Not many feel like an AI expert

Adam Weston writes about why most small businesses struggle to build AI on their own and how shared expertise leads to real progress.

Why so many small businesses feel left behind on AI

The thing nobody says out loud is that most of us are pretending to understand how AI works. Every meeting about Artificial Intelligence has that same quiet tension where everyone's nodding, but no one really knows what's going on.

Teams talk about "embedding AI into the business." Managers wonder what that means in practice. The rest of the team pretends to understand because it's easier than admitting they don't. Somewhere between the strategy deck and the group chat, the complexities of AI are increasing.

It’s not incompetence. It's context. We've never had to learn something this complex, this quickly, and this publicly before. The hype machine runs faster than the training budget. Every month, new tools appear with names that sound like energy drinks. It's no wonder people feel behind.

What the AI skills gap really looks like

Forrester found that only about a quarter of workers have received any formal AI training, and even fewer know what prompt engineering means.

In the UK, the Department for Business and Trade reports that fewer than half of SMEs have invested in any structured digital skills programmes.

Yet those same teams are expected to adopt AI tools, use them safely, and somehow stay compliant while doing so. It's like being asked to drive a car that keeps changing shape mid-journey.

A simple way to close the AI skills gap

1. Start small. Choose one workflow and one tool. Learn by doing. Measure time saved or errors reduced, not perfection.
2. Share what you learn. Hold short team sessions to show what worked and what didn’t. One Growcreate client – a 20-person SME – cut content production time by 30 % simply by comparing prompts each week.
3. Partner to grow. Work with trusted vendors who guide adoption, not just sell licences. Microsoft found that SMEs using its Copilot onboarding saw productivity gains of up to 30 % (Microsoft Azure, 2025).

This cycle – start, share, partner – turns curiosity into confidence.

Confidence beats competence

The real issue is confidence. To many AI is unfamiliar, but not unknowable. The people who make progress are the ones who start small and stay curious. They treat AI like a teammate who’s brilliant, unreliable and in need of supervision. They test, adjust, and learn in public.

The irony is that the people most worried about “not getting AI” are usually the ones best equipped to use it. Those that are thoughtful, cautious and aware of context. They already know how to ask good questions and how to check the answers. That’s 90 per cent of the job.

So if you feel like an imposter, good, you’re paying attention. We’re all still learning, and the smart ones are the people who’ve stopped pretending otherwise.

What this means for SMEs

Learn, share, repeat.

If you want to start small and scale safely, we’ll show you how.