Past event · TLA Taiwan 2025 Flagship
AI Without Borders
The 2025 flagship—leading UK and Taiwan voices on how AI is transforming traditional industries, and how the two countries can build AI talent pipelines together.
AI for the industries that run the world
The 2025 flagship of Tech London Advocates Taiwan convened leading voices from Taiwan and the UK to explore how AI can drive innovation across traditional and legacy industries—from manufacturing and logistics to healthcare and education.
The pairing is natural: Taiwan's strengths in AI hardware, prototyping and smart manufacturing meet the UK's leadership in AI policy, research, talent development and startup scaling. Across two panels, a keynote and a startup showcase, the day focused on practical case studies, sustainable talent pipelines and concrete pathways for joint innovation.
How the morning ran
- 09:30 – 10:00Registration & coffee
- 10:00 – 10:10Opening remarks
- 10:10 – 10:40Panel 1 — AI Across Traditional Industries
- 10:50 – 11:20Panel 2 — Talent Pathways for AI
- 11:20 – 11:30Keynote — Taiwan AI Start-up Landscape (Yina Wu)
- 11:30 – 12:10Startup Showcase — AI in Action
- 12:10 – 12:30Open networking & investor meetups
Two conversations: industry adoption, and the people behind it
Panel 1: AI Across Traditional Industries
Lessons from the UK and Taiwan in applying AI to legacy sectors—manufacturing, logistics and healthcare.
Geoff McGrath, Kir Nuthi, Yi-Ping Lin
Moderated by YJ Chen
Panel 2: Talent Pathways for AI
Sustainable AI workforce pipelines, cross-sector training, and international collaboration to deploy AI talent.
Sara El-Hanfy, Viola Jardon, Frank Chuang, Eric Chang
Moderated by Wayne Wang
Voices from across the UK–Taiwan ecosystem
Yi-Ping Lin, PhD
VP & General Director, ICL, ITRI (Taiwan)
Former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology; wireless communications, AI and innovation policy.
Eric Chang, PhD
Executive Director, Taiwan AI Foundation (AIF)
Former Partner Director, Microsoft Research Asia; AI adoption, speech recognition and tech strategy.
Frank Chuang, PhD
Assistant Professor, MIS, NCCU (Taiwan)
Former postdoc at the Alan Turing Institute; data science, AI applications and spatial analytics.
Sara El-Hanfy
Head of AI & ML, Innovate UK
Leads national AI programmes and applied innovation, and the UK’s public–private collaboration on AI.
Kir Nuthi
Head of AI, TechUK
Policy and industry leader on responsible AI, SME engagement and inclusive AI growth.
Viola Jardon
Head of Innovation Programmes, CISL, Cambridge
Leads sustainability-tech programmes for early-stage startups; a UK–Asia connector with Taiwanese roots.
Geoff McGrath, PhD
Founder & CEO, Axiom Labs
Former Chief Innovation Officer, McLaren Applied; AI-driven systems, IoT and deeptech commercialisation.
Yina Wu, PhD
Assistant Professor, National Taipei University
Keynote on Taiwan's startup ecosystem and international market expansion; VC & entrepreneurship.
Four Taiwan startups putting AI to work in traditional sectors
Angible
AI-powered self-checkout combining custom hardware with explainable AI to cut shrinkage and recover lost retail revenue.
AIpoint
Intelligent water-treatment dosing and sensing—real-time control, cost savings and early-warning detection for utilities and aquaculture.
EMILY.RPA
Browser-native, no-code/low-code automation that runs across Windows, macOS and Linux—built to help SMEs automate daily work.
Turing Drive
Modular autonomous-driving solutions retrofitting low-speed vehicles, with perception, HD mapping and fleet operations.
Key takeaways
The biggest ROI often comes from automating reporting and workflows, not futuristic simulations.
Geoff McGrath, Axiom Labs
Clean data turns skepticism into commitment—data quality is what drives adoption.
Yi-Ping Lin, ITRI
The UK's challenge isn't algorithms, it's people—talent is the real bottleneck.
Sara El-Hanfy, Innovate UK
The best ventures start with the problem you are solving. AI should augment, not replace.
Viola Jardon, CISL Cambridge
The day, in a few cards
Gallery
The 2025 flagship of the Tech London Advocates & Global Tech Advocates Taiwan Working Group, hosted at Vorboss, 10 Exchange Square, London.
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