Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay. It’s already transforming the marketing world, opening up new opportunities, raising new challenges and, inevitably, sparking plenty of debate along the way.
Chris recently attended Google’s AI Works for Business event, part of a UK-wide series designed to help organisations get AI-ready. The day brought together business leaders, Google experts and technology partners to explore how AI can drive growth and shape the future of work. One of the headline messages was the scale of the opportunity: AI could contribute up to £400 billion to the UK economy, with nearly two-thirds of jobs expected to be augmented in some way. Yet adoption remains uneven. For example, women over 55 are currently around four times less likely to use AI tools than men under 35.
The sessions highlighted that success with AI depends on more than just technology. Training and confidence play a crucial role, with 65% of people saying that upskilling has helped them understand how AI could support their work, while 62% cite a lack of training as the main barrier preventing greater use. Even so, we’re already seeing tangible benefits. Around a third of UK workers are now using generative AI tools, reporting time savings of over 122 hours per year – equivalent to more than 12 working days returned to more valuable tasks.
For us, the most powerful reminder was that embracing AI isn’t simply about adopting the latest tools. It’s about building the mindset, skills and data foundations to use them meaningfully.
If you’re exploring how AI could support your marketing, operations or customer experience, we’d love to help you make sense of the possibilities. Get in touch to start the conversation.
