Last month, I had the privilege of attending BizX 2026 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport — the UK’s premier business growth conference, brought to you by ActionCOACH. Over three days, the room was packed with ambitious business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders all hungry to learn and grow. There were many standout moments, but one that has stayed with me was hearing Mo Gawdat speak.
For those unfamiliar with him, Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer of Google X, a bestselling author, and one of the world’s most credible voices on artificial intelligence. This is not a commentator speculating from the sidelines. This is someone who was inside the machine — quite literally — when the AI revolution began to accelerate.
His message was characteristically direct: AI is not coming. It is here. And the question is no longer whether it will transform your business — it is whether you will be ready when it does.
Stop Watching, Start Acting
One of the most striking things Gawdat communicates is the sheer pace of AI development. By his reckoning, we have very little time to adapt before the next wave arrives. For business owners, that urgency is real.
Too many SMEs are still in observation mode — watching AI from a distance, dabbling occasionally, waiting to see how things develop. That window is closing. The businesses already embedding AI into their operations are gaining compounding advantages in productivity, speed, and cost efficiency. Every month of hesitation is a month of ground lost.
The first step is simply to start. Identify one area of your business — marketing content, customer communications, financial reporting, process documentation — and introduce an AI tool systematically. Learn what it can do. Build your team’s confidence. Then expand.
Use AI to Work On Your Business, Not Just In It
Here’s where AI becomes genuinely transformative for business owners rather than just operationally useful. The risk with any powerful tool is that it simply makes you busier — faster at the wrong things.
The real opportunity is to use AI to do what great business owners should always be doing: stepping back, analysing the business objectively, and making better decisions. AI can process data, identify patterns, model scenarios, and surface insights that would take a human team days to produce. Used well, it frees you to lead rather than to manage. As Mo said, think of AI as a Junior Manager!!
Think about the time currently consumed by tasks that require intelligence but not necessarily your intelligence — drafting, summarising, scheduling, research, reporting. AI handles these superbly. Your job is to ask better questions, set clearer strategy, and build the relationships that only humans can build.
Stay Human
Gawdat is also clear on what AI cannot replace, at least not yet. Human connection, trust, judgement, and creativity remain your competitive edge. The SME owner who combines genuine relationships with AI-enhanced efficiency will consistently outperform the one who relies on either alone.
The businesses thriving in the years ahead won’t be the ones that feared AI or the ones that simply automated everything. They’ll be the ones whose owners made a clear-eyed decision to embrace it strategically — using it to amplify their strengths, not substitute their thinking.
Mo Gawdat left the room with a sense of urgency. Take that seriously. But more importantly, take action.
Ready to explore how AI and smarter business strategy can work together for your business? Please e-mail me at rogerpemberton@actioncoach.com and we can discuss how I can help you.
