London AI Scene Reality Check: 4 On-the-Ground Observations This week in London I attended a Cursor local meetup at Daisy Green — cherry blossoms by the logo and limited-edition Cafe Cursor coffee beans. Dozens of people showed up: Cloudflare system engineers, Meta engineers, indie app builders… The line that stuck with me most came from a local AI GTM person: “London’s AI scene is still a lowland.” 1️⃣ Overall vibe is very chill, mostly B2B Projects cluster in finance, healthcare and other verticals. There’s none of the all-in intensity you feel in China. 2️⃣ Big-tech layoffs have pushed many engineers into side projects Local tech companies went through rough layoffs. Lots of engineers are building their own things, but most lack GTM skills. Surplus of talent, scarcity of growth — a clear structural gap. 3️⃣ What people who moved from the Bay Area say Met a Cloudflare engineer who relocated from the Bay. He’s vibe-coding an app that turns walking notes into image + voice memos. His take: visas are easier, funding still mostly comes from US VCs; lower pay, better work-life balance, but far lower density of AI opportunities than the Bay. 4️⃣ Community is fragmented No integrated AI community like in China or the Bay Area. Many developers complain about the lack of hackathons, especially large ones. For community builders, this is open territory.