Last week, Central Technology CTO Nick Bennett attended the Midlands Technology Leadership Conference, where this year’s theme was The AI Accountability Reckoning.
Bringing together technology and business leaders from organisations including Experian, MHR, Brush Group and AND Digital, the event explored how businesses are approaching AI adoption, the benefits they’re seeing and the challenges they’re still trying to overcome.
While the conversations covered everything from AI-powered software development to skills, governance and ROI, one theme stood out above all others:
The biggest challenge with AI isn’t the technology itself. It’s everything that needs to change around it.
AI is accelerating teams, but not always the wider business
One of the biggest takeaways from the event was the growing gap between what AI can achieve within individual teams and how quickly organisations can adapt around it.
As AI continues to increase productivity in areas such as software development, businesses face a new challenge. When one department accelerates dramatically, other teams can struggle to keep pace. Rather than removing constraints altogether, AI can sometimes expose new bottlenecks elsewhere in the organisation.
It’s a reminder that successful AI adoption isn’t just about making individual teams more productive. It’s about ensuring the wider business can adapt alongside them.
AI adoption is becoming a leadership challenge
Another recurring theme throughout the day was ownership.While every organisation represented at the event was approaching AI differently, there was a shared recognition that adoption can’t sit solely with IT.
Of course technology teams play an important role in providing expertise, governance and guidance, but meaningful adoption requires buy-in from leaders across the business. As AI becomes embedded into day-to-day operations, responsibility increasingly sits with department leaders to identify opportunities, support change and help teams adopt new ways of working.
Giving people access isn’t enough
Many of the discussions also highlighted a challenge that organisations of all sizes are facing: training people to use AI effectively.
Access to AI tools is becoming easier. Building confidence, encouraging experimentation and helping employees understand where AI can genuinely add value is proving far more difficult.
One of the strongest messages from the event was that successful adoption requires hands-on learning, practical experimentation and ongoing support. Simply rolling out technology doesn’t guarantee that people know how to get the best from it.
Businesses are still working out how to measure success
Despite growing adoption, there was no consensus around the best way to measure AI’s value. That willingness to test ideas and adapt may be just as important as any individual technology investment.
Some organisations are already seeing tangible benefits. Others are still exploring how to quantify improvements in productivity, efficiency and customer outcomes. What was particularly interesting was the acknowledgement that not every AI initiative succeeds. Businesses are experimenting, learning and refining their approach as they go.
The technology may be the easy part
Reflecting on the event, the overarching takeaway was that AI adoption is becoming as much an organisational challenge as a technical one.
The technology continues to evolve at incredible speed, but businesses are still working through how to train people, adapt processes, measure value and ensure change happens consistently across the organisation.
It seems that for many organisations, the question is no longer whether AI can deliver value. The bigger challenge is making sure the business is ready to take advantage of it.
Xpertise Recruitment Midlands Technology Leadership Conference | 15th October 2026
