ICO sets out plan to government for safe AI innovation

TL;DR:

  • The Information Commissioner’s Office has published its response to a January request from the Technology and Business Secretaries to set out a plan for enabling safe AI-powered innovation.
  • The plan builds on the ICO’s June 2025 AI and biometrics strategy and promises greater regulatory certainty across AI, automated decision-making and biometric technology in both private and public sectors.
  • Priorities for 2026/27 include an AI code of practice, dedicated guidance on agentic AI, and support for consumers navigating increasingly personalised AI services.

The ICO’s response answers a joint letter from the Technology Secretary and Business Secretary asking the regulator to build on earlier growth commitments and publish, by the end of May, a plan for safe AI innovation. It positions the data regulator as a central player in the government’s drive to pair AI adoption with public trust.

What the plan commits to

The headline deliverables are practical rather than rhetorical. The ICO says it will develop an AI code of practice and issue dedicated guidance on agentic AI — autonomous systems that act on a user’s behalf — an area where legal responsibility and data-protection obligations remain unsettled. It also pledges support for consumers as personalised AI becomes more pervasive, with a fuller 2026/27 workplan to follow in a new AI strategy in the coming months.

For UK businesses, the value lies in reduced ambiguity. Firms building or deploying AI have repeatedly cited uncertainty over how data protection law applies as a brake on investment. Clearer guidance on automated decision-making and agentic systems could lower the compliance risk that currently sits between a pilot and a production rollout, particularly for smaller companies without large legal teams.

Looking forward

The plan signals the UK’s preference for sector-led, regulator-driven guidance over the prescriptive statutory approach taken in the EU. Its credibility will rest on delivery: an agentic AI guidance gap is widening as enterprises adopt autonomous agents faster than rules can keep up. The promised AI strategy, due in the coming months, will show whether the ICO can move at the pace the market is setting.

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