OECD
Alistair Nolan is a Senior Policy Analyst in the OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology, and Innovation. Mr. Nolan currently leads various strands of OECD work on artificial intelligence (AI), most recently on AI in science and on the diffusion of AI and other advanced technologies in the business sector. Working with a team of scientists and AI experts he edited and co-authored the 2023 OECD book Artificial Intelligence in Science: Challenges, Opportunities and the Future of Science. He led work at the OECD on a new survey of AI adoption in firms across the G7 countries, published in May 2025: The Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Firms: New Evidence for Policymaking. He is currently developing a series of workshops on the future of AI and its implications for several fields of science and policymaking.
Among other work, Mr. Nolan led preparation of the 2017 book The Next Production Revolution: Implications for Governments and Business, together with work on robotics – Making life easier, richer and healthier: Robots, their future and roles for public policy, and edited the 2020 book The Digitalisation of Science, Technology and Innovation : Key Developments and Policies. Earlier in his career at the OECD Mr. Nolan helped develop the Survey of Adult Skills, a large-scale study of key cognitive and workplace skills of working-age adults in over forty countries.
Prior to the OECD, Mr. Nolan spent nine years with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.