Are you a client? Sign in to view the full news archive.

UKHotViews

Friday 04 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* 10-Year Health Plan for England

10 Year Health Plan for England report coverThe 10-Year Health Plan for England reinforces the strategic shift towards technology-enabled healthcare delivery that has been at the heart of the government’s plans for the NHS since they came to power last July. While positioned as revolutionary reform, much of the detailed digital focus is on scaling established programmes. It presents a vision for the future but is short on detail about how that vision will be delivered. 

The NHS required fundamental change if it is to survive—Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated his warning that it’s a case of “reform or die” when launching the Plan yesterday. He said, “The status quo of ‘hospital by default’ will end, with a new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can: digital-by-default, in a patient’s home where possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, in a hospital if necessary.”

The scaled-up digital ambitions, together with the more radical structural changes detailed in the Plan (e.g., neighbourhood health service), will still create substantial market opportunities for software and IT services suppliers.  

In this report we look at the key announcements in the 10-Year Health Plan for England. This includes the need for reform, technology priorities, the five big bets for the NHS, procurement reform, noticeable gaps in the plan, and opportunities for suppliers. 

If you are an existing PublicSectorViews subscriber, you can read the report now. If you’d like to discuss an extension to your existing subscription or would like details of how to subscribe to TechMarketView, please contact Belinda Tewson.

Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:24

Tags: strategy   health   policy   government   AI   data   healthcare   digital+transformation  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Friday 04 July 2025

Could Oracle’s mystery $30bn cloud deal signal the start of Stargate?

OracleIt’s been widely reported in the media, albeit seemingly based on sources “familiar with the work” speaking to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity, that Oracle’s mystery $30bn cloud services win is indeed the company’s first Stargate contract with OpenAI – and not Temu (as was the other commonly-thought possibility).

As we reported earlier this week (see Oracle shares jump on news of $30bn cloud contract), the scale of this annual deal represents a massive revenue ramp-up for Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) division – already in hypergrowth for many successive quarters, and bringing in around $10bn during FY25. However, the numbers won’t start to show on the company’s balance sheet until FY28.

Oracle made the Top 10 in our recent Software & IT Services (SITS) Supplier Rankings report, though – as we noted at the time – whilst OCI surged in terms of growth last year (and is primed to accelerate further, given continued domestic investment in AI infrastructure), current UK revenue for the division is still relatively modest.

TechMarketView Foundation Service members can download UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025 and its companion report UK SITS Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 now. Together they provide an unparalleled multi-dimensional view of the UK SITS market as it looks today and how it’s forecast to evolve in the coming years. If you are not a Foundation Service member, please contact Deb Seth for more information.

Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:40

Tags: contract   rankings   OCI  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Friday 04 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* Market Trends & Forecasts 2025

In case you missed it, yesterday TechMarketView launched its brand new annual UK SITS Market Trends & Forecasts 2025.

And we were blown away by what was a record number of launch day downloads! report cover image

Available only for members of the Foundation Service, this landmark report – used widely by both tech buyers and tech suppliers – brings a cool, calm, and collected voice to a world of many unknowns.

With high degrees of uncertainty both globally and at home, Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 delivers razor sharp insights to help our clients develop a clear strategic view for their own organisations.

And, if you are not using Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 to inform and validate your strategy, you are probably putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage.

This year, the report has had a major facelift, making it even faster and easier to consume. Likewise, the analysis is our best ever, pulling on even more data points to enable our analysts to build a robust and reliable market model.

  • What are the key market shaping trends we all need to understand?
  • How will these impact spend in the UK Software & IT Services through the forecast window to 2028?
  • How will AI really impact the market, the tech suppliers, and the clients they serve?
  • What are the pressures on suppliers and how should they respond?

Kate Hanaghan, Chief Research Officer, said: “We pride ourselves on our rigour and market knowledge, along with our ability to decipher complex trends and provide clear advice to our clients.”

Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 will help you understand how TechMarketView expects to see opportunities evolve in the coming years, with our market model plotting out the data from both a segment and vertical point of view.


Meet the family

Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 is the companion to TechMarketView’s UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025, our unique annual ranking tables of the leading suppliers to the UK market. 

An Excel spreadsheet with TechMarketView’s full market model is also available for clients to download here: UK SITS Market Forecasts 2025 (Excel).

Contact Deb Seth for membership enquiries and to find out if your organisation has a corporate subscription.

Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 09:30

Tags: trends   forecasts  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Friday 04 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* Sustainability Technology Activity Index 2025

An animated poster advertising the 'Sustainability Technology Activity Index 2025' reports. Page 1 features white text on a green background, complete with abstract green 'Vs' laid out in rows. A bookmark image made up of treetops lies on the right. Page 2 sees green and navy text on a white background made up of similar 'Vs', with images of each report cover aligned with each paragraph.

Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 08:57

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

Access Group bolsters compliance portfolio with MY Compliance Management acquisition

Access GroupThe Access Group has acquired cloud-based compliance platform MY Compliance Management, adding safety, health and environmental compliance capabilities to its Access Learning division to create a more comprehensive workforce development offering (addressing the full compliance lifecycle from risk assessment through training delivery to verification). Terms were not disclosed in the announcement.

Founded in 2015, MY Compliance Management’s SaaS platform includes 20+ integrated modules and mobile apps, with a focus on user-friendly interfaces and practical functionality. Its emphasis on offline capability is particularly useful too, ensuring compliance tracking remains viable in industrial environments with patchy connectivity.

The deal strengthens Access's position in the mid-market (and comes after last month’s acquisition of Eploy in the HR space (see Access expands HR offering with Eploy acquisition). However, whether it delivers the "powerful synergies", which Elliot Gowans (General Manager of Access Learning) promised, will depend on how effectively Access can integrate the incoming technology, and retain MY Compliance Management's customer base, through the transition.

Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 11:03

Tags: acquisition   compliance  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* Market Trends & Forecasts 2025

Launching today is TechMarketView’s flagship annual report, UK SITS Market Trends & Forecasts.

And this year, the report has had a major facelift, making it even faster and easier to consume.

Available only for members of the Foundation Service, this landmark report – used widely by both tech buyers and tech suppliers – brings a cool, calm, and collected voice to a world of many unknowns.

  • What are the key market shaping trends we all need to understand?
  • How will these impact spend in the UK Software & IT Services through the forecast window to 2028?
  • How will AI really impact the market, the tech suppliers, and the clients they serve over the coming years?
  • What are the pressures on suppliers and how should they respond?

Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 report cover imageWith high degrees of uncertainty both globally and at home, Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 delivers razor sharp insights to help our clients develop a clear strategic view for their own organisations.

Kate Hanaghan, Chief Research Officer, said: “We pride ourselves on our rigour and market knowledge, along with our ability to decipher complex trends and provide clear advice to our clients.”

Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 consolidates TechMarketView’s latest forecast data and trends analysis for the UK Software & IT Services (SITS) market. The report draws on a large number of data points and research interviews, with our industry and domain specialists working together to build a comprehensive, and eminently reliable, view of the market.

Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 will help you understand how TechMarketView expects to see opportunities evolve in the coming years, with our market model plotting out the data from both a segment and vertical point of view.

If you are not using Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 to inform and validate your strategy, you are probably putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage!

Meet the family

Market Trends & Forecasts 2025 is the companion to TechMarketView’s UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025, our unique annual ranking tables of the leading suppliers to the UK market. Who’s in and who’s out?

An Excel spreadsheet with TechMarketView’s full market model is also available for clients to download here: UK SITS Market Forecasts 2025 (Excel).

Contact Deb Seth for membership enquiries and to find out if your organisation has a corporate subscription.

Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 10:40

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

Bytes profits growth stalls during H1, share price suffers

BytesBytes Technology Group issued a trading update ahead of its AGM yesterday. The Board stated that – due to deferral of customer buying decisions (particularly in the corporate sector), and a “longer than expected” readjustment period following the company’s overhaul of its corporate sales division – operating profit for the first half of FY26 was expected to be “marginally lower” than the same period last year (with gross profit around the same level).

Bytes predicts a return to “more normalised growth” in the second half of the fiscal year (September onwards). However, coming after the company stated in May that it was looking to deliver another year of double-digit gross profit growth (and high single-digit operating profit growth) across the year – see Mudd praises staff as Bytes closes strong FY – the market reacted unfavourably to yesterday's news, with shares closing over 30% down by the end of the day.

It wasn’t just Bytes’s shares that suffered yesterday, either. Rival UK-listed VARs Softcat and Computacenter were also hit (each finishing the day around 6% down on Monday’s prices) – suggesting that the company isn’t alone in having to face off the “more challenging macro environment” that Bytes’ CEO Sam Mudd alluded to in yesterday’s update.

This year’s changes to Microsoft’s Enterprise Agreements (EA) licensing model and restructuring of partner incentives are having an impact right across the channel. There’s less of a partner earnings skew to upfront deal sizes now, and Microsoft is reclaiming direct control of EA renewals. Byte’s sales restructuring is designed to better align with the new order of things, but it’s taking time to sort out (plus some customers are pausing large renewals to reassess deal structures). The market is waiting to see how VARs generally adapt to these shifts – though a fuller picture won’t become clear until the second half of the year.

Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:37

Tags: channel   profits   VAR   shareprice  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

Omni Partners acquires energy analytics firm Sava Technology

LogoOmni Partners has completed its acquisition of Sava Technology Limited, a specialist provider of energy analytics software to UK housing providers. The deal marks the fifth strategic acquisition for Infoshare+, Omni’s public sector-focused software and data solutions platform, and furthers Omni’s buy-and-build strategy, following the acquisition of Datatank last month (See - Omni expands public sector offering with Datatank deal)

Sava Technology brings three decades of experience serving more than 220 social housing providers across the UK. The company's flagship product, the Sava Intelligent Energy platform, offers software-as-a-service solutions that enable housing associations and local authorities to model and enhance the energy performance of their property portfolios.

The platform processes data from over 2.5m homes, importing and cleansing property portfolio information whilst analysing energy and carbon metrics. It generates bespoke, costed improvement plans tailored to clients' energy objectives, with customisable targets linked to EPC bands, SAP ratings, and carbon reduction percentages. The solution integrates with major UK housing asset management systems.

The acquisition comes as housing providers face increasing pressure to decarbonise their assets and tackle fuel poverty ahead of the government's 2050 net zero commitment. Without comprehensive knowledge of their housing stock, providers struggle to devise cost-effective improvement strategies for reducing carbon emissions and running costs.

Infrastructure, Housing and Asset Management is a key growth vertical for Infoshare+, with the acquisition of Sava aimed at strengthening its capabilities in the housing sector and positioning the firm to deliver enhanced data-driven solutions to the public sector.

Steve Thorn, Executive Chairman at Infoshare+, said: "Sava Technology is a perfect fit for Infoshare+. The team brings deep expertise, a strong client base, and a scalable SaaS solution that addresses one of the most urgent issues facing social housing providers today. All the solutions within our platform are built to help organisations improve decision-making and offer better services to deliver the best outcomes for communities across the UK."

Austin Baggett, Managing Director of Sava, emphasised the strategic alignment: "The acquisition by Infoshare+ is a natural next step for Sava Technology and our Sava Intelligent Energy software platform. We understand that improving energy efficiency and sustainability isn't a standalone endeavour. It fits into a much wider, smarter ecosystem of solutions and information, which is precisely what Infoshare+ is building."

Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:21

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

Celebrating the King’s Trust Awards

Last week I was absolutely delighted to attend the King’s Trust Awards.

TechMarketView has a long association with the Trust, going back to the days when Richard Holway co-founded the Technology Leadership Group. Today we do our bit through my role as Chair of the Business kt picDevelop Committee and the activities staff undertake to raise money through sponsorship. 

The King’s Trust believes that every young person should have the chance to succeed, no matter what their background or the challenges they are facing. It focuses on young people aged 11-30, helping them to develop essential life skills and supporting them into training and employment.

The awards is an opportunity for the King’s Trust to recognise and celebrate the achievements of some of those young people it has supported. It is a very buzzy event, with everyone in high spirits. G&T in hand, I had a fabulous afternoon at the event, hosted by the inimitable Ant and Dec. 

Well done to all those that won, at the regional, national, and international levels! 

If you are a tech company, or a technology leader in an organisation, and would like to contribute to the work the Trust does, please contact me for more info: Kate Hanaghan

Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 10:00

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

ActiveOps FY25: Organisational nervousness drives strong demand

LogoAs trailed in their April trading updateActiveOps delivered robust FY25 results (FYE 31st March), with revenue growing 14% to £30.5m and ARR increasing 13% to £28.4m. The results emphasise how the company's Decision Intelligence platform resonates in an increasingly complex business environment. Organisational nervousness is creating significant opportunities for the software company.

Speaking to Chair Richard Jeffery this morning, he noted, "Significant growth across all regions against the backdrop of general nervousness about the world; ActiveOps can be positioned as a control system, and at certain times, people get more paranoid about control." Growth was strong across regions, with the UK market—representing an estimated 25% of total revenues—growing its ARR by an estimated 8%. Meanwhile, North America's revenues surged 22% and other regions also posted strong gains.

The company's value proposition addresses several critical barriers facing enterprises, as highlighted in TechMarketView's research: a lack of confidence in the accuracy and timeliness of data to make key strategic decisions, as well as in their ability to extract value from AI and other emerging technology investments, and the challenge of leveraging fragmented data across systems. Jeffery stated: "Customers' confidence in extracting benefit from robotics, workflow, AI—it's shocking. ActiveOps helps improve confidence to invest in those things."

Central to this is ActiveOps' ability to bridge enterprise workflow systems (like Pega) and human capital management (like Workday or Salesforce) platforms. By joining these data sources, the company is also able to provide the foundational intelligence needed for effective AI and agentic AI deployment. This capability is becoming increasingly sophisticated, where ActiveOps can "attach an ROI to most features," making upgrade decisions straightforward for customers despite long enterprise sales cycles. The result in this period was that 34% of customers increased ARR by 20% or more.

The company's growth trajectory reflects strategic investments in sales and marketing, which increased to 21% of revenue from 18% previously. This has driven new logo wins to nine customers versus three in FY24, with three additional wins already secured in Q1 FY26. However, margins remained flat (EBITDA of £2.5m) as management prioritises growth over profitability. Jeffery emphasises that ActiveOps is still primarily a growth stock and will be targeting 30% growth with a 10% margin over the medium term.

The acquisition of Enlighten (announced earlier this week) for up to £15.9m represents a significant strategic move, adding approximately $11m ARR, 24 blue chip customers, and 90 employees, and strengthening positions in Asia Pac and North America. Beyond scale benefits, the deal brings complementary capabilities in operational excellence and creates significant cross-selling opportunities. Management expects 15%+ EPS accretion by FY27, with operational efficiencies emerging as the companies integrate. ActiveOps' strong cash position of £20.6m (up 17%) provides flexibility for continued investment while maintaining a debt-free balance sheet.

Looking ahead, the convergence of enterprise anxiety around technology adoption and ActiveOps' proven ability to provide measurable ROI from data intelligence positions the company well. As Jeffery concluded, "The world of work is becoming increasingly complex—your resilience and agility are hugely dependent on the quality of decision intelligence." This suggests considerable runway ahead.

Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 09:59

Tags: results   saas   software   AI   data   operations   decision-making  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

Big Four's AI-driven graduate cuts risk long-term industry damage

LogoThe UK's Big Four accountancy firms are potentially undermining the industry's future, as they slash graduate recruitment by up to 29% while embracing AI to automate entry-level tasks. KPMG has led the charge with the steepest cuts, reducing 2023 graduate intake from 1,399 to just 942, while Deloitte, EY, and PwC have followed suit with reductions of 18%, 11%, and 6% respectively.

The job cuts come as the firms look to preserve seven-figure partner payouts amid a post-Covid consulting slump and shrinking client budgets. Alongside job reductions, all four firms have expanded their offshoring efforts. The Big Four are looking at AI to replicate junior work more cost-effectively, leveraging GenAI tools like ChatGPT to handle administrative work traditionally performed by graduates. In parallel all are also looking to AI as a significant revenue generator, for example developing AI assurance services – auditing tools that verify the performance and safety of AI models.

Jon Bance, COO at technology consultancy, Leading Resolutions, argues that firms are making "critical errors" by axing entry-level teams to address wider inadequacies.

"Graduate roles are intended to be necessary training for the industry professionals of tomorrow," Bance explains. "Replacing them entirely with AI tools may be a short-term fix and efficiency burst, but ultimately damaging to the industry long-term, as talent is no longer gaining experience." Bance advocates for "resource augmentation" rather than replacement, emphasising that AI should serve as a smart partner while humans maintain control over strategic decisions.

I completely agree with Jon’s comments, and from a logical (and moral) perspective it makes perfect sense, the challenge remains that it is far too easy to cut costs by just reducing headcount, and in certain tasks without much of a drop in performance, a problem that will only increase as AI capability matures. We have heard the tag line ‘AI will only augment not replace’ so much from both government and private organisations, but I really have to question who they are trying to convince (or dupe)? It has been clear to me for a long time that job cuts at both entry level and process heavy positions are going to be hit hard by AI, and this is only just the beginning of what is going to be a transformation of the workplace across many sectors.

As for the consulting sector, its strength has historically relied on nurturing junior professionals who develop the contextual understanding, strategic thinking, and client relationship skills that AI cannot replicate. Eventually those people at the top of the tree will need replacement, the same could be said for skill development in numerous other disciplines as well. A better balance between AI driven cost cutting and talent development clearly needs to be found.

Posted by: Simon Baxter at 09:22

Tags: consulting  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Thursday 03 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* Spending Review 2025

A poster advertising the 'Spending Review 2025' report. This features white and green text on a blue and grey background, complete with the report cover image on the right. This displays abstract rubber-like shapes floating around a grey space.

Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 07:00

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Wednesday 02 July 2025

Devon County Council selects System C for adult and children’s social care systems

System CSystem C has secured a five-year contract (with the option to extend six times, for a total of a further ten years) worth £11m with Devon County Council to supply Liquidlogic SaaS-based adult and children’s social care solution for case management and finance.

In addition to these core requirements, the council has identified a number of non-core functionalities which it may additionally purchase during the contract term (namely education case management, SEND, early years, pre-paid cards, bookable care, recruitment and vacancy management).

According to a 2023 FOI request, Liquidlogic will be replacing the OLM solutions ECLIPSE (for adult social care) and the ageing CareFirst 6 system (for children’s social care).

As my colleague, Dale Peters, reported late last year (see System C's strategic evolution continues), the company’s CEO Nick Wilson was eyeing opportunities for Liquidlogic to make further inroads in the social care sector, as local authorities look to make efficiency improvements following last year’s Autumn Budget. System C won a £1.1m renewal for Liquidlogic Children’s Case Management System at Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council in May this year (see Wigan Council renews System C for children’s social care case management), following a £1.1m win at Torbay Council and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust for adult social care (announced in January).

Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:08

Tags: contract   Local Government   social care  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Wednesday 02 July 2025

GlobalLogic announces strategic partnership with Volvo

GlobaLogic logoDigital engineering firm, GlobalLogic, has been named by Volvo Cars as a strategic partner for engineering services.  

Within the broader ecosystem, the pair will work together to create digital mobility “experiences and solutions” for drivers. GlobalLogic will use its global delivery centres where software engineers with specific industry expertise will design and build software-upgradable applications spanning a car’s entire lifecycle.

GlobalLogic has been operating in the automotive sector for over 20 years, innovating the driver experience through domains such as software-defined vehicle architecture, networking, digital cockpit development, autonomous driving, and electric vehicle propulsion. Besides Volvo, it works with Stellantis (which owns a number of brands including Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Citroen, Vauxhall, and Chrysler) and has a large automotive-centric software facility in Poland.

Volvo has been enriching both its own capability in digital as well as evolving its partner ecosystem. Efforts have been focused around redesigning the user experience for drivers to make driving safer and more personalised. Besides GlobalLogic, the automotive firm has been collaborating with the likes of Qualcomm and Google to improve its infotainment systems. And last year, Volvo established a joint venture with Daimler Truck to develop a common software-defined vehicle platform and dedicated truck operating system. It has been building out is own in-house capability supported by, for example, the acquisition of Zenseact, a provider of autonomous driving software.

Posted by: Kate Hanaghan at 09:45

Tags: automotive   partnership   digitalengineering  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Wednesday 02 July 2025

Medishout's $9m funding to drive European expansion

Medishout logoMedishout has raised $9m (£6.6m) in a Series A funding round led by Heal Capital with participation from existing investors Nickleby Capital and Meridian Health Ventures (formerly KHP Ventures). It follows a £4.3m seed investment round in 2023. 

Founded by Ash Kalraiya and Ali Bahsoun in 2013, Medishout has developed an app that aggregates hospital suppliers and helpdesks to provide a one-stop solution for staff to report and track operational issues. The app replaces siloed and ineffective approaches, which often involve multiple members of staff from different departments. By implementing streamlined workflows, the company can help improve hospital efficiency. This includes improved service levels, cost savings and a reduction in the number of elective operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons.   

With the new funding, Medishout plans to accelerate its expansion across the UK and mainland Europe and explore opportunities in the USA. It will also strengthen its software and commercial teams to help advance product development and broaden its partnership arrangements.

Posted by: Dale Peters at 09:27

Tags: nhs   funding   startup   healthcare  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Wednesday 02 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* Strategic Defence Review 2025

A poster advertising the 'Strategic Defence Review 2025' report. The graphic features green and white text on a navy background, with an upper half filled with ambiguous tech hardware in military colours (khaki, olive, black).

Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 07:00

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Tuesday 01 July 2025

*UKHotViewsExtra* Growth unleashed: UK tech startups to watch

Growth UnleashedYesterday I attended the ‘Growth Unleashed’ event hosted by the Lord Mayor of London, Alastair King and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT). The event gave 21 UK tech startups and scale-ups a 10-minute slot to pitch their business, whether looking for funding from some of the many banks and VC firms present, or just to raise awareness for what they were doing. It was a great showcase of the innovation and expertise we have on our British shores. I won’t be able to cover all those who presented, but have highlighted a few who piqued my interest and some of the overall takeaways from the day.

In terms of themes, HealthTech, InsureTech, FinTech, BioTech and SecurityTech firms featured strongly throughout the day. AI was central to many solutions as you would expect, whether driving faster automation or acting as AI copilots and agents to facilitate process workflows, copywriting or data collection. Many of the firms were pre-Series A funding, though nearly all had been operating long enough to generate revenue and often profit, an aspect inspected closely by many of the VC and investment firms present. Profitable growth remains a key factor in any investment decision according to my conversations with such firms, with still a lot of scrutiny on fundamentals rather than buying into any hype. Some of those pitching did fail to really articulate their businesses, though I won’t name and shame, but it once again highlights that in such a congested market you have to have a clear USP.

The first firm that really stood out for me was Caristo Diagnostics, a HealthTech startup spun out of the University of Oxford, that has developed an innovative solution to improve the accuracy of identifying the signs of the risk of heart attack. We have covered Caristo in UKHotViews before (See - Caristo Diagnostics launches NHS pilots), though the company seems to have found some more traction over the past few years. It is an impressive solution that uses patented AI/ML algorithms, via a SaaS model, to detect inflammation around the heart, which traditional scans don’t identify, potentially savings thousands of lives. I have no doubt that the firm will be bought up in a few years if its patents stand up, as it has huge potential given the rise in cardiovascular disease both in the UK and especially in the USA.

In the FinTech space, I was really impressed by CoBa, the ‘connected banking’ startup has been working closely with Lloyds Bank, who is using the firm’s orchestration platform to support customer decisions regarding FX positions. It has already saved Lloyds over 15k people hours in the past 6 months, and the firm is projecting £3m in revenue over the next year as more banks come online. CoBa has modules that cover a range of different banking use cases, not just FX. They are also working with Lloyds Bank to codevelop a solution to digitalise and optimise the services between banks.

TechMarketView subscribers can carry on reading the full coverage of ‘Growth unleashed: UK tech startups to watch’ in UKHotViewsExtra, click here.

Posted by: Simon Baxter at 10:18

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Tuesday 01 July 2025

Microsoft seeks step-change in AI medical diagnosis

Microsoft logoMicrosoft has announced promising results from its research on AI-powered sequential diagnosis for clinical reasoning. Its MAI Diagnostic Orchestrator (MAI-DxO), which simulates a panel of physicians, was found to achieve 80% diagnostic accuracy and reduce costs by 20% compared to human physicians. 

Rather than using a limited multiple-choice question approach to diagnosis, MAI-DxO employs individual language models to assume the role of physicians. Each of the five virtual physicians has a distinct medical persona and role (such as probability-ranked diagnosis, diagnostic test specialist or devil's advocate), to contribute specialised expertise to the diagnostic process. It undertakes an iterative process of asking questions, ordering tests, and gradually narrowing down possibilities in a way that is intended to mirror real clinical practice. 

Microsoft Research created interactive medical challenges drawn from 304 recent case records published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). As the model (or physician) works through the case, asking questions and ordering tests, new information becomes available, allowing it to narrow toward a final diagnosis. This diagnosis is then compared to the outcome published in the NEJM. 

A range of language models, including those developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, xAI, and DeepSeek, were evaluated as part of the study. MAI-DxO improved the diagnostic performance of every model tested, with the best-performing setup being MAI-DxO paired with OpenAI’s o3, which correctly solved 85.5% of the NEJM benchmark cases. 

While this is an interesting study on AI-powered clinical reasoning, it contains several important limitations. Firstly, the research was published on Cornell University’s open-access repository arXiv, which is not peer-reviewed. Additionally, test cases contained no healthy patients or benign conditions, making false-positive rates impossible to assess. Human physicians were tested in isolation, without access to colleagues, textbooks or additional technology, so this is not a true reflection of real-world clinical practice. Plus, the cost benefits were based on the US healthcare system, so have limited applicability to the NHS. 

Notwithstanding the limitations and regulatory hurdles, the research does demonstrate the transformative potential of AI in medical diagnosis. This is an area in which Microsoft is investing heavily. Last year it revealed a significant expansion of the AI capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. At the start of 2025, it announced RAD-DINO to improve radiology workflows and Microsoft Dragon Copilot, its AI-powered natural language assistant for clinical workflows.

Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:06

Tags: nhs   research   AI   healthcare   diagnosis  

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Tuesday 01 July 2025

*NEW RESEARCH* UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025

A poster advertising the 'Supplier Rankings 2025' report. This features white and green text on a blue and grey background, complete with stacked white boxes displaying the logos of major tech companies.

Posted by: UKHotViews Editor at 10:00

 
X   LinkedIn   Email article link
Previous 1 2 Next 


« Back to previous page

© TechMarketView LLP 2007-2025: Unauthorised reproduction prohibited see full Terms and conditions.