Simon Wisdom has evolved from product data science in fintech to building AI applications for public benefit, with recent work in open-source tools, deliberative tech, and AI safety research. At Nesta he is developing AI agents that tackle critical admin bottlenecks preventing climate and health initiatives from scaling. Specifically, he will be partnering with the sustainable future and healthy life mission teams to prototype agentic AI solutions for heat pump installer admin work and verification and auditing work for nutrition data analysts.

Simon says: “Heat pump installers lose days to DNO (District Network Operator) applications, with many rejected for minor administrative errors or forgotten due to long response times and confusing systems. Through embedded partnership with Renbee and shadowing real installers, I’m building AI agents that handle the messy reality of these workflows. By automating a lot of the red tape slowing down installs, installers can spend more time in the field rather than the back office.”

“In parallel, I am exploring how AI might help in audits for the UK's new mandatory food health reporting system. Manual verification is impossible at scale as supermarkets are required to report nutritional data on millions of products. Even linking one retailer's sales data to nutritional databases takes weeks of manual work. AI agents could pull data from multiple sources, check for anomalies, and proactively flag unusual submissions for review. The aim is to open-source a lot of the work, enabling other organisations to adapt them for their own bottlenecks and embodying Nesta's mission of spreading innovations that work.”

Simon says: “There’s still a huge gap between the promises and potential of AI and how it is used in practice. I’m excited to get closer to teams busy with impactful day-to-day work and to think about how I can make their life better. This could mean automated scheduling, data analysis, quality assurance assistants, and much more. It’s a rapidly evolving field, so there are new things to try every week.”

“I’m particularly drawn to nutrition and the healthy life mission. I love to cook and think about how to eat healthily through a mostly plant-based diet, and I experience firsthand how confusing it is to make good food choices. I love that Nesta is working to make it easier on people to eat well.”