Tony Blair

Tony Blair (born 1953) governed Britain from 1997 to 2007 as the modernizer of the Labour Party; two decades on, he has become perhaps the most institutionally influential AI evangelist in Western politics. His Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, with staff in dozens of countries, advises governments from Whitehall to Africa — and its unifying prescription is that the state must be rebuilt around artificial intelligence.

The reimagined state

Through 2024 the institute published a drumbeat of reports — including the “Governing in the Age of AI” series with AI firm Faculty — arguing that AI adoption could save the UK public sector billions, staff the NHS with AI-augmented care, and add tens of billions in tax revenue by 2040. At his Future of Britain Conference in July 2024, days after Labour’s election win, Blair told the new government that harnessing the technological revolution was the single game-changer available to it, projecting around £10 billion in public-sector savings within five years.

The evangelism has critics on all sides. NHS campaigners accuse the institute of writing privatization-friendly blueprints for a health service it would hand to tech vendors; commentators note the TBI’s funding ties to Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, whose foundation has committed hundreds of millions to it. Blair answered the charge directly in a 2026 Observer essay, insisting his conviction came from study, not sponsorship — and kept publishing blueprints.