AI is a game-changer for all aspects of business, but how can businesses improve efficiency with this transformational tech whilst capitalising on the ‘human premium’?
SMEs have more agility than larger organisations, but research from the OECD found that adoption of AI has been slow amongst mid-tier firms who are cautious about choosing the right solutions and suppliers – and often lack strategic leadership expertise to optimise it.
In its latest Future of Work: AI in the Workplace Report, the British Chambers of Commerce found that 54% of SMEs are actively using AI (up from 35% in 2025) and 95% said it hadn’t impacted workforce size: supporting employees rather than replacing them.
To support ambitious SMEs exploring ways to optimise both their tech and talent, Liberti Club hosted a Forum in Leeds on 15th July, bringing together over 50 business leaders, principals and partners from our growing community to explore the role of fractional leaders and advisory partners in successfully transforming with AI.
Opening the session with some stats to set the scene, Liberti Club Director Alex Evans said: “According to the Scale-Up Institute, 44,595 UK scale-ups contributed £2.19trn to the UK economy last year, 50% of the output from over 5.7m businesses. The UK’s economic growth engine needs scale-up engineers, expert execs with experience of scaling businesses and building the foundations for more profitable growth.
“Last year, McKinsey found that 92% of executives plan to increase AI investment, but only 25% of employees felt they had strong leadership support. This is why 60% of scale-up founders & CEOs surveyed by the SUI are looking for fractional executives to fill gaps in strategic leadership, not just in tech, but finance, HR, sales & marketing.”
Partnership for growth
Having access to the right partners and advisors at the right time is also a game-changer, and our panel of experts comprised valued partners from the Liberti Club ecosystem.
Delivering the first of three expert presentations on tech, transformation and risk, Jungle IT’s Head of Cloud & AI, Urfaan Azhar, distinguished between intelligence and judgement – and AI assistants versus agents.
“Assistants save minutes, agents move numbers, but the tool is the last decision, not the first,” he explained. “The SMEs that benefit most will not automate everything; they will know which work to remove, which decisions to protect and where human judgement creates the most value.”
Leah Boxell, Founder & CEO of fractional PMO / Change Management firm Enablists, urged businesses to think about how their customers needs are changing and how to keep delivering value. “I always refer to the Blockbuster / Netflix example,” she explained. “Blockbuster had access to the technology that made Netflix successful, but its model was based on the profit it was making from late fees. Netflix solved this customer pain point with a new model for accessing entertainment, enabled by technology.”
Rounding off the presentations with guidance on managing new threats presented by AI, Matthew Clark, Cyber Director at Partners&, warned that directors have personal liability around data protection and need to demonstrate what they’re doing to mitigate cyber risk. “With 80 to 90% of claims from phishing scams, it’s important to embed awareness but business leaders also need to be aware of the growing range of threats and costs that cyber insurance should cover to protect themselves and their businesses,” he explained.
The human premium
A panel on how to optimise AI and capitalise on the human premium brought together founder, fractional leader and investor perspectives.
Jonathan Asquith, founder of Jungle IT, said clients are increasingly reliant on his network of tech professionals as a Managed Service Provider as they look to optimise AI without hiring more full-time employees. “The biggest barrier to making the most of AI is still understanding the problem they need to solve, not just for now but for the future, and that means truly understanding who their best clients and employees are, and how to maximise value from them. We’re seeing fractional leaders helping clients to gain this clarity, and we’ve seen it in our business with our own fractional CFO.”
“AI won’t replace your strategy, but it may expose the lack of one,” added Ged Leigh, Regional Director of The Marketing Centre. “The businesses that gain the greatest advantage from AI will be the ones that understand where technology adds value and where human judgement still matters. That clarity comes from having the right strategic leadership in place.”
BGF Investor Christian Pollard said the investment community doesn’t yet expect scale-ups to be fully transformed by AI, but they do want to see clear ownership and leadership engagement around how AI can enable growth. “We know SMEs are stretched and their AI strategies are often constrained by senior team bandwidth and internal expertise. Fractional talent can help resolve both constraints whether it’s buying this expertise in through a CTO or CPO, or freeing up existing capability with fractional resource,” he added.
Picking up on Urfaan’s distinction between assistant and agentic AI, David Worthington, fractional sales leader and Regional Director of Kiss The Fish, asked the business owners in the room if their salespeople are using AI to answer questions, or close deals.
“Salespeople should be selling, not chasing,” he explained. “Assistant AI can automate repeated communication, but Agentic AI can help you build a fuller pipeline and alert you to when the human touch actually matters.”
Concluding with her perspective and the role of HR leadership in transforming with tech and enhancing talent, People Puzzles Regional Director Clare Riches said: “Business owners need to understand the skills and capabilities they already have, and those they will need, to adapt – not just to changing client demands, but an evolving workforce. Smart founders and CEOs are tapping into flexible workers and fractional leaders who know how to optimise AI.”
The biggest takeaway for Liberti Club? Automate intelligence and promote judgement. Capitalise on experience, and price in wisdom to your services, as agentic AI gives your team time to create more value.
Find out more about Liberti Club’s ecosystem of partners and joined-up network of fractional professionals, from strategic and operational finance to sales, marketing and people leaders.