AI talent is increasingly leaving the UK, with the US being the obvious central hub for AI leadership and innovation, but increasingly the UAE and Canada are tempting British AI talent abroad. A key driver behind this shift is compensation, as US firms continue to outbid their UK equivalents on both salaries and long-term incentives. The Heidrick & Struggles AI compensation report reveals the data and brings this gap into focus. Based in London, Sam Burman is a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles and global managing partner of Frontier Tech. The Heidrick & Struggles 2025 Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Officers Compensation Survey provides a detailed snapshot of how senior AI and data leaders are paid across major global markets, drawing on responses from 318 executives across the US, UK and Europe. The decision to relocate is typically driven by a combination of three factors: opportunity, as the US is a much larger AI economy; the ecosystem, as many leading frontier AI companies are headquartered in the US; and compensation.