ElevenLabs signs MOU with UK government to bring voice AI to public services and triples London HQ

ElevenLabs announced on June 8, 2026 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), covering three areas: public services, AI security research, and talent development. The announcement came alongside news that the company is tripling the size of its London headquarters and doubling its UK headcount to 200 employees.

What's new

The MOU with DSIT commits both parties to collaboration across three tracks:

1. Public services and accessibility — ElevenLabs and DSIT will explore deploying voice AI to improve how citizens access government information, with a specific focus on people with visual impairments, low literacy, elderly populations, and linguistically diverse communities who are underserved by text-first digital government interfaces.

2. AI security — The partnership deepens an existing research collaboration with the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI), focusing on voice perception: specifically, how well people can distinguish between human and AI-generated voices in natural conversational contexts, and how disclosure of AI identity affects willingness to share information.

3. Talent and upskilling — Commitments to recruit AI expertise in voice and audio across the UK and build local capability in the sector.

The London headquarters expansion will triple the size of the current office. ElevenLabs said UK headcount will double to 200, distributed across research, engineering, and commercial functions.

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the government views voice AI as a meaningful accessibility lever, noting that it "could make a real difference to how people access public services—whether helping someone with visual impairment listen to information."

Context

ElevenLabs has an existing footprint in the public sector. In the Czech Republic, the company supports national benefits and employment hotlines with AI voice agents that handle approximately 5,000 calls per day, with those agents independently resolving around 85% of calls without human escalation. The company also works with the Government of Ukraine and US local governments including the City of Midland, Texas.

In February 2026, ElevenLabs signed an earlier MOU with the UK AI Security Institute focused specifically on voice AI safety research. The June 2026 agreement with DSIT is broader in scope, adding public service deployment and talent tracks to that safety-focused research relationship.

The company passed $500 million in annual recurring revenue in May 2026 and recently closed a Series D round with investors including BlackRock, NVIDIA, and Wellington Management.

Why it matters

National governments moving from AI strategy documents to signed partnerships with voice AI vendors marks a maturation of the market. The DSIT MOU is notable for two reasons beyond the press release: the accessibility focus is a genuine policy use case (not just efficiency framing), and the AI Security Institute research track produces independent data on how citizens respond to AI-generated voices in high-stakes contexts like benefits hotlines.

For ElevenLabs, the UK move signals a deliberate government-sector vertical strategy. The public sector has long procurement cycles and high compliance bars — anchoring in the UK with an MOU creates a reference that is valuable across other national governments evaluating voice AI for public services.