6. Will the First Minister establish a unit to explore how Wales can harness artificial intelligence and automation? OAQ51639

Well, automation, innovation and digitalisation form one of the cornerstones of the economic action plan, and we're focusing our investment to support businesses to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow and futureproofing our economy and workforce. 

Thank you, First Minister. I welcome the fact that the new economic action plan includes, as one of the criteria for supporting new businesses, adapting to automation, but the implications of automation go way beyond that. It's estimated that some 700,000 jobs are at risk, and they hit upon every single portfolio. So, would you now look at how you can co-ordinate efforts by establishing a unit to explore opportunities so we can support the people who are going to be impacted by automation and also explore the opportunities for Wales?  

Yes, it's a tricky one isn't it? Does there come a point where automation is so comprehensive that there aren't enough people with money in their pockets to buy what the robots make? When does that point come? Nobody knows; we've not been in the situation before. But he asks an important question: how do we look to cope and deal with and to prosper from the changes that will come in the future? Well, we are already examining the impact of technology and data on public service delivery—for example, the digital and data group provides a forum for sharing best practice on that. It's part of the economic action plan and we do engage regularly with businesses and stakeholders to discuss the potential impact and opportunities of digital technologies. If we look at innovative tech, well, of course, we're already considering the opportunities of artificial intelligence: M7 Managed Services, in partnership with IBM, opened an artificial intelligence centre of competence last December and, of course, the centre of excellence in mobile and emerging technologies at the University of South Wales is working with businesses to see how businesses can benefit from the challenges of the future, meet those challenges, and, of course, continue to provide jobs for people. 

First Minister, I think Lee Waters made a very good point, and I agree with most of your answer there. Yesterday, I attended the Severn growth summit at the Celtic Manor. The summit looked at ways of developing the economy of south-east Wales, particularly now in the light of, first, the reduction in, and then the decision to abolish, the Severn bridge tolls later in the year. First Minister, there's a tremendous mood of optimism surrounding some of these imminent changes and there's also a real desire to use it as a stimulus to develop a high-tech economy in south-east Wales from the border along to Cardiff, and, hopefully, further. In terms of the unit that Lee Waters mentioned, would you look at potentially siting that within that area so that, when these changes happen to the road network and changes to the Severn bridge, for instance, there is a real—that this is used as an impetus to make sure that the economy is developed in the future in a way that is developing the high-tech sector and the areas that Lee Waters mentioned?

Well, I've already mentioned two examples there of centres that have been put in place in order to deal with and meet the challenges of the future, and, of course, much of this will be driven by the higher education sector, so, many of these centres, in the future, will be run by them. But there's no doubt at all that we want to encourage cross-border economic working. It happens everywhere else in the world, so why wouldn't it happen between Wales and England? If that leads to joint prosperity between the south-east of Wales and the south-west of England then so be it. One of the problems, of course, is that the south-west of England doesn't have a body that we can talk to in the same way as we can talk to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Certainly, that's an issue that will need to be resolved in the future.

Yes, it's good that this issue is being addressed at a governmental level. However, there is recent evidence that companies like Tesco are now losing a lot more money from shoplifting since bringing in automation in the form of self-scanning machines. Is there now a case for the Welsh Government to work with those companies in trying to move away from unnecessary automation and go back towards hiring real people to do jobs?

Well, I mean—. In reality, shoplifting increased when self-service was introduced, probably about 17 years ago, into supermarkets. They accept it as part of—. I mean, they obviously look to catch shoplifters, but they accept it as part of their business models. I think a variety of options should be available for people. For some people, they want to physically go through a checkout, for others, they want to checkout automatically at the end, for others, they want to go around with a scanner. Having those choices is important for people, especially at busy times when the automated services take a lot of pressure off the services that people are using when they physically go through a checkout.