Dr Laura Gilbert

Dr. Laura Gilbert is the Head of the AI for Government program at the Ellison Institute of Technology, working jointly with the Tony Blair Institute to deliver a program of AI solutions to improve the ability of governments to plan and deliver resilient public services and generate better economic and wellbeing outcomes for their citizens. She is also Expert Advisor in AI to the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. 

From September 2020 to January 2025 Laura worked in 10 Downing Street as the founding director of 10DS, the data science and analytics team. She created and directed the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) in 2023 until her exit, and held other roles including Chief Analyst for the Cabinet Office and joint Chair of the Departmental Directors of Analysis, and directorship of other teams including the Evaluation Taskforce and a team in national security. These high performance teams successfully provided ground-breaking, fast-paced modelling and analysis to support policy making and delivery, and delivered expert data and AI solutions into public services. Laura also created and spearheads a broader program of radical transformation, innovation, digitisation and radical upskilling in central government called Evidence House, delivering around 1800 hours of free, in person technical training to civil servants and spinning out multiple AI solutions to public service delivery problems. In 2023 she was awarded a CBE for Services to Technology and Analysis.  

Laura previously worked in defence intelligence, quantitative finance, and for nearly a decade was CTO of a medical technologies company, Rescon, with her business partner she created the company and brought it from start-up to SMT to acquisition before exiting and joining government in 2020. 

Laura holds a doctorate in Particle Physics and Computing from the University of Oxford, undergraduate degrees from the University of Cambridge, is a Visiting Professor at LSE, and holds fellowships of the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Analytics. 

She is fluent in seven programming languages, and is named on four patents, including lead inventor on two data security patents. She is associated with Hertford College in Oxford. 

Laura lives chaotically in a lovely Hampshire village, on the edge of a bluebell wood, with three small children (Allegra, Felix and Jasper) and a varying range of small creatures – at the time of writing five meerkats (Errol, Tilly, Max, Clement and Rover), a kusimanse (Susie), a skunk (Ralph) and a fennec fox (Beth). She has represented Britain 7 time at Savate Kickboxing, most recently in 2019, her top ranking being 3rd in Europe and 4th in the World, and is a qualified kickboxing instructor. When she gets time she enjoys playing her instruments and with every big birthday buys a new one – most recently a harp and a harpsichord. She is a qualified firebreather.