The AI Thinking Round Table — what the first conversation revealed
AI adoption UK is at a turning point. This week I facilitated the first AI Thinking Round Table, something I’d wanted to do for a while.
The idea was simple. An informal, online space for honest conversations about AI, with no slides, no presentations and no fixed agenda. Just people thinking out loud together about what AI actually means for their work and their organisations.
What came out of the conversation echoed so much of what I’m hearing from clients and networking contacts at the moment. The same questions, the same uncertainties, the same moments of recognition when someone names something that others have been quietly thinking but haven’t said out loud.
The group were professionals from IT staffing, finance, project management, and climate tech, and as it turned out, an all-female group. This reflected the AI adoption UK gender gap, which meant this reality wasn’t just a statistic we referenced. It was something people in the room had felt personally.
One moment I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. Someone mentioned feeling embarrassed to admit they use AI. Not because they thought it was wrong, but because of how it might be perceived.
That tells you something important about where we actually are with this.
AI adoption UK: what the room agreed on
AI isn’t going to slow down. The financial incentives are too strong and the pace too fast. The question isn’t whether, it’s how responsibly it happens.
The human side came through clearly too. Recruitment, customer service, professional services… these still need personal connection and discernment that AI can’t replicate. Not in the ways that matter most.
The governance point got the most reaction. Only 6% of corporate spend is going to AI governance, despite 88% of employees wanting to use AI tools. That gap, between what people are already using and what organisations are formally sanctioning, is where the real risk sits. Not in the technology. In the absence of guardrails around it.
If you want to understand how AI is changing the workplace, start with the people already using it.
What the room was less sure about
Jobs are transforming rather than disappearing, but the entry-level picture is worrying. Law firms and finance are already showing a 25% reduction in graduate hiring as research and analysis tasks get automated. Roles are evolving. The question nobody could fully answer was whether the people who would have had those roles get the chance to evolve with them.
There was also an honest conversation about brain atrophy, whether outsourcing thinking to AI gradually weakens our ability to think without it. The counterargument was that AI actually forces faster learning. I’m not sure either side convinced the other.
The thing I keep coming back to
Nobody last night was asking “should we use AI?” That conversation is over.
The questions were harder. Where does my judgement still matter? How do I filter AI output the way I’d filter advice from a trusted friend, taking it seriously but not treating it as the final word? What does AI adoption UK look like here, in my organisation, not in the abstract?
Those are the right questions. And they don’t get nearly enough airtime.
For more on how AI is reshaping how we do business, check out my Elaine Gold Consulting homepage.
Join the next conversation
The next Round Table date will be confirmed shortly. If you’d like to be in the room, the best way to hear about it is through my weekly newsletter, AI Made Useful. Practical, human, no hype.
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And if any of this is sounding familiar, I’d love to hear from you. These are the conversations worth having.