The future is here: a vision for AI in the North East
“Digital Voice’s work in leveraging AI to empower young people, and promote digital inclusion, is vital. They loved how inspirational this initiative is and how technology is being creatively used to make a positive, lasting impact on communities - keep up the great work.”
- Prolific North Tech Awards Judging panel, 2024
Having embraced the creative potential of AI technology in our regular programmes, the team at Digital Voice welcome the news from Kim McGuinness, that there will be significant investment in AI in our region.
The AI Growth Zone for the North East is a partnership with some of the biggest names in global computing and the UK Government which puts the region at the forefront of the next technology revolution. The mayor’s ambition is that it will attract further investment, jobs and opportunities for young people:
“For me this is about a simple vision: I want kids in our schools to see their place in an AI-driven future. We know AI will be transformative for our economy, but this is how we make sure it also provides a new future for our young people.”
- Kim McGuinness
This is an ambition that Julie Nicholson, Managing Director of Digital Voice, shares with the mayor.
“For the young people in the North East, where digital exclusion is higher than anywhere else in the country, as well as child-poverty and an ever widening attainment gap, mastering AI as a skill presents a real opportunity, particularly for girls who are still under-represented in technical jobs. We’re putting them at the vanguard of this rapidly developing technology; it’s the very definition of how we use tech for good.”
Digital Voice has been experimenting and implementing the use of AI in our existing programmes as well as creating new strands of work that harness its creative potential.
And our work is being noticed.
In 2024 we won the Prolific North Tech For Good Award and in 2025 won the Northern Power Women’s Tech for Good Award, both for our creative and empowering use of AI in communities that are largely excluded digitally.
Here’s a snapshot of our award-winning programmes:
FutureMe
We were curious how AI could be used to enhance our participants’ experience. One of our longest running projects, PhotoClub, was amongst the first to use the latest tech to take a step into the future. Photo Club is a regular space for families with children and young people with and without additional needs to come together and be creative in a friendly, informal setting.
FutureMe project was a new facet of our work with these families, in which the group developed 3D AI models of themselves and then crafted prompts to create a version of themselves in the future.
DreamIt
For DreamIt, a group of young people from Chopwell Youth Club took the FutureMe idea a step further. They started to imagine what the world might look like in the future and then they brought those ideas to life using AI technology.
The group produced a short film featuring AI, animation and sound design, all underpinned by a story created by them, about a new app on their phones which would allow them to see their potential future, good and bad. They explored how the latest AI technology could allow them to see what this future would look like. This project involved four different artists, demonstrating that far from replacing artists, AI has become another creative tool for them to use.
The Chopwell Lockout
To mark the centenary of the Chopwell Lockout, in which miners were locked out of the mine for refusing poorer working conditions, Digital Voice worked with children from Chopwell Primary School to create a short animation. The children were taught how to generate AI images using their own drawings as the prompt and then animated these to accompany a short script they had devised. This blend of an important historical event with the most up to date AI technology, quite literally, brought the story to life for these children.
What’s next?
For Digital Voice it is about how we empower people to use this technology as another creative tool. We are currently developing CPD courses for teachers so that they can harness the power of AI to engage children in art. We are also exploring how we teach more children to bring photos to life with AI animation in our history and heritage programmes as well as learning about art by generating versions of their own drawings in the style of famous artists’ work.
We can also offer an innovative way to engage people in consultation about improvements to their local area. Communities would use AI image generation to imagine the changes they’d like to see.
To get in touch to discuss a potential AI project, click here
For more information on the projects mentioned above: