With Paula on leave this week, I’m thrilled to be stepping in to write my very first ‘View from the Top’. I have big shoes to fill but with so many exciting developments across LCRIG, I’ve had no shortage of things to talk about.
After a short but restorative break last week, I came back to the team refreshed and ready to dive into the final preparations for the 2025 LCRIG Innovation and Learning Festival. Everyone is so excited, and we can’t wait to see lots of familiar faces in July!
The Sector Insights team has been hard at work behind the scenes on the agenda for the Innovation Think Pavilion, which will include a strong focus on AI. Some highlights include:
‘Roadside Assistance Required: When Your AI Gets Tricked at 70mph’ – a session on cybersecurity from the Cyberfutures Team at National Highways. This promises to be an eye-opening and not to be missed discussion.
‘AI and trust’ – exploring the thornier issues of AI and its adoption.
‘Unlocking Safer Roads: Can AI Be Our Ultimate Ally?’ – an interactive session that will look at how AI can, could or should be used for safety inspections.
After last year’s jam-packed sessions, we expect this year’s to be very popular again. These sessions will form part of the future work LCRIG undertakes around AI, just as last year’s session on AI laid the foundation for the work that we are now undertaking.
Following on from the ‘Introduction to AI’ LCRIG webinar a couple of weeks ago (which was a huge success), I reflected on the discussions that took place between the panel members. I spent the week writing and editing LCRIG’s first factsheet. Not an easy job as you might imagine, and it was important to make sure we get the tone and style right, so a big thank you to the AI Task Group for their comments.
The first factsheet ‘Introduction to AI’ aims to complement the webinar, providing a foundational knowledge of AI for local authorities and supply chains before we build on other more in-depth themes. The factsheet delves into definitions of the different types of AI, provides an overview of applications, and discusses some of the barriers. We hope to release this very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
Following the release of our first factsheet, I will be undertaking more research surrounding AI in road condition inspections, road safety, and cybersecurity. This work will support the development of additional factsheets, which will align with the ongoing work of the AI Task Group and complement its activities and webinars. Our next webinar topic will be AI in Cybersecurity, and details of the webinar will be announced soon. You can register your interest here.
Paula and I are also on the lookout for local authority use cases, so if your council is trialing or embedding AI in any form, we’d love to hear from you. Your experience could be instrumental in helping others understand both the opportunities and the realities of AI in Highways.
Finally, we are also now working on the finishing touches to the LCRIG Innovation Report, a landmark publication setting the agenda for highways and transport innovation across the UK. A limited number of exclusive advertising opportunities will be available for members. If you’re interested in featuring in the report, please get in touch.
Karla Shorrock, Researcher