Rishi Sunak Told 200 Business Owners to Stop Waiting on AI. He’s Right.

Your competitors are already using AI. You know that. What you don't know is where to start, who to trust, or whether the whole thing is even worth the disruption. That uncertainty is costing you more than any bad technology decision ever would — because while you deliberate, the gap is widening. At a recent Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses event, Rishi Sunak put a number on it: 98% of the founders in the room were already using AI. The UK average? 25%.

That gap — between a self-selected group of ambitious SME founders and the broader economy — is the story Sunak was trying to tell. And the data behind it should concern every business owner who hasn't started yet.

The "Everyday AI" Race Nobody Is Talking About

Sunak's argument was sharp and deliberate. The real AI race isn't about which lab is ahead this week, which model just broke a benchmark, or whether we'll reach artificial general intelligence by 2030. "The more interesting and important race," he said, "is what I call the race for everyday AI. The race to spread this incredible technology across your economy and society."

He's right. McKinsey's 2025 State of AI report found that 88% of organisations are experimenting with AI, but 81% report no meaningful bottom-line impact. The problem isn't access to the technology — it's the gap between experimenting and actually adopting. The companies seeing real returns aren't the ones with the biggest AI budgets. They're the ones that moved first, learned fast, and embedded AI into daily operations.

The stakes are high for small business specifically. SMEs account for 51.2% of total UK turnover and 60% of private sector employment. If that half of the economy doesn't adopt AI, Sunak warned, we end up with a "K-shaped economy" — global behemoths accelerating while small businesses get pushed out. "We're going to lose something very special about our national character," he said.

Five Founders, Five Proof Points

The strongest part of the event wasn't Sunak's speech — it was the five business owners who got up and explained what they'd actually done. Each story demonstrated a different lesson about AI adoption.

None of these are billion-pound tech companies. They're a marketing agency, an e-commerce retailer, a property firm, a homecare provider, and a services business. The tools they used were accessible — Rory's team started with a £15 Udemy course. "Probably the best £15 we've ever spent," he said.

What connects them isn't budget or technical sophistication. It's that they started. They didn't wait for the perfect tool, the perfect strategy, or the perfect moment. They picked a problem, tried something, and iterated.

What the Audience Poll Revealed

Midway through the event, Sunak ran an informal show-of-hands poll: "What's your biggest barrier to AI adoption?" The results were telling.

The pattern is clear. The biggest barriers aren't technical — they're organisational. Business owners don't feel equipped to lead this change, and their employees don't feel brought along for the journey. The technology itself isn't the bottleneck. The UK Government's DSIT research found that 60% of non-adopters cited limited AI skills and expertise as the blocker, not cost, not access, not regulation.

This is a solvable problem. It doesn't require a computer science degree. Anthony from Groundup Property put it plainly: "I was the biggest advocate. I use it to write emails. I use it to walk through business itself." His employees saw him using it every day, so they followed.

The Advantages Nobody Talks About

The usual narrative around AI adoption assumes it favours large companies with deep pockets and dedicated innovation teams. Sunak made the opposite case — and we think he's onto something.

Small businesses have two structural advantages that large companies can't replicate. First, speed. "They are running huge big bureaucracies," Sunak said of the corporate CEOs he advises at Goldman Sachs. "Everything takes a long time. You guys have the advantage of moving far faster and quicker." No approval committees, no 18-month transformation programmes, no internal politics to navigate.

Second, deep knowledge. A business owner with 20 employees knows every process, every pain point, every bottleneck in their operation. A CEO of a 10,000-person company doesn't. That intimate knowledge makes it far easier to identify where AI will have the most impact — and that's exactly the skill that matters most right now.

And the cost barrier? It barely exists. As Sunak put it: "This is not one of these tech revolutions that requires hugely expensive kit and changing everything. It just requires a laptop, an internet connection, and a growth mindset."

The 25% Problem

We work with businesses across the UK that are navigating exactly this transition. The pattern we see matches what Sunak described: the businesses that succeed with AI aren't the ones with the best technology. They're the ones where the owner made a decision, brought their team along, and started with a real problem rather than a shiny tool.

The gap between 98% and 25% isn't a technology gap. It's a decision gap. The five businesses on that Goldman Sachs stage aren't ahead because they had bigger budgets or smarter engineers. They're ahead because they moved first. The question for every UK business owner isn't whether AI will matter to your industry. It's whether you'll be in the 25% still deliberating — or the group that's already building.