In the past week the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ has been the buzzword of the recent political party conference season with the likes of Chancellor Philip Hammond, his Labour counterpart John McDonnell and Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey stressing its importance for the UK in years to come.

Building on the ongoing third digital revolution, the Fourth Industrial Revolution represents new ways in which technology will become embedded within global society by the means of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things and autonomous veh...