Legacy tech stalls United Kingdom government drive for AI

Outdated technology across the UK government is slowing plans to adopt artificial intelligence in public services, according to new research from Cloudhouse.

Cloudhouse's State of Technical Debt Report, based on a survey of UK public sector IT decision-makers, found that 69% said existing systems were hindering AI adoption. The results point to persistent technical debt and a shortage of modernisation skills in departments and agencies.

Legacy platforms remain widespread. The research found that 84% of public sector organisations still rely on existing Microsoft Windows environments. This suggests many teams face constraints when introducing new tooling, security models and deployment approaches that often sit alongside AI programmes.

Skills and debt

The survey suggests capability gaps are shaping the pace and direction of change. Three quarters of organisations (75%) said they lacked the internal skills needed to modernise ageing systems. This shortfall can affect migration planning, testing, operational change control and the documentation required in regulated environments.

Approaches to technical debt also vary. More than half of respondents (53%) said their organisations address technical debt reactively rather than through structured transformation programmes. That often leaves teams handling urgent remediation alongside day-to-day service delivery, instead of tackling root causes across application portfolios.

The research also highlights operational issues that can complicate modernisation. Configuration drift was reported by 78% of organisations. Drift occurs when systems diverge from a defined baseline because of manual changes, patching differences and inconsistent deployment practices. It can increase troubleshooting and make standardisation harder across large estates.

Audit pressure

Audit and compliance demands remain a major consideration for government IT teams. Half of organisations said they struggle to prove compliance during audits, which can become more difficult during large change programmes when systems, configurations and operational processes may shift at the same time.

Modernisation efforts often require teams to track configuration state, deployment history and system access changes, and to show services remain within internal control standards and external regulatory expectations. In government, that requirement can extend across shared service providers, suppliers and internal delivery teams.

Mat Clothier, chief executive officer at Cloudhouse, described the challenge as modernising while maintaining operational control.

"Government organisations need to modernise traditional systems while protecting critical services and maintaining audit confidence," said Mat Clothier, CEO at Cloudhouse. "Cloudhouse provides the control and visibility needed to reduce transformation risk and ensure change doesn't become a failure."

Product focus

Cloudhouse sells software for application modernisation and operational governance. It says it works with complex application estates across different environments. The company was founded in 2010.

Its products include Alchemy, Foundry and Guardian. Cloudhouse describes Alchemy as software that enables business-critical and incompatible applications to run unchanged on modern, supported environments, reducing rework when operating systems or platform components change.

Foundry focuses on automating application packaging across Windows and Linux. Packaging is often a bottleneck in large estates, especially when teams must update many applications while keeping installation and configuration consistent.

Guardian monitors configuration state and drift, according to Cloudhouse. It is positioned around demonstrating control and supporting audits as environments change, reflecting the survey's compliance findings.

Government context

The survey results come as government departments look to apply AI to internal operations and citizen-facing services. Many initiatives depend on data access, system integration and secure operations. Older platforms can make those elements harder to manage, particularly when applications depend on legacy components or change processes remain manual.

Technical debt can also affect resilience planning. Large estates built over time can contain multiple versions of operating systems and applications, along with bespoke integrations and undocumented configuration differences. These issues can slow upgrades and increase the risk of disruption during change.

Cloudhouse says its software is used by organisations including GE Healthcare, National Australia Bank and HM Government. The company is expected to continue focusing its messaging on AI adoption, legacy estates and the operational controls required for large-scale transformation as departments plan modernisation work over the coming year.