is essential to the resilience and reliability of AI-enabled public services. The increasing use of AI across health, emergency care and public administration places more demand on dependable digital and physical infrastructure. This demand and reliance is only going to increase. Therefore the strategy is looking to see wider public sector reform through digitisation and automation, emphasising the expectation for infrastructure changes to support secure and continuous service delivery.
To bring this back to strategic work winning, the strategy doesn’t define specific procurement mechanisms. But it does indicate that new infrastructure must support responsible long-term deployment, governance, oversight and monitoring of AI systems over time. For example, the recent £900million Healthcare AI Solutions procurement by the NHS in England is an indication of what we can expect from the public healthcare commissioners in Scotland. For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
How can EiB help you prepare for Scotland’s AI infrastructure pipeline?
Scotland’s AI Strategy points to a growing pipeline of infrastructure activity linked to AI adoption, including investment in compute capacity, data centres, energy-enabled facilities and the digital systems that support AI in public services and in industry.
EiB is exploring how commitments set out in the strategy are translating into commissioning models and emerging procurement opportunities. We’re keeping an eye on the developments mentioned in the strategy including the AI Growth Zone, large-scale compute infrastructure, and public sector reform.