AI, Purpose, and the Future of Work: Keri Gilder’s Vision for a Digitally Inclusive UK
Keri Gilder is the Chief Executive Officer of Colt Technology Services and a prominent advocate for using technology to drive positive social change. As one of the few women leading a global telecoms company, and the first female CEO of a UK telecom firm, Keri has been described as a “huge pioneer” who is “passionate about AI and digital inclusion”. Under her leadership, Colt has focused on connectivity as a fundamental enabler: “we're connecting the world” through an extensive global network of subsea and terrestrial fibre, Keri explains. This commitment to connecting people and businesses reflects a broader vision that technology infrastructure, from high-speed networks to emerging AI capabilities, should benefit everyone.
Keri Gilder: Leading with purpose in the AI era
In April 2025, Keri joined Rt Hon Justine Greening on the Purpose Coalition’s Leading with Purpose podcast to consider how artificial intelligence (AI) will shape the future of work, sharing insights from her journey to leadership and her outlook on a digital future which should be built on inclusive access to digital technology and skills. Additional themes included achieving gender balance in tech and recognising the economic impact of widespread digital skills, both critical issues for ensuring AI benefits society broadly.
Highlighting the transformative power of AI in today’s workplaces, Keri Gilder described the pace of technological change as “incredible", opening up unprecedented opportunities while also challenging existing job models. She noted that AI and other emerging technologies are already revolutionising industries and will inevitably impact job markets by automating certain tasks and creating new roles. A forward-looking workforce strategy is needed to ensure people can adapt to these changes. Rather than viewing AI as a threat to jobs, Gilder positions it as a tool that can augment human work and even generate entirely new career paths, provided that workers are equipped with the skills to leverage it.
One focal point of the discussion was the importance of digital skills for all age groups in the workforce. As Justine Greening observed, younger generations are “literally growing up” with AI , whereas many older workers feel like “it’s something happening to someone else” yet it “will touch all of our lives” in the workplace.
Gilder highlighted that failing to invest in digital skills and inclusion isn’t just a social issue, it’s an economic risk: “basic digital skills are actually forecast to be the UK’s biggest gap by 2030” and the digital skills shortage could cost the UK over £27 billion by 2030 if unaddressed. For AI to truly boost productivity and growth, employees at all levels must have access to the training and tools needed to work with new technologies.
For Keri Gilder, shaping the future of work with AI goes hand-in-hand with championing digital inclusion and diversity. On the podcast, she cited a striking statistic: “71% of AI skilled workers are men and only 29% are women”.
This gender imbalance in the AI talent pool is something Gilder is determined to change. Part of the problem is a feedback loop of bias, currently only about a quarter of the data available on the internet relates to women. Since AI learns from existing data, underrepresentation of women and other groups in data can reinforce biases. Gilder’s take is that the solution must include getting more women into AI and tech roles, not only to fill skills gaps but to actively shape the technology. This means encouraging more girls to pursue STEM, supporting women in tech careers, and generally ensuring that the creators of AI are as diverse as its users.
Gilder’s advocacy extends beyond gender to a broader push for digital inclusion across communities and age groups, “it’s actually our only charitable initiative globally because we believe it is absolutely so important”. Colt’s initiatives focus on equipping people with basic digital skills and access, which aligns closely with the Purpose Coalition’s interest in digital inclusion and equal opportunity. For example, Gilder discussed how Colt works with the charity Age UK to help older people get online and stay connected, combating isolation. In one case, Colt sponsored virtual concert experiences for the elderly to participate in community events remotely.
Whether it’s seniors feeling left out of the digital world or underprivileged youth lacking internet access, Gilder believes bridging these gaps is essential. If most companies are digitising and “you don’t feel tech-enabled,” she notes, it will hinder your confidence and ability to progress in your career. Therefore, improving digital literacy and access for all is not just a social good but a workforce necessity in the AI age.
Promoting inclusion is something Gilder carries into her industry leadership roles as well. She chairs the TM Forum’s Diversity & Inclusion Council and serves as President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network. These roles amplify her mission to ensure that technology’s benefits, whether in telecom networks or AI applications, are broadly shared. In the podcast conversation, this came through clearly: building an AI-powered future of work will require intentional efforts to make the tech sector more inclusive, both in its workforce and in the design of AI systems.
Beyond Colt’s internal initiatives, Keri Gilder is a vocal proponent of national policies to support AI and digital infrastructure. In March 2025, Colt published a new White Paper co-authored by Gilder (in partnership with EY) outlining steps for the UK to accelerate AI as a growth driver. It highlights the transformative opportunities AI presents for the UK economy but also warns of the risks of inaction. If the UK fails to move quickly, it “could be relegated to a ‘secondary player in the global economy’”, the paper cautions. In other words, countries that wholeheartedly embrace AI and invest in its ecosystem will lead, and those that lag may fall behind in competitiveness.
As a trusted digital infrastructure leader, Colt has a unique vantage point on what it takes to harness AI’s potential. The company’s expertise in building secure, next-generation fibre networks “fundamental to the AI economy” underpins its perspective. Modern AI and data analytics require massive connectivity and cloud computing power, and Colt’s global network (connecting over 1,100 data centres and thousands of enterprise sites) forms part of this backbone. Gilder leverages this insight to advise how policy and industry can work together to make the UK an “AI superpower”, with four key actions the government should take to unlock AI-driven growth:
Shape a supportive environment: Establish pro-innovation regulation and streamlined planning processes to create a stable policy landscape for AI development. This means updating regulations to encourage AI innovation while managing risks and speeding up infrastructure permits and approvals.
Facilitate cross-sector coordination: Act as a unifying force across industries by harmonising policies and identifying synergies. AI’s benefits span sectors from healthcare to finance, so government should coordinate stakeholders and ensure different sectors can collaborate and share best practices.
Maximise strategic leadership and vision: Champion AI adoption with a national vision, identify high-impact sectoral opportunities, and showcase public sector best practices. Strong leadership can build confidence in AI – for example, if government itself uses AI ethically and effectively, it sets an example for others.
Enable flexible funding support: Unlock investment through fiscal incentives, targeted R&D funding, and public-private financing mechanisms. By de-risking AI research and infrastructure projects and encouraging private investment, the UK can fuel innovation and scale up successful AI solutions.
Gilder’s message is clear:
“AI has the potential to transform the UK’s socioeconomic growth – to drive lasting change which brings together public and private investment, talent and insight to improve lives and protect the environment,” Gilder notes in the paper. The goal is not AI for its own sake, but AI directed toward improving lives and solving societal challenges. By sharing Colt’s insights as a key part of the UK’s digital ecosystem, Gilder hopes to encourage conversations about how to capitalise on the AI revolution and drive “remarkable, lasting change”.
This thought leadership exemplifies how a company like Colt can use its experience to inform policy for the greater good.
The themes Keri Gilder champions - digital inclusion, diversity, and leveraging technology for economic opportunity - resonate strongly with the Purpose Coalition’s mission. Her work is a prime example of this mission in action: as a business leader, she is actively working to break down digital barriers and ensure the benefits of AI and connectivity reach all parts of society. By advocating for inclusive skills development and infrastructure, she is helping to create the conditions for more people to participate in the digital economy, which in turn drives social mobility and shared prosperity.
On the Leading with Purpose podcast, Gilder’s insights provided a roadmap for how purpose-driven leadership can shape the future of work. Her emphasis on inclusion means that as AI automates tasks and changes industries, we simultaneously invest in people – from coding education for girls to internet access for pensioners so everyone can find their place in the new landscape. Her call for supportive policy and infrastructure recognises that enabling technologies like AI require collective effort, with government, industry and communities each playing a role.
What makes Keri Gilder’s perspective particularly powerful is that it bridges business and social purpose. She leads a tech company at the cutting edge of AI and networking, yet she speaks in terms of societal outcomes: empowering workers with skills, closing diversity gaps, and even using tech to protect the environment. It’s a vision of digital transformation that is not just about efficiency or profit, but about inclusion and opportunity making sure technology serves people from all walks of life.
AI will undoubtedly change jobs and industries, the key is to guide that change so it expands opportunity rather than concentrates it. Leaders like Keri Gilder show that this is possible by investing in digital infrastructure, skills and inclusive culture. As she said during the podcast, basic digital skills and connectivity have become fundamental needs, not luxuries, in the modern world. Ensuring those needs are met is both a business imperative and a moral one.
The conversation with Keri Gilder illustrates a hopeful path forward. One where AI and advanced networks drive growth and efficiency and where that progress is shared broadly across society. It’s a future of work where technology and purpose are aligned. By supporting AI development with an inclusive lens from government policy down to company initiatives the UK can not only boost its economy but also set a benchmark for ethical and equitable tech-driven growth.
