Following the recent publication by the Association of Business Mentors (ABM), AI and The Future of Business Mentoring, we talked to ABM's business mentor, Ben Jacobs about how AI is reshaping decision-making in smaller businesses and the role business mentors can play in smoothing the adoption of AI technologies. The report offers a practical, evidence-led view of where support is most urgently needed, so the UK's AI ambition translates into business outcomes that keep people centre stage.
Q: Why is the role of business mentoring being "reframed" by Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
AI is reframing business mentoring in three very practical ways. First and foremost, it's transforming the businesses we support. For many SMEs, AI has moved from a "nice-to-have" to a strategic question about productivity, service quality, customer experience and competitiveness.
In our own work at ABM, we've seen AI-focused mentoring conversations more than double in the second half of 2025 - a clear signal that business leaders are trying to work out where AI genuinely creates value, and where it's just noise. However, we also know that business leaders don't always know where to explore and assess the opportunities, questions and doubts that often come when considering AI.
Second, it's transforming the tools and practice of mentoring itself. Mentors are starting to use AI to be better mentors - not to replace the relationship, but to strengthen it. That can mean using AI to reduce administration, to support reflective practice after sessions, to sense-check thinking, surface additional avenues and help mentors prepare more effectively. Used well, it both raises quality and consistency and protects wellbeing by taking some of the grind out of the role. It also means mentors can deliver more value to more businesses and work effectively across a wider portfolio of mentees.
Third, it's transforming what's expected of business-support organisations like ours. It's no longer enough to simply say "AI matters." We have a responsibility to operationalise that insight in ways that are safe, ethical and genuinely useful. Practically, that means building and curating AI tools that can be used in mentoring sessions to structure thinking, explore options, and stress-test decisions. Between sessions these tools can help to keep momentum, capture actions, support reflection and provide guidance prompts that helps business leaders without losing the human relationship. That's why we've been developing AI-enabled tools for use in mentor training, mentor matching, and practical session support.
Q: How do professional business mentors support the UK's national AI adoption mandate?
A: We help leaders translate AI from headlines and 'noise' into a clear commercial plan: identify high-value use cases, prioritise effort, test assumptions and build the confidence to act. Just as importantly, mentors help businesses do this responsibly: protecting customer trust, handling data properly and thinking through the human impact so adoption strengthens wellbeing rather than burning teams out.
The bigger prize is that AI can become a platform for innovation, new services, new ways of delivering value and more personalised customer experiences. But the benefits only stick when adoption is responsible. This means incorporating sensible guardrails around data, privacy, accuracy and bias so that trust is protected. In short: if the UK wants widespread, responsible AI uptake, it needs people who can guide adoption at the coalface. Professional business mentors are already there.
The AI Opportunity and Strategic Focus
Q: What is the key evidence showing AI is a rapidly growing area of concern for SMEs?
A: The ABM has seen that the volume of mentoring focused on AI has doubled in 2025, reflecting a sharp rise in SMEs seeking help with AI as a business challenge or opportunity. Additionally, according to the ONS, in July 2025, 14% of businesses planned to adopt some form of AI within three months - the highest level since tracking began. Together, this paints a picture of a business ecosystem which is ready and willing to adopt new technologies but lacks the know-how to do so effectively, without external support.
Q: What specific risks does the white paper highlight that structured mentoring can help SMEs manage?
A: The biggest risk we're seeing is unstructured adoption or people experimenting informally without strategy or guardrails. In one cohort of business leaders we spoke to, over 60% said they had no AI strategy, even though many were already trialling tools day-to-day. Structured mentoring helps turn "shadow AI" into safe progress. It's important to clarify what the business is trying to achieve, where AI fits commercially and the importance of protecting customer trust, confidentiality, data privacy and compliance.
It also helps leaders avoid two common traps: overconfidence (assuming outputs are always right, or that risks are someone else's problem) and inaction (waiting for perfect certainty while competitors learn by doing). Additionally, it helps teams manage the human side such as how roles change, how decisions get made, and how to keep work feeling purposeful rather than mechanised.
Ethical, Governance, and Workforce Impact
Q: What issues are now dominating mentoring conversations around AI?
A: At the start of a conversation leaders often jump too quickly to asking "which tool?", a good business mentor will start somewhere different by asking "what does your business do", "where is the market moving?" and then "how can we get there quicker using AI?"
Conversations quickly move to the business model and strategy (where value will be created), operating model questions (how work actually gets done), and workforce impact (skills, roles, job design, and anxiety).
We're also finding that trust and ethics show up constantly including fairness and bias, transparency with customers and staff, and what "good" looks like when AI is involved in decisions.
Governance is another big theme. Who is accountable for AI-assisted outputs, what simple guardrails are proportionate for an SME and how to manage the privacy, confidentiality, and ownership of AI-generated work. In practice, it's a cultural shift from fear or hype to informed experimentation.
Q: What support and training do you offer business mentors on AI?
We have developed a course which is designed to help experienced practitioners build confidence in helping businesses to develop AI strategy and implement their AI investment safely and responsibly. It provides mentors with hands-on experience and practical AI tools, alongside structured learning on data security, privacy, ethical use, and change management. Since late September 2025, 200 mentors have enrolled on our "AI for Business Mentors Course,"
Q: How do small training interventions for mentors impact the wider business community?
A: Even small, focused training interventions can have a ripple effect across the business community. An individual mentor may work with 20+ businesses per year. When a mentor upgrades their skills - for example, learning how to frame AI opportunities, risks and ethics in plain language, that expertise cascades into dozens of SME boardrooms, leadership teams and founder conversations. Each better equipped mentor helps multiple businesses make more informed decisions, design smarter experiments and avoid common pitfalls. It's a powerful multiplier for capability, innovation and responsible AI adoption across the wider ecosystem.