Increasing the cost and ease of UK visas for AI experts is the top recommendation on the UK government's list of new measures to encourage foreign investment, particularly in the tech and machine learning sectors.The "AI Opportunities Action Plan," which venture capitalist Matt Clifford just presented, has hundreds of suggestions for creating a more enticing environment for large tech firms. Naturally, artificial intelligence is at the forefront of the IT community's conversation, and as such, Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has reaffirmed that AI is being given priority in the government's growth goal.

Filling the gap-There’s a significant skills shortage in the UK, and getting a visa is time consuming and costs over £1,000 through the global talent visa - and Clifford is not the only one calling for changes to the process.

Venture capitalist Matt Clifford recently submitted the "AI Opportunities Action Plan," which includes hundreds of suggestions for creating a more enticing environment for large tech firms. According to Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, artificial intelligence is being given priority in the government's growth goal since it is, of course, at the forefront of the IT industry's conversation.“I want to see the Government introduce a 10-year visa as standard for all graduates from all STEM courses in the UK.” said technology entrepreneur Dr Ewan Kirk.“Growth and productivity have flatlined for too long, and innovation and entrepreneurship are the levers we need to pull to do something about this woeful problem”. Dr Kirk argues that we need to do more to retain the talent we build in higher education,

“We’re voluntarily brain-draining ourselves by forcing this talent out once we’ve created it – through a combination of visa restrictions, expensive applications, and a wider hostile and difficult environment we’ve created for foreign STEM students,” he said.Since the government has laid out plans to reduce net migration to the UK, it’s likely there will also be a focus on domestic solutions to the skills shortages - which currently costs the UK an estimated £63 billion per year in missed growth opportunities, lower productivity, and inflated staffing costs.The suggestions come alongside the government’s wider plan to stimulate tech investment and innovation, including extra protections for data centres, which are now part of the UK’s ‘critical infrastructure’.