The AI Lab provides a pathway for the FCA, firms and wider stakeholders to engage in AI-related insights, discussions and case studies.
Our AI Lab adds a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) focus to our Innovation Services, supporting innovators as they develop new AI models and solutions.
We want to enable the safe and responsible use of AI in UK financial markets, driving growth, competitiveness and innovation in the sector.
The AI Lab will support us in deepening our understanding of the risks and opportunities AI presents to UK consumers and markets, and help inform our regulatory approach in a practical, collaborative way.
The first components of the AI Lab include:
Supercharged Sandbox
Through our commitment to supporting AI innovation, we’re collaborating with Nvidia to enhance our Digital Sandbox by providing firms with access to greater computing capabilities, enhanced datasets, and more advanced tooling. Applications for the Supercharged Sandbox are now open to any financial services firm looking to innovate and experiment with AI. See the participation pack (PDF) for full details.
From October 2025, firms will be able to test early-stage PoCs within the Supercharged Sandbox.
What we need from you
Your application will assess your project’s fit for the Supercharged Sandbox. It allows us to understand your objectives, technical needs and the potential impact of your work.
Your application should clearly outline:
- Project scope: What are you setting out to build or test? Is it a prototype, proof of concept, or experimental feature?
- Problem statement: What financial services challenge or opportunity does your project address? Why is it important now?
- Technical requirements: What kind of compute resources, tooling, or data do you anticipate needing?
- Intended impact: Who stands to benefit from this work? Consider consumer outcomes, operational improvements, market efficiency, or broader economic contribution.
- Degree of innovation: What makes your approach novel or different? Is it a new methodology, application of AI, or a unique use of data?
AI Live Testing
Applications for AI Live Testing are now open until 20 August 2025. See our Terms of Reference for more details.
To be eligible you must demonstrate that you:
- Produce and distribute financial products and services or provide AI models that are material to financial services and markets.
- Actively use AI within your specific use case.
- Have a material AI use case that is relevant to financial services and markets.
- Have a use case that is likely to further one or more of the FCA’s operational objectives and has the potential to positively contribute to UK economic growth.
- Have already developed an AI solution PoC and have plans to deploy it.
- Have already considered pre-deployment testing and be willing to share your approach and findings to ensure readiness for live market rollout.
- Have considered post-deployment monitoring plans, including demonstrating how this would be carried out.
- Are open to work collaboratively with the FCA and share your findings with the FCA during live testing.
AI Spotlight
Projects accepted to the AI Spotlight will provide a real-world insight and practical understanding into how firms are experimenting with AI in financial services.
Innovators took part in a Showcase Day at the FCA London office on 28 January 2025. Projects selected for the AI Spotlight are featured on a dedicated AI Spotlight - Digital Showcase page, which you can sign in to read. The page offers a valuable repository of practical solutions that showcase applications of AI across specific themes.
Applications to be part of the AI Spotlight will remain open. Download the participation pack (PDF) for full details.
AI Sprint
Bringing together industry, academics, regulators, technologists, and consumer representatives, we hosted an AI Sprint at our London office on 29-30 January 2025. The aim of the event was to help inform our regulatory approach to AI and how we can create the right environment for growth and innovation. We have now considered the feedback received and have published an AI Sprint summary.
AI Input Zone
The AI Input Zone was open from 4 November 2024 to 31 January 2025 to allow stakeholders to have their say on the future of AI in UK financial services through an online feedback platform.
We asked for views on what stakeholders saw as the most transformative AI use cases in financial services, if there are any barriers to adopting these, if current financial services regulation sufficient to support firms to embrace the benefits of AI in a safe and responsible way or if specific changes or additions are needed.
We are now considering the responses we received and will update in due course.
Our approach to AI
We’ve been monitoring and supporting innovation in AI for many years. Our approach is rooted in the latest evidence and expertise.
We continue to deepen our understanding of how AI is being deployed in UK financial markets while monitoring it within our existing, wider regulatory framework.
Read more about our approach to AI.
AI publications
- Artificial Intelligence update, April 2024
- AI in UK financial services, November 2024
- A literature review on bias in supervised machine learning, December 2024
- A pilot study into bias in natural language processing, January 2025
- AI Sprint summary, April 2025
- Money talks: Lessons from 2 LLM pilots on consumer guidance, May 2025
