ONE brings MIT expert back to Aberdeen to put AI at the heart of north east ventures
Food and drink founders from across north east Scotland joined the latest AI for Venture Growth workshop, led by Paul Cheek, Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Alongside invited founders from all of the region's growth sectors, they spent a hands-on session putting AI to work where it counts, from customers to operations, with human judgement always firmly in the driving seat.
Knowing your customer through thorough primary market research sits at the heart of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework behind the entrepreneurial education Opportunity North East Limited delivers. AI now lets founders test their thinking before they ever speak to a customer, so every real conversation counts for more!
Christopher Geary is founder of Soda Fountain Ltd, a drinks company producing, distributing, and serving a range of functional sodas like Life Blood kombucha from their base in Aberdeen. Chris had this to say:
"Paul's sessions have changed how I run Life Blood. It's not about getting AI to do tasks, it's about building it into the core of the business. I'm one person running production, sales, marketing and ecommerce, and AI gives me the output of a whole team.
"We've integrated it into our management system so it keeps me on top of production, stock and ordering, flagging what needs brewing and what needs reordering before it becomes a problem. It also monitors our own customer activity, so we can deliver the best service possible, anticipate orders and even bring them forward. On the marketing side, it's doing the research, targeting our messaging and keeping our brand voice sharp across everything we put out.
It's brilliant to see how other founders are using agents to move faster. Paul brings the energy and shows us what's possible when we get beyond conventional thinking."
