THE more observant of you may recognise that title as Digital Jersey’s mission statement. Everyone may be more digital now but think of the benefits to Jersey if we accelerated the responsible use of technology in the Island. In 2025, with the seemingly exponential development of AI, that mission only became more urgent.
Digital isn’t just an economic sector in its own right. The ability to make extensive and innovative use of tech is becoming more and more essential in every industry, from finance to tourism and from agriculture to government.
Digital Jersey’s role therefore has to be as multi-faceted as the technology it advocates, and we appreciate that isn’t always easy to follow for the casual observer. That’s why this year we separated our activity into three areas – industry, innovation and skills.
Industry = a strong and growing local technology sector. Innovation = a thriving innovation ecosystem, recognised for the rapid adoption and diffusion of emerging technologies across both public and private sectors. Skills = a highly skilled workforce fit for the future economy.
The headline for our progress this year in building a digital industry is that we saw the highest-ever number of company members – 220 – which would explain why the 7th TechAwards was our biggest yet, with well over 500 attendees. The range of digital leadership on show was impressive, from cutting-edge AI and fintech solutions to public sector programmes and digital charity campaigns.
Our members have not only contributed to our funding through their annual fees but also through other areas such as project support, teaching courses and enabling our events through their sponsorship. To illustrate, when we went out to seek sponsorship for next year’s 13 TechAward award categories, they were all snapped up within a week. That is a clear endorsement of the value we bring to Jersey’s tech industry.
Our facilities were also well attended, both at the Hub in St Helier and DJX in St Brelade. Every day sees our hot desks, permanent desks and meeting rooms packed with people working away at their startup, collaborating to grow their business or presenting to clients. I’m sure those facilities, and the team who runs them, contributed to the satisfaction rating in our annual member survey improving from 8.2/10 to 8.6/10.
We continued to support start-ups, from daily contact in the Hub to initiatives such as our Start & Scale Programme to taking them to the premier SLUSH event in Helsinki.
Over the past year, we have relocated 12 digital companies to Jersey, and they are already making a difference either in growing their own businesses or helping established players in the Island. That we are able to attract some really cutting-edge digital leaders is a fantastic endorsement of Jersey’s tech community.
Innovation
Impact Jersey continues to go from strength to strength.
We announced grants from the Care-Tech Challenge, including Orchid Connect, Lifestyle, Good Boost and Family Nursing & Home Care, with one more to be announced imminently – all fantastic examples of how digital is transforming our approach to healthcare. We announced results for the CXTech programme aimed at boosting customer experience and productivity across Jersey’s economy, including grants for Stock.Live, Sentient Machines and Freedom Holidays.
We also introduced a new, more flexible Innovation Programme designed to provide local entrepreneurs and businesses with access to a rolling funding opportunity. We’ve got some exciting new projects from that to announce early this year, from more innovations in healthcare to an infrastructure project every Islander will benefit from.
We published and launched an AgriTech Roadmap. We continued our work on data trusts, supporting a health data trust with the University of Southampton working with Jersey law and trust firms, and leading finance players are now marketing Jersey data trusts internationally. We also provided support to the government as an adviser on the Financial Services Competitiveness Programme and as a member of the Digital Health Delivery Group.
Perhaps most importantly, though, in our drive to ensure Jersey becomes a rapid adopter of responsible AI, we established the Jersey AI Council, working with Jersey Finance, JFSC, JOIC, IoD, the Jersey AI Forum and the government. In early-2026, we will be publishing the Jersey AI Playbook.
Skills
While it was disappointing, not to say short-sighted, that we didn’t get funding from the Education Department for our facilities and courses, the death of the Digital Jersey Academy has been much exaggerated. In 2025, we saw around 1,700 signups for our 60 or so courses from Office 365 to CoPilot to LinkedIn to Digital Marketing, so the demand is definitely there, and we won’t be able to meet it in 2026.
However, we are still going to be upskilling the workforce and community with a particular focus on AI, coding and related areas.
We will also look to re-run our successful weekend-long AI Hackathon, which took place in the Hub in November. More than 60 local innovators took part, each one playing their part in designing an AI solution to address a particular real-life island issue.
We also continued to evolve our STEM Racing (formerly F1 in Schools) programme, rolling it out for a second year in local secondary schools, and introducing it in primary schools. It was well received once again, involving more than 70 students who worked in teams to design and race their own small-scale F1 car. It’s a dynamic way to make STEM learning fun and exciting.
Looking ahead
This is a review of 2025 so I won’t say much about our plans for next year, but you can expect more of the same, with an even greater focus on AI.
AI is the technology where the rest of the world is accelerating off into the distance and we need to make sure we’re not left behind. It may be a threat but it’s also a huge opportunity for Jersey to seize and Digital Jersey will put its heart and soul into making sure we do just that.
The 2025 AI Hackathon
