Burnham Names Kanishka Narayan as UK's 1st AI Cabinet Minister

For UK AI companies—from DeepMind to ElevenLabs—a cabinet-level minister promises faster policy intervention and direct influence over procurement and R&D budgets. Yet the simultaneous dissolution of the dedicated technology department creates uncertainty: will the new combined business-and-science ministry be able to give AI regulation the focused technical leadership it demands, or will safety and ethics fall through the cracks?

Kanishka Narayan has been named the UK’s first artificial intelligence minister to attend cabinet, a significant elevation of the role by new prime minister Andy Burnham. The appointment, made on 20 July 2026, dissolves the standalone Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and merges it with the Department for Business and Trade under Jonathan Reynolds. This restructuring places AI oversight within a broader economic mandate, signalling a potential shift towards commercialisation and international competitiveness over the more cautious regulatory posture adopted by the previous Starmer government.

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The appointment, made on 20 July 2026, dissolves the standalone Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and merges it with the Department for Business and Trade under Jonathan Reynolds.

Narayan’s promotion comes after less than a year in government; he was initially appointed as junior minister for AI and online safety in September 2025 under Keir Starmer, serving under then-technology secretary Liz Kendall. Burnham’s swift removal of Kendall and other Starmer loyalists on his first day as premier underscores a decisive break from the prior administration. The decision to place AI at the cabinet table—and to absorb DSIT into the business-focused department—reflects a government eager to leverage the UK’s deep pool of AI talent and venture capital. The country already hosts marquee names: Google DeepMind is headquartered in London, while homegrown unicorns like ElevenLabs and Wayve have demonstrated the commercial potential of UK AI research. By giving the portfolio a direct line to the prime minister, Burnham aims to make good on post-Brexit pledges to fashion Britain as an agile, pro-innovation hub less encumbered than the European Union.

However, the move is not without risk. DSIT was only created in 2023 to give technology and science a dedicated seat at the table; its dissolution only three years later could be interpreted abroad as institutional instability. Britain’s AI sector has long lamented inconsistent government support, especially underinvestment in public supercomputing resources compared to the US or France. The previous pivot from “world-leading” AI safety to lighter-touch innovation rhetoric only partially reassured investors, and now the departmental architecture has been upended again. Narayan’s personal authority will be tested: as a junior minister catapulted to cabinet, he must rapidly build relationships with business leaders who will scrutinise whether the new structure delivers faster procurement, better compute access, and clear regulatory guardrails without the protection of a standalone ministry.