Business leaders look to AI for regional growth with ONE

ONE Mentors, board members and partners joined Paul Cheek, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and serial entrepreneur, at ONE Tech Hub in Aberdeen for the third AI for Regional Growth session, convened by Opportunity North East (ONE).

Founders across the region now use AI every day to understand customers, test business models and make decisions faster. To stretch those founders, the people around them need to learn alongside them. The session explored synthetic market research, Paul's 30-Minute Startup, and how AI sharpens Disciplined Entrepreneurship, the framework behind every founder journey at ONE.

Every leader who sits on a ONE board or mentors a founder gives their time for free. By investing in their own education, they can keep testing, steering and backing the ventures that will grow this region.

Stanley Morrice MBE, a board member, chair, AND mentor, said:

“AI is transforming businesses, but can also transform the region. We know understanding the customer is key to successful growth as great businesses are built around solving real customer problems. After this latest workshop, north east founders will using AI to gain deeper customer insight, test ideas more quickly and ensure their products and services meet genuine market needs.”

“As a board member, chair and mentor with Opportunity North East, I am learning the tools that the founders working with ONE are using to grow and scale. This means I can ask the right questions and help founders identify where AI can create genuine value through innovation, productivity and sales growth.”