Britain’s AI sector will grow from £1.36 trillion (about $1.7 trillion) to £2.4 trillion ($3 trillion) by 2027, making it the world’s third-largest AI economy behind the U.S. and China, according to an analysis by the information clearinghouse Global AI Ecosystem.

The U.K. has more than 8,900 companies at work in AI, an AI workforce of roughly 500,000, and about 600 U.K.-based investment funds focused on AI, operating in the sector, the study found.

Downing Street already has prioritized AI development, having launched 280 projects now underway to harness the technology. AI “is the most extensive industrial revolution yet,” deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said in an August public statement. 

TRENDPOST: Just as AI will put less-educated people out of work, it also will sharpen the divide between developed and emerging nations. The latter lacks the resources to invest in AI in the same transformative ways that industrial and post-industrial nations can. The growing disparity between the two in AI’s use will leave less-developed countries further and further behind economically.

The new divide will sharpen political and cultural tensions between more- and less-developed countries, leading to more discontent and social unrest in emerging nations.