The Biggest Risk Isn't Using AI Badly.

It's Not Using It At All.

Your staff, customers and competitors are all watching what you do with AI.

The risks of adopting it are real. Data, accuracy, security, getting it wrong in public. But for most industrial SMEs, the quieter risk is bigger:

• Staff figuring it out alone, inconsistently, off the books
• Competitors compounding productivity gains while you stall
• Being undercut on price and speed by businesses two years into proper adoption
• The gap between dabblers and operators widening every quarter
  
  

The winners over the next 6 to 12 months won't be the ones with the most tools. They'll be the ones who treated AI as a leadership problem first.

You've Already Lived This Before

Think about the last system you rolled out. A CRM. ISO 9001. A lean programme. The software was bought. The training was run. The launch email went out.

Six months later, half the team used it properly. The other half worked around it.

AI is the same pattern. Only faster, more visible, and with more at stake.

In our survey of SME companies, 61% said skills and change management were their biggest barrier to AI. Not budget. Not access. They had the tools. They didn't have the process.

Why Attend

This is a practical session for business owners, directors, and team leads in SME businesses who want a clear picture of where AI fits and how to move forward.

• Understand where AI genuinely adds value
• A framework that fits your existing workflows
• Prompting techniques to test straight away
• A foundation for confident team-wide adoption

This is the start of your journey to implementing AI properly - not a shortcut, but a structured way in. You'll leave with clarity and a direction, not another tool you're unsure what to do with.

"Such an eye-opening talk - real tangible takeaways."

What We'll Cover in 45 Minutes

A short scene-setter on where AI actually is right now, then the three things that decide whether AI sticks inside a business:

AI Today

This is a practical session for business owners, directors, and team leads in SME businesses who want a clear picture of where AI fits and how to move forward.

People

Why AI adoption stalls in technical businesses. Attitudes, resistance, and the staff who quietly opt out. What good change management looks like when daily behaviours need to shift.

Strategy

Why "let's use more AI" isn't a strategy. How to point AI work at what the business actually needs, before you spend on tools and training.

Systems

The operational scaffolding that turns AI from ad-hoc to repeatable. Skills. Pilots, guardrails, SOPs, knowledge bases. What to put in place, in what order, and who owns it.

Who This Is For

SME leaders, MDs, owners and directors of industrial, SME Leaders, engineering and technical SMEs who want to move from dabbling to doing.

You'll leave with:

• A clear picture of where AI adds value in an industrial SME, and where it doesn't yet
• A framework that fits your existing workflows
• Prompting techniques you can test the next morning
• A realistic foundation for team-wide adoption

"Practical points I could implement straight away."

Can't Make the Date?

Or Want to Know Where You Stand First?

Take the AI Position Audit. A free 20-minute call with Stefan.

A focused conversation to map where your business sits on people, strategy and systems, and the two or three things that would move the needle most over the next 90 days.

No sales pitch. No deck. If we're not the right fit, you'll still leave with a useful read on where you are and what to do next.

Last Time We Ran This…

"Made such a complicated subject feel manageable."

You'll leave with a clear framework, language to use with your team, and an honest sense of where to start.

About Your Host

Stefan Buss is the founder of Sales and Marketing Engineers, a consultancy built for industrial and technical SMEs.

His background is unusually broad for someone in this space:

• Qualified industrial engineer
• Audited safety, health and environmental management systems in industrial settings
• Ran his own exhibition design and production company for 7 years, so he has lived the leadership side of rolling new systems out to a team of 25+
• 8 years in a creative agency, working with marketing teams in technical B2B
• Now building Sales and Marketing Engineers, working hands-on with SME leaders on AI, sales and marketing strategy

It's a mix of shop-floor discipline, creative production, and commercial reality. Which is the combination most industrial SMEs need and rarely find in one person.

Find out more about our AI services and sales and marketing strategy.

Free to attend.

Date: Tuesday 26th May Time: 4–5pm BST Format: Online (Google Meet)

Can't make this time? Register and tick "can't make this date" on the form.
We'll keep you posted on future sessions, and you can take the AI Position Audit in the meantime.

Lunch and Learn - 27th May 12-1pm based in Crawley Innovation Centre, West Sussex