Kaye Nicholson to Lead Business Academy AI Webinar for Founders and Small Teams

This is one I'm particularly proud to share.

On Monday 12 October 2026, I'll be delivering an expert-led webinar through the Business Academy, part of the UK Government's Business Growth Service.

The session is called:

From AI curious to AI confident: For founders and small teams

It takes place online from 10:00am to 11:00am and is designed for exactly the sort of people GrowthZone AI was created to help.

Business owners who know AI is becoming part of everyday working life. People who are curious about what it could do. And people who are still quietly wondering whether everybody else understands something they don't.

They don't need more hype. They need somewhere sensible to start.

What is the Business Academy webinar about?

From AI curious to AI confident is a practical one-hour session helping founders and small teams understand what generative AI can and cannot do, choose one useful low-risk starting point and create a realistic seven-day plan for beginning to use AI more confidently.

We'll look at some of the barriers that stop people getting started. Not because they're incapable. Usually because the conversation around AI has become unnecessarily complicated.

We'll cover:

• what generative AI can genuinely help with
• what it cannot reliably do
• where a small business might start
• simple safe-use boundaries
• why checking AI output still matters
• how to choose one realistic first action
• how to build confidence without trying to learn everything at once

Why does this matter to me?

GrowthZone AI has always been built around a simple idea: AI should be understandable to ordinary businesses.

You shouldn't need a technical background. You shouldn't have to pretend you're excited about every new tool. And you certainly shouldn't be made to feel behind because you haven't adopted everything already.

My approach has always been: start with the business, start with the work, start with one problem, then decide whether AI belongs in the answer. That's exactly the approach I'll be bringing to this Business Academy session.

From the North East to a national business audience

GrowthZone AI is rooted in the North East. A lot of what I've learned has come from sitting with real businesses, charities, teams and founders here and listening to the things that actually make their working week difficult — emails, documents, administration, content, information that's difficult to find, and processes that rely too heavily on somebody remembering every step.

Being invited to take that practical approach into the Business Academy and share it with founders and small teams more widely, alongside the AI workshops and AI training for small teams we already run, is something I'm genuinely proud of.

What will attendees leave with?

Not fifty new AI tools. Not an enormous strategy document. And not a list of things they're suddenly supposed to become experts in.

By the end of the session, attendees should have:

• a clearer understanding of what generative AI can and cannot do
• one realistic place where it could help
• sensible boundaries around how to use it
• a way to check the result
• a seven-day confidence plan
• one practical action they can take back into their business

Who is the session for?

This webinar is particularly useful for:

• founders
• sole traders
• small business owners
• small teams
• people who don't consider themselves technical
• businesses that are curious about AI but haven't found a sensible starting point
• teams worried about getting AI wrong
• people who want practical guidance rather than another sales pitch

A genuinely proud moment

GrowthZone AI started with the belief that if AI is going to become part of everyday business, the people who don't live and breathe technology need to be part of the conversation too. That's still what drives it.

So seeing my name on Business.gov.uk as the expert delivering this session feels like a significant moment. But the job stays exactly the same: make AI understandable, practical and useful for real people.

If it turns out you'd like more hands-on support afterwards, you can always see GrowthZone AI's services. And if you'd like to see more of the organisations and communities we work alongside, take a look at our programmes and associations.