Yesterday saw an exceptional gathering of UK smart data expertise for a day of highly stimulating and informative panels. As the Chatham House rule applied, I have summarised without attribution, but encourage you to look at the Smart Data Forum agenda to understand the level of expertise in the room. Huge thank you to Liz Brandt and the Ctrl-Shift team for making this happen, the timing could not have been better.

There was a huge amount of optimism in the room — that we are ‘at a transition moment’ where we could get this right, or miss opportunities, or create new risks.

As we are likely to do all of the above, we must to act now and work together to maximise the value for our society, our environment and our economy while addressing material risks. As I phrased it,

We can build on a critical mass, or end up in a critical mess.

We heard from digital identity providers about the huge growth and opportunities in the sector, from private sector companies that have seen ‘misuse’ of legal precedents to try and stop them adding value to consumers and workers, the scale of benefit to getting data interoperability right, and the risks that if we do not seize this moment to get data governance right then we are exposing ourselves, our economy and our country to systemic risks.

I wanted to summarise some of the key points from across the day, with a particular focus on the policy landscape, and what this means for us. The Government panel included a great cross-section of the ecosystem.

My main take-aways from the day are:

  1. We need to take a bold and broad view of data’s role in our economy, as part of our industrial strategy
  2. There are material opportunities to drive economic growth and improve market outcomes
  3. There is a critical need for a coherent policy approach to data
  4. Collaboration and coordination is essential, across government departments and with industry
  5. There are many government initiatives: Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, National Data Library and AI Action Plan (and more) that need to be connected
  6. Smart data policy is focusing on both customer and business data and we must align them, while letting each address their own needs
  7. The upcoming smart data bill will give government powers to introduce smart data schemes in any sector
  8. There is need to support strategy development with new ministers, and input is being actively sought now
  9. Initiatives should be impact and value-led with a focus on user needs, not ‘tech-led’
  10. Without robust, scalable and flexible data governance we will create new risks (especially with AI)
  11. Smart data schemes are important for both consumer empowerment and market competition
  12. Open Banking continues to be an exemplar
  13. We must address the regulatory foundations, costs and incentives in the development of any Schemes
  14. We must balance data protection with data access and innovation
  15. Trust is central to development and investment is needed in capacity and capabilities
  16. We must coordinate and collaborate with international initiatives, some of which are very well funded (e.g. the EU has invested €1B in Data Spaces)

Everyone in the room sees the potential of smart data initiatives to drive innovation and economic growth. There was also good acknowledgement of the complexities and challenges in implementing such schemes effectively. For example, there are material economic and societal risks of ‘corporate capture’ (e.g. castle-moat behaviours) and that it’s not a ‘technology problem’ (we have the tech today).

The design principles that we put in place now must:
1. Act to provide clarity (e.g. roadmaps) so everyone can plan
2. Act now: the time for theory is over
3. Address the (timely, material) risks of known unknowns

My policy view is that the UK has:

  1. A comprehensive approach. It is cross-departmental and recognises the value of policy and regulation as catalysts to economic growth, service improvements, and legal protections.
  2. A foundational legislative framework. Primary and secondary legislation will provide powers to introduce smart data schemes across sectors and create a foundation for data schemes across the economy.
  3. An emergent approach to balancing priorities of data protection and security with the innovation and economic growth. The development of Trust Frameworks and Schemes, done well, should increase data access and portability while addressing risks of many forms.
  4. A sector-based approach. It recognises that different sectors must own and shape their own destinies, while enforcing cohesion and interoperability across the legislative spectrum.
  5. An understanding of the need for public-private action. Smart Data Schemes are powerful tools that can enforce these and must include:
    • Mandated participation
    • Mandatory interoperability between schemes
    • Regulatory oversight
    • Clarification on costs
    • Clarification on incentives (positive and negative)
    • Flexibility to adapt to market changes

There was general acknowledgement of the scale of the task ahead: multi-stakeholder engagement, alignment on language, building skills and capabilities, the articulation of material benefits, and the demonstration of impact to build trust, systemically and carefully, over time.

There is a growing public expectation of data portability, and we must align policy and their implementation with this culture change.

The foundation of open markets is transparency. The foundation of a digitally-enabled economy is interoperability. As such we must base our approach on open systems, and design for open.

The UK has led the world with initiatives such as Open Banking. It has, in some opinions, fallen behind over subsequent years. My opinion is the UK is ‘connected’ enough that it can rapidly redress this and, once again, accelerate to a leadership position. It has exceptional skills that can navigate the complex landscape of data rights and technological change to deliver economic, environmental and social benefits.

We must address the market architecture for an open (digitally-enabled) economy.

From a business perspective, I believe business leaders must now address data sharing at board level. Data isn’t ‘a technology’ — it makes markets.

I’ve long advocated that data increases in value the more it is connected. The imperative is, therefore, to reduce the friction to such connections. Smart Data Schemes can enable this at market-wide scale.

Businesses should understand that:

  • Smart Data schemes will open up new opportunities for innovation and market entry
  • preparation is needed for upcoming regulations and potential costs of scheme participation
  • there is huge potential for cross-sector data applications and new product/service development
  • that customer data portability and security will increase in importance
  • there is a value in engaging with policymakers and investing in technologies to leverage smart data initiatives

The room was under no illusion that there are many material challenges. There will be a process of ‘creative destruction’, new threat vectors and many incumbent interests that will not want to address this systems change.

However, the ship is now leaving the port, the time for theory is over: time to act is now.

If you’d like to get in touch or follow progress, please connect on LinkedIn: Icebreaker One or directly with me, or join our mailing list.