Regional Government Uncovers Strategic Growth Opportunities
The West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), the inward investment arm of the UK's largest regional economy, sought to identify key areas for growth within the region. Standard data sources, however, fell short in offering the detailed insights needed to differentiate the region's unique strengths.
To gain a deeper understanding, beyond standard industry classifications, WMGC partnered with London Economics and utilised Glass.AI's large scale language understanding technology. This AI-driven approach mapped the region's companies to their digital presence online and analysed the activities they described. The analysis identified and clustered emerging sectors such as computer gaming, immersive technology, advanced manufacturing, connected vehicles, smart construction, and digital healthcare.
Benchmarking these sectors against other major UK city regions revealed that the West Midlands had higher concentrations in 10 of the 13 key emerging sectors, positioning it as a leader outside of London.
By leveraging AI and language understanding, WMGC was able to gain deeper insights into the West Midlands' economic landscape. The results could be traced back to their original provenance, providing compelling evidence to attract potential investors.
