Unloq CEO joins AI experts, including former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak

After more than 20 years working in artificial intelligence, Yiannis Maos was proud to share his perspective at the Goldman Sachs AI for Growth Conference in Birmingham. For Unloq, the event was especially meaningful because it took place in a city the company cares deeply about and believes has the potential to lead the UK in AI adoption.

Unloq believes Birmingham can become the AI adoption capital of the UK. That belief is rooted in the city’s unique strengths, including its diversity of people, breadth of industry and world class research. Birmingham helped shape the industrial revolution and, in Unloq’s view, it now has the foundations to become a city defined by a thousand AI opportunities.

Top tips for SMEs looking to successfully adopt AI

During his keynote fireside conversation and follow on breakout session, Yiannis shared Unloq’s view on what organisations must do to adopt AI successfully and create lasting business value.

The first principle was simple. Businesses should always start with problems and opportunities, not technology. Organisations need to take the time to understand where the real challenges and opportunities lie before deciding whether AI is the right solution. Once that is clear, they should focus on the areas that offer both high impact and practical feasibility. Early success matters because it builds confidence, creates momentum and helps establish the right culture for wider AI adoption.

Yiannis also spoke about the need for organisations to move from prompting to prediction. While AI can be highly effective at answering the questions people already know to ask, its greater value often comes from surfacing insights that may otherwise go unnoticed. Unloq believes the most effective AI adoption strategies are those that embed AI into the fabric of an organisation, allowing it to work with real time data and generate actionable insights that support better strategic decision making.

A further theme was the continuing importance of human capability in an AI driven world. Yiannis emphasised that qualities such as intuition, ingenuity, creativity and critical thinking remain essential. AI can accelerate progress and produce valuable outputs, but people are still needed to apply context, exercise judgement and turn insight into action. That is what ultimately transforms AI from an interesting tool into a driver of measurable return on investment.

For Unloq, helping organisations adopt AI in the right way means combining clear business priorities, practical implementation and strong human leadership. It is this approach that will enable more businesses in Birmingham, across the West Midlands and beyond to unlock the full value of artificial intelligence.