Northumbrian Water (NWL) has signed a three-year data and artificial intelligence agreement with British technology firm Aiimi, formalising a long-running collaboration that will underpin the utility’s digital transformation programme through the AMP8 regulatory cycle running from April 2025 to March 2030.
The contract sits within an Insights and Analytics framework and builds on a working relationship between the two organisations that spans seven years. Aiimi will develop bespoke data products targeted at the resilience and sustainability of NWL’s water and wastewater operations, with a focus on AI tools for water quality compliance, live water quality data analysis, and maintenance scheduling optimisation.
A Three-Year Deal Anchored in the Insights and Analytics Framework
The partnership was launched with a “data hack” event at Aiimi’s offices, where data scientists from both organisations and external partners applied machine learning to storm overflow analysis, regulatory reporting, and investment prioritisation. Storm overflow performance is one of the most scrutinised metrics in the UK water sector, with the regulator Ofwat having approved £12 billion of AMP8 spend specifically to reduce spill events by 45% from 2021 levels by 2030.
The agreement also covers data governance, an increasingly critical foundation as UK utilities scale generative and predictive AI use cases across operational, environmental and customer-facing functions.
Aligning With a £3.6 Billion Capital Programme
NWL is delivering a £3.6 billion AMP8 capital programme across the North East of England, Essex and Suffolk, nearly tripling its investment compared with AMP7. The utility supplies water and wastewater services to approximately 4.7 million customers and recently secured a £400 million equity injection from shareholders CK Infrastructure Holdings and KKR to support its 2025–2030 business plan.
The Aiimi engagement aligns with a five-year Digital and Data Strategy that NWL developed with Aiimi’s support, which prioritises environmental performance and service efficiency. It also coincides with the recent appointment of Martin Jackson as NWL’s Chief Information Officer to lead the next phase of the company’s digital transformation agenda.
A Sector-Wide Push Toward Data-Driven Operations
Steve Salvin, Aiimi CEO and founder, framed the deal as a transition from strategy to execution. “Water companies are being asked to do more with less amidst increased service demand and grave climate change. These challenges must be met with innovative, data-driven digital solutions that can truly unlock the power of AI. We’ve already laid the groundwork for this in our Digital and Data Strategy work with Northumbrian Water. Now, it’s time to get to work on bringing the strategy to life though bespoke products developed in collaboration with the water company,” he said in the company’s announcement.
Aiimi’s UK water sector footprint extends beyond NWL. The firm currently works with Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water, has previously served Severn Trent and United Utilities, and is the technical and data lead on Stream, the Ofwat-funded open data initiative. In April 2025, Aiimi co-authored the UK Water Partnership‘s AI Within Reach white paper, which set out a roadmap for responsible AI adoption across the sector.
AMP8: The Largest Investment Cycle in UK Water History
The Northumbrian Water deal sits within a broader £104 billion AMP8 spending package approved by Ofwat for water companies across England and Wales between 2025 and 2030, nearly quadruple the previous regulatory period. Roughly 90% of that funding is directed toward new regulatory requirements set by the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, with the largest individual allocations targeting storm overflows and nutrient pollution.
This investment cycle has triggered a wave of AI and data procurement across UK utilities. Kurrant has previously reported on Leep Utilities’ £10 million migration to Kraken Technologies’ AI water platform and Severn Trent’s partnership with Kraken to embed AI in customer service for its 4.6 million customers, signalling a sector-wide pivot toward data-led operations alongside the surge in capital spending. Coverage of Portsmouth Water’s £136.5 million AMP8 contracts with Cappagh, including a 170,000 smart meter rollout, illustrates the parallel push on physical infrastructure that the new data tools are intended to support.
Market Context
The NWL–Aiimi extension comes as UK water companies face intensified scrutiny over pollution, storm overflows and customer service performance. The structure of the agreement, a bespoke product development model rather than a one-off software licence, reflects a wider industry shift toward longer-term, embedded supplier relationships designed to bridge data science capability gaps inside utilities.
For Aiimi, a privately held firm headquartered in Milton Keynes, the contract consolidates its position as one of the most active specialist data and AI suppliers to UK water, at a moment when sector spending on digital tools is rising sharply alongside the AMP8 capital uplift.
