Everyone's had the training. Nobody's changed how they work.
Oct 20, 2026 — 12:00 pm - 1:00 PMBoardroom 1
Speakers:
Session description
Fewer than half the UK mid-market leaders we surveyed can show a return on the AI they've already bought (aibl, State of UK AI Adoption 2026).
Join 16 other senior leaders to share what's working, and how AI's impact can be realised.
Hosted by Andy Lambert, co-founder of AcademyAI.
AcademyAI measures how capable your people are with AI, builds that capability through role-based microlearning, turns what works into shared practice across the organisation, and measures the impact. But this session is all about you, not about AcademyAI.
Why this session
Having the tools doesn't mean you're better off.
Andy Lambert built and sold his last business to Adobe, then spent four years there as a Principal Product Manager focused on Adobe's AI products. His experience helping lead Adobe's own AI transformation taught him the same thing: tool access doesn't make people AI-literate, and using AI is not the same as being capable with it. Nine months of aibl's own research says as much: fewer than half of the UK mid-market leaders surveyed can show a positive return on the AI they've already deployed (aibl, State of UK AI Adoption 2026).
The pressures
Most organisations are stuck on step one of a three-step journey.
Personal productivity
Most organisations are here. Individuals who've taught themselves pull ahead, building systems of their own and accelerating their personal productivity. That creates a widening gap between the people transforming how they work and the rest of the organisation.
Org-wide efficiency
Personal wins don't add up to company-wide gains on their own. Getting here means shared ways of working, a clear view of capability across the organisation, and a means of closing that gap. Most organisations aren't here, which is why most leaders can only offer up adoption numbers and a handful of anecdotes when they tell their AI story.
Org-wide transformation
Outside the fastest-growing businesses in the world, almost nobody is here. But it's the goal worth keeping in view: what new possibilities become true once you re-engineer the business around AI?
How it works
Sixteen seats, one conversation
One hour to learn from sixteen peers in a relaxed, Chatham House setting. Andy poses the questions, and everyone at the table shares their own experience. Come with an open mind and a willingness to share.
The four questions
What the table works through
Four questions, one hour. Come with a real answer to at least one, for your own organisation.
Who owns adoption after the training?
Most organisations can't name the person, and can't say which departments are pulling ahead of which when you ask them directly. How do you ensure people's capability grows in line with the changes to AI itself?
Would your CFO accept your numbers?
Completion rates, licence counts and enthusiasm are not returns. If you had to point at one thing to prove your organisation is better off than it was in January, what would you point at, and what happens to that proof the next time the underlying model changes?
Briefing work, or waiting to be briefed?
The shift from doing the work to managing AI's output is the real bottleneck, and it's also the one nobody has built a way to share across teams yet.
How do you navigate the fear of job loss against the enthusiasm for building this?
Most leaders will say AI reshapes roles, not reduces them. But do employees actually believe it and how can you get a whole organistion to buy in?
