By Meg Short
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s bankers gathered at a library in Birmingham this week to guide small UK businesses on scaling up in artificial intelligence — and to warn them of the risks of ignoring the new technology.
“We have a situation where global behemoths are swallowing up small businesses or pushing them out,” said former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was appointed as a senior adviser to the bank in July. “When it comes to AI, adoption is everything.”
Leaders from 300 firms attended the bank’s 10,000 Small Businesses UK summit, unperturbed by hourly train cancellations in England’s second-biggest city. The program coaches small firms in association with the University of Oxford’s Said Business School.
Sunak championed the use of AI when he was in government, pledging more than £100 million to help regulators and universities tackle challenges around the technology, and hosting the first global summit on AI safety.
“I see it in my own constituency up in North Yorkshire,” he said. “I was recently talking to a dairy farmer who was using AI together with wearables, so he could spot things like mastisis in his cattle before it became an issue for his milk.”
As well as continuing as Conservative MP for Richmond and Northallerton since losing the 2024 general election, Sunak has a portfolio career that also includes advisory work for Anthropic and Microsoft Corp. He has so far declared £1.1 million of earnings at Goldman Sachs, which he donated to charity.
Small companies across the economy are racing to adopt AI. A survey in March of 400 graduates of Goldman’s program found that 98 per cent are already using it in their businesses.
Small business owner Phil Eckersley is implementing AI to review care plans for Bridgewater Home Care, which he founded in 2010. The nature of the business means personal data cannot be shared on the technology, and it’s important to build systems that meet the firm’s standards, Eckersley said.
About 2,500 small business leaders have progressed through the 10KSB program so far. “It can be a pretty lonely enterprise being a small business owner and all of a sudden you bring them all in the room together,” said Asahi Pompey, Goldman’s global head of the office of corporate engagement. “This community becomes very close knit.”
The New York-based bank signed a 10-year lease for an office in 2022 and vowed to add 500 more roles in November, as part of the industry’s expansion beyond London.
