The Business of AI
AI is our Business. Looking at how businesses are using AI to build services and tools, transforming organisations and delighting consumers. We explore the different types of businesses that are emerging and find out how they are using AI technology. UKAI is the trade association for AI businesses in the UK. The show is hosted Tim Flagg, AI entrepreneur and chief executive of UKAI. Featuring business leaders, policymakers, authors, politicians and entrepreneurs. Join us to learn how to build your AI business.
Episodes
76 episodes
No Data Strategy, No AI Strategy with Fuad Hendricks, Hark Consultants
AI ambition is outpacing data readiness. Companies want agentic AI, automation and enterprise-scale intelligence, but many are still running on fragmented systems, unclear ownership and messy legacy data. The real bottleneck is not model capabi...
Why Responsible AI Needs Different Thinkers with Petra Abbam, BBC
Most companies treat AI adoption as a technology problem. The harder challenge is cultural: helping people know when to use AI, when not to, and how to make responsible choices by default. Responsible AI is not just governance paperwork. It is ...
Beyond LLMs: The Future of AI Models with Manish Patel from Jiva.ai
The AI race may not be won by bigger language models. Manish argues that LLMs are powerful interfaces, but weak foundations for true intelligence because language alone cannot capture planning, creativity or cross-domain reasoning. Jiva.ai is t...
AI Fraud: The Hidden Risk Behind AI Adoption with Aarti Samani
AI’s productivity promise has a darker twin: a fast-growing fraud economy built on manipulation, deepfakes, voice cloning and human psychology. The real business risk is not just technical vulnerability, it is workforce vulnerability. Companies...
73. The AI Reputation Risk Facing Every Business with Tom Mason from Awareness AI
AI is no longer just helping people find businesses, it is becoming the first version of the business they encounter. That creates a new reputational risk: if ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude describes an organisation badly, cites outdated information...
72. Symbolic AI: The next AI architecture, inspired by our brains with Nikolay Gurianov - Braintree
AI may be scaling fast, but we hear from Nikolay that the current wave has already hit a ceiling. Pattern recognition alone is not enough to deliver the next leap in business value. Nikolay's company Braintree believes that the future lies in s...
71. AI Won’t Fix a Broken Operating Model - Adam Hadley - Quantspark
Most AI investments fail for a simple reason: companies start with the tool, not the business need. Productivity gains do not come from layering AI onto existing workflows, but from rethinking how decisions, information and value actually move ...
70. Ethical AI Is a Competitive Advantage with Femma Ashraf from Astronomical AI
Ethical AI is not a compliance add-on, it is a competitive advantage. This episode makes the case that better AI outcomes come from better design choices at the start: diverse teams, explainable systems, safer data practices and a sharper under...
69. Your AI Is Only As Good As Your Data with Graeme King, Amino Data
Nobody wants to be governed. Everyone wants to be excellent. That simple reframe is at the heart of this conversation with Graeme King, a data and AI governance veteran who argues that the way we talk about data management is holding businesses...
68. The Sustainable AI Playbook: Cutting Through the Hype with Malcolm Buckley, Bright Angles
From busting myths about energy-hungry data centres to explaining why your fridge temperature could be saving your company thousands, Malcolm brings a refreshingly grounded perspective to one of the most polarising conversations in business tod...
67. Fixing Food’s Broken Economics with Sophia Fannon-Howell from Aterra.ai
What if the real problem in food is not productivity, but a deep imbalance of power? Sophia Fannon-Howell, founder of Aterra.AI argues that the UK food system is structurally tilted against farmers: they carry the risk, produce the value, and y...
66. AI Adoption Is a Leadership Problem - Natalia Chronowiat - Women in AI
AI isn’t held back by technology, it’s held back by fear. The real barrier to adoption inside companies isn’t capability, but confidence: employees worry about job loss, leaders struggle to change established workflows, and organisations lack t...
65. Who Shapes the AI Future with Baroness Manzila Uddin - Women in AI
Who decides how AI reshapes society: technologists, governments, or the communities living with its consequences? As AI and digital platforms scale rapidly, policymakers face a difficult balance: enabling innovation and economic growth while pr...
64. Stop watching and start building AI. With Sumathi Menon. Women in AI Special Episode.
Most people are consuming AI tools. Far fewer are building with them and that gap is where the real opportunity lies. In this episode, AI strategist Sumathi Menno argues that the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn’t technical skill but hesitati...
62. AI for the Real World with Linda Hong Cheng, Lychee Labs
World models could be the breakthrough that takes AI beyond predicting text and into understanding reality. In this episode, Linda Hong Cheng explains how these models, which learn the physical dynamics of environments, may unlock a new generat...
63. When AI Mediates Human Conflict with Vanessa Carson - UKAI Women in AI Special
What if AI could prevent conflicts from escalating and create an auditable record of what really happens when they do? This episode explores a new category of AI focused not on productivity, but on structuring high-stakes human communication. V...
61. Who wins the AI trade war? Economist Karishma Banga joins the Women in AI podcast
AI isn’t just a technology race, it’s a trade policy battleground that will determine who captures value and who falls further behind. The real AI divide isn’t only about access to infrastructure, but about skills, governance, data rules, and t...
60. The AI Adoption Myth: Why Access Isn’t Impact - Louise Moody from Atheni.ai
If AI is so powerful, why are most companies seeing almost no real productivity gains? This episode exposes the uncomfortable truth: giving employees access to tools like ChatGPT or Copilot doesn’t transform a business, it just speeds up existi...
59. Why AI Projects Fail: Confidence, Culture and How to Scale - with GAIL, (Global AI Leaders)
Why are so many companies investing in AI but seeing so little real impact? Is the biggest barrier bad data, or a workforce that secretly lacks the confidence to use it? In this conversation with Vivek and Bryan from the Global AI Leaders Netwo...
58. How AI Optimises Infrastructure, Turning Complexity into Clarity, with Michael Avant-Smith BMA
AI can help make sense of complex infrastructure projects, turning disconnected systems into clear plans that improve efficiency at scale and help protect national infrastructure. Energy, water, and other essential networks are under growing pr...
57. Why Sustainability and AI Are About to Collide (Hard): Alex Smith
What does real sustainability look like when AI enters the room—loud, power-hungry, and ethically ambiguous?In this episode of the UKAI Women in AI Podcast, we’re joined by Alex Smith, CEO of Future Plus, to talk candidly about non-line...
56. Women, Work and the Future of AI: Sheridan Ash and Tech She Can
In this episode of the UKI Women in AI podcast, Sheridan (Founder & Co-CEO of Tech She Can) tells the story from “Well Rough” (Wellingborough, as lovingly rebranded by its own sign-vandals) to global consulting, to launching a charity that’...
55. AI, Finance & Chaos: Lida Cepuch on Risk, Governance, and Surviving the Markets
In this episode of the UKAI Women in AI Podcast, Zahra sits down with Lida Cepuch — a technologist-turned-governance heavyweight whose career has zig-zagged through derivatives trading floors, complex risk management, and the boardrooms of some...
54. Governing The Machine: The UK's Chance to Lead with Ray Eitel-Porter & Paul Dongha
How do you actually govern AI so you can use it at scale without blowing up your risk register?In this episode of the Business of AI podcast, Tim chats with Ray Eisel Porter (former Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture) and Dr Pa...
53. Work Amplifiers: How AI Agents Can Transform Non-Profits with Alex Skinner
AI agents can become “work amplifiers” for non-profits and membership organisations IF you start with the problem, not the solution. In this in-person episode, Alex Skinner (CEO & Co-founder of Pixl8) explains how AI can help lean teams do ...