Friday 15 May 2026 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Conference Room, Civil Engineering Building, University of Cambridge
About
The DRF Lunchtime Clinic is delighted to welcome Paula Claytonsmith, former Chief Executive of the Local Council Roads Innovation Group, who will speak on “From Reactive to Intelligent: Agentic AI, Human Judgement, and the Governance Challenge for the Highways Sector.”
About the talk
Many UK highways authorities are already deploying AI in inspection, asset management, scheduling, and risk assessment. This presentation uses the highways sector as a concrete, evidence-based lens onto the broader challenges of introducing a new layer of autonomous thinking using the full potential of Agentic AI.
Drawing on applied research into agentic AI adoption in UK highways, it examines three interlocking problems. First, the governance and legal gap: for example procurement decisions being made now that will set institutional precedents long before full AGI-level capability arrives in the sector, yet most frameworks remain designed for narrow, task-specific systems. Second, the workforce dimension: automation bias, cognitive atrophy risk, and the structural erosion of human oversight undermine the meaningful accountability that regulation requires. Third, the trust deficit: where deployment has (and is) outpacing communication and accountability, public confidence then collapses around technically functional systems.
The talk closes by discussing what adaptive, people-centred governance and innovation adoption will need to look like as highways authorities move from narrow, task-specific AI toward systems capable of autonomous, goal-directed action across complex operational environments.
About the speaker
Paula Claytonsmith is a UK-based writer and policy strategist with 20+ years’ experience in the public sector with over a decade focussing on highways, intelligent systems, emerging tech, and innovation. As a former Chief Executive of Local Council Roads Innovation Group, she advises the Department for Transport, local highways authorities, and the sector on highway maintenance innovations, AI, and technology adoption.
She has provided expert evidence to Parliament, appeared on BBC Radio 4, spoken at national and international conferences, and contributed to national policy on road innovation in both trade, and national press. Founder of Policy Intelligence, Paula connects academic research to practical policy, working across universities and public sector organisations.
Her current work focuses on innovation, and agentic AI in UK highways, exploring governance, workforce shifts, and public trust as systems move from pilot to operational use.