‘A blueprint for how the UK government deploys AI at scale’: HMRC signs deal to boost data, analytics and AI firepower
The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has appointed UK-headquartered company Quantexa on a contract – potentially worth £175m (about $234m) over 10 years – to boost its data, analytics and artificial intelligence firepower.
Quantexa, which describes itself as providing “decision intelligence to help organisations make confident decisions with contextual data”, said in an announcement last week (14 May) that it will be helping the department with “sovereign data and AI transformation” and aiming to “accelerate smarter decisions”.
The initiative will “drive efficiency across key workflows, protect public funds and enhance the customer experience for the UK taxpayer” as part of broader HMRC digital transformation efforts.
The company will “support the modernisation of HMRC’s core data infrastructure, giving the UK’s tax authority a clearer, connected view of its data to improve performance, help identify tax at risk and strengthen control”, it said. It added that its appointment “also lays the groundwork for advanced AI capabilities and supports wider transformation efforts, from closing the tax gap to delivering faster, more seamless customer service”.
“Modern data and AI tools help us reduce duplication, better link customer information across systems and support right‑first‑time outcomes, improving the service we provide to customers while continuing to tackle fraud and non‑compliance,” an HMRC spokesperson told Global Government Finance, the sister title of Global Government Forum.
AI use ‘at scale’
Quantexa states that its ‘decision intelligence platform’ unifies fragmented data into a “trusted, governed foundation for advanced analytics and the safe deployment of AI at scale to enable augmented and automated decision-making”.
“Governments around the world are facing a common challenge: how to turn complex, fragmented data into confident, timely decisions. By creating context from data and embedding trusted, governed AI, we are helping HMRC improve how public sector organisations make confident, informed decisions,” said Quantexa founder and chief executive Vishal Marria in his company’s announcement. “This is a blueprint for how the UK government deploys AI at scale.”
The deal was also highlighted by the UK government’s minister for AI and online safety Kanishka Narayan MP, who said that the deal represented progress after AI founders “have flagged to me the challenge of procurement: that it’s still too hard for British startups to sell to government”.
Over the last few months, AI founders have flagged to me the challenge of procurement: that it’s still too hard for British startups to sell to government.
— Kanishka Narayan MP (@KanishkaNarayan) May 14, 2026
Two practical pieces of progress to report back! 🚀
1/ UK AI leader, @quantexa, has today been awarded a major £175m… pic.twitter.com/QtH0Wedoio
Public sector data analytics use
HMRC’s appointment of Quantexa is announced just over six weeks after a House of Commons committee described the use of data analytics to tackle fraud and error as “underdeveloped” across the UK public sector.
An estimated £55bn to £81bn (about $73bn-$108bn) is lost annually to fraud and error across UK government – mostly through the tax and welfare systems – but there has been a “lack of ambition and activity to deploy new technology widely,” the public accounts committee (PAC) said on 27 March.
The committee’s ‘Government use of data analytics on error and fraud’ report warned that problems such as legacy technology and lack of digital leadership “still persist”.
Global Government Forum’s sister title Global Government Finance reported more than three years ago that the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) had awarded a contract worth more than £3.4m (more than $4.3m) to Quantexa to use “new data and cutting-edge technology, including AI, to find and prevent more fraud across the public sector” (January 2023); and reported in November 2021 that the Cabinet Office had hired the company to help the UK government detect fraud in Covid-19 loan schemes and help tackle financial crime more broadly.
Key figures at HMRC include chief executive and first permanent secretary John-Paul Marks; chief digital and information officer Daljit Rehal; chief data officer Aydin Sheibanil finance director David Swainston; finance, transformation, planning and performance director John Vickers; customer experience director Claire Walsh; and risk and intelligence services director Andy Leggett.
This article was first published on Global Government Forum’s sister title Global Government Finance. Sign up to Global Government Finance’s editorial newsletter here.
About Ian Hall
Ian is Global Government Finance editor. He has formerly held roles including UK director of Euractiv (2011-2018), editor of Public Affairs News (2007-2011) and news editor of PR Week (2000-2007). He was shortlisted for ‘Editor of the Year’ at the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) Awards in 2010. He began his career in the Balkans at English-language weekly the Sofia Echo (Bulgaria: 1998-1999).
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