The UK public sector can “lead the world” on AI adoption, the CEO of a Microsoft AI partner that’s doubling in size year-on-year has claimed.
Martin Neale cashed his pension to set up ICS.AI in 2018.
It grew out of his previous venture, ICS Solutions, a Microsoft SharePoint partner that was minority owned by Computacenter.
Its revenues doubled to £6.1m in its year to 30 June 2025 amid surging UK public sector demand for its phone-based AI solutions, including a flagship £7m, four-year deal with Derby City Council, Neale revealed.
ICS.AI is poised to double revenue and headcount to £12m and 90-100, respectively, in its current fiscal 2026, he added.
Neale said he believes ICS.AI has developed the first GenAI voice platform anywhere in the world, and “certainly in the UK”.
He praised the UK government – which in January unveiled a new AI blueprint designed to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK – for advocating the role AI can play in helping public sector bodies become more efficient and save costs.
“So far, the explosion of [GenAI] technology has been around the foundational elements to it, and I think the bigger battle is in adoption,” he said.
“There’s potential for what’s being developed here for the first time to start leading the rest of the world.”
“Huge personal risk”
Reflecting on ICS.AI’s roots, Neale acknowledged that he took a “huge personal risk” to launch an ISV business at aged 55.
“But it’s not something I regret,” he said.
Although the business “did well” in its first four years, the use cases it could deliver were all “fairly trivial” before the November 2022 arrival of ChatGPT, Neale recalled.
“I hadn’t expected to see the kind of thing ChatGPT does in my lifetime to be honest, then out of nowhere this thing appears,” he said.
“We actually dropped turnover in that year while we completely reinvented ourselves and our technology stack.
“We also changed our focus. Our focus then became – how do we help councils become financial sustainable?”
Derby City Council, which Neale said had been “close to running out of funds”, recently claimed its project with ICS.AI has already yielded £7.5m in savings.
“Putting the voice AI into their contact centre went better than we expected,” Neale said.
“We were hoping for 20% deflections and ended up with over 40%.
“That gave them the confidence to look at how they could use AI to essentially automate everything in the council – we’re talking about elements of social care and very sensitive use cases around children’s care, as well as automating how your bins are collected,” Neale said.
“UK version of Palantir”
Neale likened ICS.AI to a “sort of UK version of Palantir”.
It is anticipating “at least 100% growth” in its current financial year, most of which is “locked in” due to local government and higher-education contracts it has already won. Headcount could rise to as high as 100 as it opens regional offices.
“We’re recruiting around our customers. We’re winning a lot of business in Scotland and Wales,” Neale said.
ICS.AI is increasingly working through services partners, Neale said. This encompasses Big Four consultancies, sector-specific partners with a laser focus on areas like adult social care, and Microsoft technology partners who can deploy its solutions alongside the Microsoft stack.
GenIA’s breakneck pace of change means ICS.AI has had to change the cycle of its business from monthly to weekly.
“Our SLT meets every day at 8am to review everything in the company. We make changes during the day on the basis of what we’ve discovered and pull all that together with an all-hands meeting at the end of each week,” Neale said.
“Is an AI-first partner just like any other technology partner?
“No, it’s got to spin faster.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
