Feetham urges Gibraltar to take responsible lead on AI adoption 

Gibraltar should take a responsible lead in the adoption of artificial intelligence, Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham, said highlighting that the technology should be used to empower workers.  

Mr Feetham was delivering the opening address at the AI Futures and Foresight Conference, attended by senior leaders from across government, regulation and industry. 

The conference builds on months of work already undertaken by the Ministry of Justice, Trade and Industry to advance AI initiatives focused on innovation, skills and smart regulation. 

The joint initiative between the Government of Gibraltar and Numero Partners, is in collaboration with global learning and transformation organisation Hyper Island. 

Mr Feetham told the attendees that AI was already shaping the economy and that the challenge for Gibraltar was not whether to adapt, but how to do so responsibly. 

“Our ambition is not simply to adapt to AI, but to take a responsible lead in how it is adopted,” he said. 

“That means understanding both its potential and its limits.” 

Mr Feetham said that over the past year the Government of Gibraltar, working with industry, had been exploring how AI could support existing sectors, improve efficiency and create new economic opportunities. 

He said some of this work was already visible, while other initiatives were taking place in the background or remained at an exploratory stage. 

AI, he said, presented a significant opportunity to strengthen Gibraltar’s core sectors, including finance, gaming, insurance and professional services, while also offering scope to diversify the economy and attract new skills and activity. 

Mr Feetham stressed that AI should not be seen as a threat to employment. 

“This is not about AI reducing jobs or displacing people,” he said. 

“Properly understood and properly applied, AI is about empowering our workforce, helping people work more efficiently, make better use of their skills, and unlock the full potential of the resources we already have.” 

He added that AI should serve people rather than the other way around. 

The minister said Gibraltar’s size should be seen as an advantage, pointing to its experience in innovation, high standards and robust regulation. 

He said the Rock had previously succeeded by gaining first-mover advantage rather than reacting late, and argued there was no reason it could not do so again in the area of AI. 

Mr Feetham said he was keeping his remarks short in order to invite five young people onto the stage, highlighting the importance his ministry placed on preparing younger generations for a changing economy. 

He named Owen McGonical, Jack McInnes, Puneet Sabhnani, Nathania Suissa and Leon Thick, describing them as having already shown an entrepreneurial mindset and an interest in emerging technologies and brought them on stage. 

Mr Feetham announced that each had been awarded a place on Hyper Island’s programme, Strategize like a Futurist, made possible through the support of event sponsors Hassans, Xapo Bank and Gibtelecom, together with Numero Partners and the Government of Gibraltar. 

Opening the conference, Matt Parkes, Co-Founder of Numero Partners, framed the day around a shared leadership challenge describing how AI capability has moved rapidly through organisations and leadership understanding and alignment have not always kept pace.  

“This moment is not about leaders becoming technologists,” Mr Parkes said.  

“It’s about leaders gaining perspective, understanding what AI can do, where it creates value, where it doesn’t, and how we harness our people rather than sideline them. Gibraltar has an opportunity to lead by choosing alignment over hype, and responsibility over reaction.”  

Mr Parkes said that most organisations represented at the conference are already deploying AI across their operations, often effectively, but that the pace of adoption has highlighted the need for leaders to step back, compare approaches across sectors and align around shared principles. 

Throughout the day, participants engaged in expert-led sessions designed to cut through hype and establish a shared, practical understanding of what AI means for leadership decision-making.  

Iñaki Escudero from Hyper Island held a discussion on the state of AI where he fielded questions from the audience about its effect on businesses, policy and people. 

He highlighted how technology is moving faster than ever. 

“We are trying to solve new problems with old ways of thinking and that's the challenge,” he said. 

“We grow linearly, humans. Technology grows exponentially. We cannot compete.” 

He added that guardrails are needed to ensure that AI to is in the benefit of humanity and that governance is needed. 

When asked about technology’s effect on the mind, he said: “We are going to be transformed into a different version of humans. There's no doubt. It's already happening.” 

He also described how the over the past 30 years humanity has created an incredible amount of data.  

“In one single year, in 2013, we took more pictures than all time combined before us,” he said. 

He added that this is an issue because of the power required to store this data. 

The conference also included discussions which explored the strategic trade-offs leaders face including speed versus safety, innovation versus credibility, and experimentation versus enterprise value, particularly within regulated industries.  

Delegates also took part in structured foresight and scenario work examining the future of AI in Gibraltar, considering how governance, trust and economic vitality could evolve over the coming years.  

A closing fireside discussion enabled senior industry leaders to share candid reflections on AI adoption to date, highlighting practical lessons learned and the realities of implementation.  

The importance of the conference was further underlined by the attendance of the Governor of Gibraltar, alongside senior representatives from the Government and key stakeholders from across Gibraltar’s economy.  

The conference concluded with a shared recognition that Gibraltar does not face an AI adoption problem, but an alignment opportunity, one that can only be realised through continued collaboration between Government, regulators and industry.  

The Government said AI Futures and Foresight Conference marks the next step in a wider collaboration to embed AI literacy, leadership alignment and responsible innovation across Gibraltar’s key sectors.