The AGI’s new Foresight Report sets out the forces reshaping the UK’s geospatial sector to 2030, from AI to data governance. It warns that skills and education must evolve rapidly if the UK is to stay competitive and meet rising public‑sector demand
In 2024 a UK Government report highlighted the importance of geospatial in the economy. Geospatial data, defined as the description of the location of places, objects and people, and the associated technology (software, hardware, services), was valued at over £6 billion and has so far attracted £1.2 billion in investments between 2013 and 2024. There were over 2,600 companies in the UK, for which geospatial data was core to their product or service offering, and the sector provided more than 37,500 jobs.
At the same time this report was being compiled and published, the Association for Geographic Information (AGI), the UK membership group for organisations and individuals working in geospatial, had started preparations to undertake its own research and analysis project looking at the challenges and opportunities facing the geospatial sector to 2030.
The AGI Foresight Project was a 12-month exercise which sought to engage with both the mainstream geospatial industry in the UK and beyond, and also with those on the fringes of the sector. Building on previous work undertaken in 2010 and then repeated in 2015, the AGI extracted key opinions and insights from the geocommunity in the form of an online survey, engagement with partner organisations, and extensive in-depth, one-to-one interviews. The result is an extensive report providing a clear view of the opportunities and challenges facing the geospatial community, alongside a road map of recommendations.
Fergus Craig, chair of the Association for Geographic Information, commented: “In the first AGI Foresight Study the opening sentence was ‘The geospatial industry is undergoing radical change’ and, since the only constant in life is change, that statement is probably truer now than ever. In the words of the current report: ‘the geospatial sector isn’t simply evolving, it’s fundamentally reconstituting itself around six interconnected forces that challenge every assumption about spatial intelligence in the 21st century’”.
Themes
The key themes, as identified by the report, that will drive change in geospatial, are as follows.
Data – the next transformation: the report predicts the biggest transformation in geospatial data since the advent of digital mapping, one which will extend beyond the technological capability to encompass fundamental questions of trust, community engagement, and professional authority.
Artificial Intelligence: AI stands as perhaps the most consequential technological force reshaping the geospatial sector today. However, success requires moving beyond technological optimism to address fundamental challenges around skills, collaboration, data access, and ethical deployment.
Interoperability & infrastructure: currently at a critical juncture, where foundations underpinning spatial data exchange and system integration are changing, the geospatial community needs to seize the nettle by embracing standards and APIs, with a “make it work” attitude.
The Great Skills Shift – evolution for an embedded future: traditional education models are colliding with rapidly evolving industry demands and the question isn’t whether geospatial will remain relevant, it’s whether our education systems and professionals can adapt quickly enough to thrive.
Collaboration: questioning whether the geospatial sector is moving from traditional, competitive models to more collaborative frameworks that recognise the interconnected nature of geospatial challenges? The theme and desire are evident, but the reality is more piecemeal.
Earth systems evolution: earth systems don’t just inform decisions, they are instrumental in how we build, finance, and protect our future. However, the future does not lie in a single technology, but in the connections between them, the wisdom of deployment, and collaboration to address challenges.
Call to action
The report then attempts to address the “so what?” challenge with calls to action for major stakeholders in the geo ecosystem. These include industry delivering responsible innovations at scale and Geospatial Membership Groups leading the professional evolution revolution. Government and policy makers are charged with enabling the infrastructure revolution with specific actions including, in the next two years, improving geo AI literacy, establishing comprehensive data governance, and reforming licensing and access models for API-driven integration. Longer term, there is a need to invest in education and skills with the report warning “The choice facing geospatial education is stark: evolve rapidly to meet the demands of an embedded future, or watch as other disciplines absorb our capabilities while leaving our institutions behind. The window for transformation is open, but it won’t remain so indefinitely.” The report also calls for regulatory leadership and international coordination if the UK wants to remain at the forefront of geospatial adoption, application, and innovation.
Together with the five-year roadmap for geospatial transformation combined with a warning that ‘the window for proactive adaptation remains open, but evidence suggests it is narrowing rapidly’, the AGI is keen to ensure that conversations around the report and its content continue. It is urging members of the geocommunity to use the report in their day-to-day activities and conversations, to challenge the content, and to engage with the AGI, Government, and Industry, to advocate for wider deployment of geography and geospatial. Outreach
Since officially launching the AGI Foresight Report 2030 to an audience of more than 200 geospatial professionals at the AGI Foresight Conference at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London in November, the AGI has proactively been supporting this. Outreach activities have included an online briefing to a number of teams from across government including from the Government Digital Service. Members of the AGI team are also contributing to podcasts, interviews, and events including AGI Scotland’s Annual Conference (24th February), an AGI Education and Skills
Webinar (25th February), and the British Cartographic Society’s GeoFutures Event (25th March). The ongoing work around the Foresight Project will feature in the recently announced AGI Awards for Geospatial Excellence with a new award category seeking submissions from people and projects that align with one of the six report themes. Later this year, the Foresight Report will feature strongly at the AGI’s prestigious annual GeoCom event which will take place on the 12th November in London.
Richard Flemmings, director of the AGI and Council lead for the Foresight Project, added: “The AGI is uniquely positioned as an independent, volunteer-run organisation representing a broad, cross-discipline range of geographers and geospatial professionals and organisations. We can therefore remain impartial when compiling a report such as this. To maintain this impartiality, we appointed an editorial team that was independent of AGI’s volunteer Council team. This has allowed us to push a variety of voices from our community to the fore, and as far as possible remove any individual bias from the published report.
“Now the report is published, it’s our role to support our members and the wider geocommunity to act on the opportunities and challenges that the report highlights, and to ensure that geospatial continues to contribute in a meaningful way to the delivery of public services, the UK economy, and the wider issues we are facing as a global society.”
The AGI would like to thank Cadcorp, CGI, Esri UK, GIS Jobs, Idox Geospatial, Informed Solutions, MGISS, Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland, and Verisk for their sponsorship, which has made the Foresight project possible, and extend special thanks to the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) for its backing.