UK Chapter meeting – June 2025

24th June 2025

On 24^th June, we held an IDAIC meeting focused on how AI can accelerate progress toward net-zero in hard-to-abate industries. The content of the meeting was based on feedback from survey responses from members which indicated that information about case studies / trials and skills / expertise development were highest priority across the respondents. Also, the most popular theme in the survey was applications in process optimisation. The main agenda items in the meeting were:

• Case studies of AI applications towards industrial decarbonisation, particularly focussed on process optimisation
• Developing skills and expertise in the field including industry to academic collaboration
• Review of Industrial Strategy which was released the day before
• Workshop on industrial challenges

Summary of the challenges workshop session

Aim

To identify and prioritise the industrial challenges suitable for AI development and application. The identified challenges may have been suitable for an upcoming funding opportunity from Innovate UK.

Format

The participants were asked to write down industrial challenge(s) where AI may offer potential solutions. These challenges were then discussed in groups and placed onto the worksheet (see below) at the location corresponding to the potential impact and difficulty of that challenge.

Outcomes

All of the challenges identified for all groups is shown in the image below which links to an interactive graphic where the full details are visible.

(Link:https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/25452778/)

The challenges identified ranged from specific to systemic challenges across many themes. As may be expected, most challenges are designated as high impact but high difficulty (upper right region).


Click on the image to get further details.

Challenges by theme
The challenges were grouped into themes using the ADViCE Grand Challenges (introduced in the meeting) where appropriate. The number of challenges in each theme are shown the graphic below. The top 3 most common themes were:

1. Manufacturing process efficiency (Grand Challenge 5)
   These challenges covered a range of issues from optimisation of production processes (e.g. furnace optimisation and chemistry variations) through to production scheduling and more general operational efficiencies (e.g. robots, cobots)
2. Decarbonising Manufacturing Inputs (Grand Challenge 4)
   These challenges covered designing processes with new feedstocks and greater visibility of their embodied carbon.
3. Enhancing supply chain transparency
   These challenges covered building a greater understanding of the supply chain and therefore where improvements could be made. This topic does not seem to be directly related to the ADViCE Grand Challenges.

There were also challenges related to using AI to support decision making and encourage more sustainable, lower carbon choices of products. We intend to explore these themes further in future IDAIC sessions.

Conclusion

What became clear from these discussions is that while some challenges are technically complex, there is significant appetite among members to explore AI-enabled solutions in data integration, emissions tracking, and supply chain optimisation. By focusing first on high-impact, tractable challenges, we can build momentum and capability – paving the way to tackle the more complex, systemic problems required to reach net-zero.