Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 6 June 2018.
The Member raises a crucially important point, in that automation is probably the biggest challenge for many, many sectors of the Welsh economy, and will continue to be so for many years, if not decades to come. Business would not wish us to be overly prescriptive in the way that we support their future development, but what we have done is created a calls to action, essentially five points in the criteria that we have set for businesses to draw down our direct support, which are matched to the five factors that will drive productivity—and, of course, one of those key enablers is the embracing of automation and artificial intelligence.
I think it's absolutely vital that we recognise that many small, micro and medium-sized businesses are actually nimble enough to be able to adapt to the age of automation, whereas larger companies can take longer to steer, even though they're able to future scan, in some respects, better. What I'm keen to do is to ensure that the calls to action apply equally to SMEs and to our anchor and regionally important companies as well. It's vital that all companies of all sizes, right across Wales, embrace automation rather than try to resist it.