North East businesses urged to ‘shape’ AI future

North East businesses are being urged to grasp the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence while ensuring workers have the skills to benefit from technological change.

Business, education and policy leaders explored how AI could improve productivity, reshape jobs and create new opportunities during a North East Chamber of Commerce event at Teesside University.

Sponsored by SES Technology, the event focused on skills development, recruitment, workplace culture and the growing influence of AI on how people work, solve problems and make decisions.

Keynote speeches from Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell, president of the Jobs Foundation, and Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen were followed by a panel featuring senior figures from policy, education, technology and business.

Eddie Tribe, managing director of SES Technology and panel chair, acknowledged both the opportunities and concerns surrounding the rapid development of AI, but said businesses needed to focus on responding positively to change.

He said: “The question isn’t whether AI will change our future, it’s whether we’re prepared to shape it.

“And my hope is that here in the North East, we’re not just ready for that future, we’re helping to lead it.”

Eddie Tribe, managing director of SES Technology

Rachel Anderson, assistant director of policy at the Chamber, said its research showed a significant shift in attitudes towards AI, with far more businesses now using the technology than just a few years ago.

However, she said concerns remained over whether companies were using AI as effectively as they could, alongside questions around workforce skills, senior-level understanding and its potential impact on entry-level roles.

Rachel added: “If we can stop the ‘muddle through’ and do that skill-up, I think that will be transformational.”

Mayor Houchen highlighted the potential for the North East to play a significant role in the growth of AI infrastructure, predicting the region could have the UK’s largest concentration of data centres per megawatt within five years.

He also pointed to devolution as a way of giving local areas more tools to tackle worklessness, including programmes helping young people gain experience with employers.

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen

Meanwhile, Lord Elliott focused on the relationship between jobs, productivity and social mobility, arguing businesses had a central role to play in tackling worklessness and creating opportunities.

He also highlighted how AI could improve organisational efficiency without necessarily replacing jobs, including its use by police forces to process evidence more quickly and free officers for other work.

The importance of people alongside technology was another recurring theme.

Evenna Ottey, senior director of AI strategy and transformation at Sage, highlighted AI’s potential to handle repetitive processes, allowing people to concentrate on work requiring human judgement, communication and collaboration.

She encouraged smaller businesses to start with specific processes or problems where AI could make an immediate difference, rather than viewing adoption as a major transformation programme.

Claire Ainsley, director of the Progressive Policy Institute, focused on the importance of human capital and ensuring education and skills keep pace with technological change.

Kate Shoesmith, director of policy and insights at the British Chambers of Commerce, said growing AI adoption had yet to fundamentally reshape jobs for many businesses, with BCC research showing 86 per cent of employers responding said their use of AI had not changed job descriptions.

She also highlighted the importance of employers, education providers and local government working together to ensure training reflects changing business needs.

Darren Hankey, principal and chief executive of Hartlepool College, said colleges were responding to demand for skills in AI, cyber security and robotics, while stressing the role businesses could play in shaping provision and creating apprenticeships and other routes into work.

Closing the event, Chamber chief executive John McCabe said the region needed to take an active role in shaping the opportunities presented by technological change.

He said: “Technology and AI are not simply a challenge to be managed.

“They represent such a massive opportunity for our region to improve productivity, create new businesses and open new jobs, new markets and new types of jobs for the future.

“We shouldn’t be pessimistic or passive about the future.

“We can’t wait for good growth to arrive.

“We need to be out there much more confident and we must be shaping that growth for ourselves.”

John McCabe, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce

The event was the first in the Chamber’s three-part conference mini-series, marking a year since the launch of its two-year Unlocking the North East Economy policy plan.

The second event, Trade, Devolution and the North East’s Global Future, takes place at The Culture House in Sunderland on Thursday, October 1, exploring how trade, connectivity and devolution can strengthen the region’s position nationally and internationally.

The series concludes with Place to Prosperity: Culture, Investment and Growth at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead on Thursday, October 15, focusing on how infrastructure, regeneration, culture and investment can support places and deliver long-term economic growth.

Want your business, product or service to be seen regionally and nationally? Bdaily helps you get your story in front of the right audience, every day. Find out how Bdaily can help →

Join more than 55,000 subscribers by signing up to our daily bulletin each morning here.