Latest posts
-
AI is scaling cyber attacks. Your board must act now
The recent open letter from the UK Government is clear, and in reality applies to every company in every location. This is not about how you use AI. It is about how others will use it against you. Attackers now move faster, target better, and operate at scale. What once took time and skill can
-
When you realise your firm is behind on technology
There is a moment that many Managing Partners and COOs are now experiencing. It often starts with an AI conversation. A client asks about it. A competitor announces something. A vendor demonstrates a tool that looks compelling. Internally, someone asks, “Should we be doing this?” And the honest answer, just beneath the surface, is uncomfortable.
-
Introducing the AI control surface: mapping models, data, risk, and ownership
Most organisations are no longer asking whether they should use AI. They are already using it, often in more places than they realise. Individually, none of these decisions look particularly dangerous. Collectively, they can create a situation where AI is spread across the organisation with no clear ownership, unclear data usage, and inconsistent risk management.
-
AI oversight at board level: five questions directors should be asking in 2026
Walk into almost any boardroom today and you will see three very different perspectives on artificial intelligence. One director may not use AI at all and is still trying to understand where it fits into the business landscape. Another may have read about it extensively but has little practical exposure beyond headlines and vendor promises.
-
What Technical Due Diligence now expects to see around AI usage
Artificial intelligence is no longer experimental in UK SMEs. It is embedded in sales workflows, underwriting models, forecasting tools, customer communications and product features. In many cases it has become operationally critical without ever becoming formally governed. That shift matters in due diligence. Traditional technical due diligence has focused on platform scalability, cyber posture, code
-
The CPTO as AI translator: turning model capability into business decision-making
By the end of 2025, most mid sized organisations are already using AI in some form. Customer support teams are trialling copilots, finance teams are extracting data from documents, and product teams are embedding classification or recommendation into workflows. What has changed is not the presence of AI, but the number of business decisions it
-
From awareness to control: governing AI in practice in 2026
In our previous article, 2026: Technology and AI – what’s next for UK SME boards?, we argued that AI has now crossed a threshold. It is no longer an emerging technology that boards can safely delegate downward, nor is it a future concern that can be deferred until “things settle down”. AI is already influencing
-
2026: Technology and AI, what’s next for UK SME boards?
Looking forwards is always harder than looking backwards, but as we move into 2026, one theme is becoming unavoidable for UK SMEs: technology foundations matter again. Not because innovation has slowed, but because AI, automation, and digital services now amplify whatever sits underneath them. Strong foundations accelerate progress. Weak ones magnify risk, cost, and operational
-
Is Your Tech Stack AI-Ready? A CTO’s Guide to Scalable, Governable Foundations
For all the excitement around generative AI, most organisations are discovering a quieter truth. The biggest breakthroughs rarely come from a single model or vendor, but from the quality of the foundations that the Chief Technology Officer builds beneath them. The question is no longer “Should we adopt AI?” but “Is our technology stack ready
-
From Engineering to Intelligence: How CPTOs Must Adapt in the AI Era
For most of the last two decades, the arc of technology leadership has been clear: build reliable systems, scale them, keep them secure and resilient, and ensure the product vision is tethered to engineering reality. But the rise of AI has bent that into something much less predictable. Organisations are discovering that the shift from