Bridging the AI gap with the AI Adoption Accelerator, in partnership with TechWM

AI Adoption Accelerator

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The client

AI Adoption Accelerator

The AI Adoption Accelerator was delivered by AND Digital, in collaboration with TechWM, over the course of 12 weeks (from June to September 2024), and was designed to equip SMBs with the practical knowledge and hands-on expertise they need to maximise the opportunity of AI in transforming their business and the wider sector. By providing firms with the right knowledge, tools and connections, they can become industry ‘lighthouses’; beacons for successful implementation of technological change who can guide the way for other organisations to follow.

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Key Outcomes

As a result of the 12 week AI Adoption Accelerator, the organisations involved benefit from:

  • Achievement 100% completion rate of the accelerator
  • Optimisation 50 hours of estimated time saved each week from operational efficiencies
  • Impact £208k estimated annual savings in production and admin costs
The Challenge

Barriers to AI adoption

AI is disrupting entire industries. The West Midlands Digital Roadmap outlines a mission for the next three years to boost productivity and economic output through the adoption of digital technologies, like AI.

But many SMEs face financial, technical and capability barriers that prevent them from embracing new technology, leaving them a step behind. This is increasingly creating an "AI chasm" between big business, who have access to specialist expertise, money and data, and SMEs who don't.

Those firms need a way to accelerate their learning of AI, to gain confidence in how to utilise it properly, and to rapidly understand how to incorporate AI as part of their growth strategy.

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“The past 12 weeks have been insightful and useful...you go from not knowing much, to feeling confident about how to implement AI in your business. It has been a worthwhile programme, and I would advocate for its continued use across the region.”

Accelerator participant
THE SOLUTION

A curated AI Adoption Accelerator, guiding SMEs to leverage AI for business growth

The first cohort for the AI Adoption Accelerator consisted of eight manufacturing companies based in the West Midlands, with the aim of lowering the barrier of entry for AI, and equipping them with the tools to start and be successful in their AI journey.

The Accelerator was a carefully curated programme made up of four components.

First was a focus on practical learning that aimed to expand the cohort’s knowledge of the current landscape and how AI is evolving. Attendees were given guidance and actionable tools for topics like user-centred design, prioritising use cases, data fundamentals, the legal and ethical implications of AI, and how to create the right culture and leadership around digital change and AI, using successful case studies as examples.

Second was experience; each business was given a dedicated AI leadership mentor from AND. Meeting for at least an hour a week, their role was to work with the organisation to collaboratively solve their problems using their new knowledge and skills.

The third component was hands-on experimentation. Over the course of two days, we brought together each of our businesses alongside specialist technicians from AND during our Accelerator Hackathons.

During those sessions, we took each business’ priority use case, and built a real-world prototype of an AI solution that allowed them to see how it would work in practice, and get valuable user feedback.

The fourth and final component was crafting a roadmap and investment case of how to take their AI proof of concept to production and beyond. We helped them to understand the likely benefits and return on investment of their AI solution, and identify funding opportunities available to help them further build their AI and digital capabilities.

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The Results

Substantial potential cost-saving and productivity benefits, and increased confidence in AI

Over the course of 12 weeks, for eight manufacturing SMEs, there’s already been a demonstrable impact, not only on their readiness to adopt AI and their confidence in doing so, but also on the wider benefits they expect on their productivity and efficiency.

In terms of the accelerator itself, 100% agree that they now understand the responsible use of AI and good data infrastructure, and 88% of the cohort agree that they have identified specific AI use cases for adoption, which is the most valuable takeaway the accelerator could provide - the tools, skills and knowledge to embed AI, and continuously build on their use cases.

We asked the cohort what they thought the impact would be if they rolled out their AI solution into the business. On average, for each, they estimated they could save 7 hours weekly for those staff members affected; an entire working day, every week, from their first AI solution alone.

In addition, across the cohort, we calculated that £208k in administrative and production costs could be saved every single year as a result of their AI solution. Some businesses estimated that the impact for them individually could be even higher.

We’re excited to continue to improve and roll-out the next AI Adoption Accelerator, helping more businesses get to grips with how to get the most out of AI, and seeing a return on investment from their solutions.

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