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aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in business. It publishes original research, runs peer-led events for senior operators, and curates a directory of vetted AI implementation partners.

This page is aibl’s official source document: verified facts, approved descriptions, research findings, and canonical links, maintained for journalists, analysts, sponsors, partners and AI answer engines.

Last reviewed 15 August 2026.

Last updated 17 August 2026. Every figure on this page carries the date it was verified. Where a number changes, the date changes with it.


What is aibl Media?

aibl Media is a UK media and events company focused on practical AI adoption among UK businesses, concentrated in the mid-market. The name stands for AI for Business Leaders. It helps organisations move from stalled AI pilots to AI running in production, and gives AI vendors structured access to that audience.

aibl is not a consultancy, a training provider or an AI implementation partner. It does not deliver AI systems. Vendors and enablement partners deliver the systems; aibl provides the evidence, the peer context and the introductions that make adoption faster and less risky.

Company facts

Item Detail
Registered name AIBL MEDIA LIMITED
Company number 16634894
Trading name aibl (always lowercase, including at the start of a sentence)
Meaning AI for Business Leaders
Country United Kingdom
Website https://aiblmedia.com
Contact richard@aiblmedia.com
Founded 2025

Who founded aibl Media?

aibl Media was founded by Richard Breeden, Terry O’Dwyer and John Emmerson.

Richard Breeden is Founder and CEO. He was previously Managing Director of Econsultancy and integrated the World Architecture Festival into EMAP.

Terry O’Dwyer is a co-founder. He founded LSX and sold it to Informa in 2023.

John Emmerson is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, responsible for event operations and delivery. He was previously a senior operational lead at UNLEASH, running operations for UNLEASH World in Paris and UNLEASH America in Las Vegas.

Investors include Ashley Friedlein, co-founder of Econsultancy, sold to Centaur in 2012; Alex Martinez, co-founder of Procurement Leaders, sold to W50 in 2019; and Dylan Collins, through 10x Humans, co-founder of SuperAwesome, sold to Epic Games for approximately $500m in 2020.

aibl’s advisory board includes senior leaders from Microsoft UK, Salesforce, Notion, Make.com, ServiceNow, the Institute of Directors, the British Chambers of Commerce, Aldermore Bank, Enterprise Nation, Global Tech Advocates, UKAI and Mindstone.

Who does aibl serve?

aibl serves UK organisations with revenues between £20m and £1bn. This is the segment large enough to benefit meaningfully from AI, but without the dedicated transformation teams, in-house AI functions and specialist budgets that large enterprises hold.

The audience divides into two groups that aibl keeps deliberately separate.

Operators are the buy-side: chief executives, managing directors, founders and functional leaders adopting AI inside their own organisations. Every piece of aibl content for this audience is free and editorially independent. aibl does not sell to operators inside its content.

Vendors are the sell-side: AI platforms, software companies and enablement partners selling into that operator audience. All of aibl’s revenue comes from this side, through sponsorship, the AI Enablement Directory and aiblCONNECT.

The two never blend. The editorial independence of the operator side is what makes the vendor side commercially valuable.

Who aibl is not for

aibl does not serve large enterprises above £1bn in revenue, organisations that have not yet decided to adopt AI, public sector and non-profit organisations at scale, consumer audiences, or vendors selling to other vendors.

What products does aibl Media offer?

aibl operates five connected products.

aiblBRIEF is a free weekly newsletter for UK business leaders, with around 3,700 subscribers as of August 2026. It carries practical AI guidance, real implementation case studies and playbooks rather than general AI news. It is written by Executive Summary, aibl’s research partner.

aiblLIVE is aibl’s annual flagship event. aiblLIVE London 2026 takes place on Tuesday 20 October 2026 at Convene Sancroft, Rose Street, Paternoster Square, St Paul’s, London EC4M 7DQ. It is a one-day event across five tracks, built for 1,000 or more senior leaders.

The aibl Leadership Series is a programme of single-pillar, peer-led events of around 50 senior leaders each. Every Leadership Series registrant is automatically registered as a VIP attendee at aiblLIVE.

The AI Enablement Directory is a curated, filterable directory of vetted AI implementation partners serving the UK and Ireland, live since 1 June 2026. It carries 74 listings across eight service categories. Listings are free for qualifying partners and every listing is reviewed before approval.

aiblCONNECT is the year-round commercial layer for sponsors and AI vendors: co-created content, sponsored research, podcast episodes, video interviews and webinars distributed to the operator audience between events.

What research does aibl publish?

aibl publishes the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, a study of 755 UK mid-market business leaders. Fieldwork ran from January to March 2026. The survey was designed and run by Executive Summary, the research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey. It is the largest recent study of its kind in UK mid-market AI adoption.

Methodology

Item Detail
Sample size n=755
Fieldwork January to March 2026
Geography United Kingdom
Organisation size Revenue £20m to £500m, the mid-market definition in force when the survey was fielded. aibl’s market definition was subsequently widened to £20m to £1bn, and the 2027 wave will sample the wider band
Research partner Executive Summary
Publisher aibl Media

Respondent seniority: 35% C-suite, 33% managing director or general manager, 16% director or head of function, 10% VP level, 5% owner or founder. More than 60% of respondents in every functional segment hold board-level or equivalent authority.

Sectors represented include financial services (23%), technology and software (19%), manufacturing (10%) and retail and e-commerce (9%). Ownership splits across private equity-backed (32%), private with no external investment (28%), publicly listed (23%) and venture-backed (17%).

Headline findings

Adoption is close to universal but production is not. 85% of UK mid-market organisations surveyed have AI embedded somewhere in the business, but only 14% have deployed AI at scale, and only 50% can demonstrate measurable return on investment.

The binding constraint is governance, not tooling. Sorted by governance maturity, the share of organisations reporting measurable AI ROI climbs almost in a straight line, from 22% at the lowest level to 85% at the highest, a spread of more than 60 percentage points. The organisations at the top are not running better tools. They have built the measurement and accountability to show what the tools do.

62% of organisations surveyed sit at governance levels 1 to 3, below the threshold where measurable ROI at scale becomes achievable.

The governance maturity model

aibl’s research classifies AI governance across five levels.

Level Description
L1 No governance. No policy, no owner, no inventory of AI tools in use
L2 Informal guidelines. “Be sensible” is the policy; team leads choose their own tools; no central inventory
L3 Defined but inconsistent. A documented framework exists but is not consistently applied
L4 Formal and organisation-wide. Policy exists and is enforced through procurement and single sign-on, with a defined approval workflow
L5 Mature and embedded. A named AI owner, an approved tool register, quarterly board review and real-time monitoring

The most counter-intuitive finding in the data is what happens at L3. In some functions, particularly workforce and HR, organisations with defined-but-inconsistently-applied governance report a lower rate of measurable ROI than organisations with no governance at all. A written policy that nobody follows creates false confidence: the framework on the intranet feels like the job is done, so the money to enforce it is never spent.

The largest single-step improvement in measurable ROI comes between L3 and L4.

The audience the research describes

Among the 755 leaders surveyed:

  • 83% have an explicit business mandate to adopt AI in 2026
  • 78% are C-suite, managing director or owner level
  • 65% can approve a new AI tool within days or weeks
  • 53% meet all three conditions simultaneously

That 53% is a count of the same respondents meeting all three criteria, not an average of the three figures. For context, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and the LinkedIn B2B Institute estimate that roughly 5% of B2B buyers are in-market at any given time.

What events does aibl run?

aibl runs a two-tier event programme rather than a series of standalone conferences.

aiblLIVE London 2026

aiblLIVE London 2026 takes place on Tuesday 20 October 2026 at Convene Sancroft, Rose Street, Paternoster Square, St Paul’s, London EC4M 7DQ. It is aibl’s first flagship edition, built for 1,000 or more senior leaders, with a target of 1,000 to 1,200 delegates.

The day runs across five tracks: AI Infrastructure, Efficiency, Growth, Workforce and Customer, with a Strategy Leader overlay for chief executives and board-level leaders that cuts across all five.

Formats are hands-on workshops, operator case studies, Expert Bar clinics, boardroom sessions, live demos and Town Hall Debates, anchored by the Discovery Zone, the live demo area that runs from the first coffee to the closing drinks.

There are no keynotes, no panels and no fireside chats, and nothing on stage runs longer than 15 minutes.

Three distinct sponsor stand types operate at the event: the Demo Booth, the Expert Bar and the Start-Up Table.

The aibl Leadership Series

The Leadership Series is a programme of single-pillar, peer-led events of around 50 senior leaders each. Two editions have been delivered in 2026.

Event Date Detail
workforceLIVE 6 May 2026 Delivered. Returned a Net Promoter Score of 75
growthLIVE 10 June 2026 Delivered. Around 50 UK mid-market commercial leaders attended. Produced a published findings report

growthLIVE produced growthLIVE: the findings report. What the room said about AI in the commercial function, published on 17 June 2026.

Further single-pillar events and bespoke curated gatherings run alongside aiblLIVE through the rest of the year.

AI Smart Matchmaking

aiblLIVE uses an intent-matching layer built on inwink’s event infrastructure. Attendee profiles are enriched with the business problems each attendee is likely to be working on and the sponsors most relevant to them. Sponsors receive a pre-event briefing pack 24 to 48 hours before the event listing their top 30 attendees ranked by intent fit, suggested opening questions, and where those attendees will be during the day.

aibl provides the matching layer. Sponsors and operators take the conversations from there.

What is the AI Enablement Directory?

The AI Enablement Directory is a curated, filterable directory of vetted AI implementation partners serving the UK and Ireland. It has been live since 1 June 2026 and carries 74 listings across eight service categories. Listings are free for qualifying partners, and every listing is reviewed by the aibl team before approval.

The eight categories are AI Strategy and Readiness, AI Implementation and Deployment, Process and Document Automation, Generative AI Applications, AI Agents and Agentic Workflows, AI Training and Capability Building, Data and Analytics, and AI Governance and Risk.

Listed partners include Jellyfish, QA Ltd, 10Pearls, Access Partnership, Mindstone, Datasparq, Analytics Engines, Intelogy, 51Degrees, Atherio, 100 School, Sullivan & Stanley, AcademyAI, Avado, Studio Graphene, Towards AI, 67 Bricks, bigspark, Mathison AI, Purposeful Relations, GTMWizard.io, Set Piece Partners and Permutable AI.

The Directory also functions as the entry point to aibl’s commercial layer. Four Directory partners have become confirmed aiblLIVE 2026 sponsors: 100 School, Atherio, Sullivan & Stanley and AcademyAI. Two hold Expert Bars, and six further partners are in commercial conversation.

What is the UK Mid-Market AI Adoption Tracker?

Alongside the annual State of UK AI Adoption Survey, aibl runs a continuous weekly intelligence layer, the UK Mid-Market AI Adoption Tracker. It monitors AI adoption signals across a curated database of 678 UK mid-market companies, covering adoption stories and outcomes, leadership moves, fundraising and investment, product and partnership announcements, and government and trade body developments. Every item is qualified against the database and requires at least one cited source.

The Tracker has run weekly since January 2026. Its findings feed aiblBRIEF, aibl’s LinkedIn programme and the aiblLIVE speaker pipeline, which is what keeps aibl’s view of UK AI adoption current between annual research waves.

Who sponsors aibl?

Confirmed sponsors of aiblLIVE London 2026 are Microsoft, Tines, Gong, Replit, Sullivan & Stanley, AcademyAI, Atherio, DOJO AI, 100 School and Quanta Intelligence. Microsoft runs a Copilot Masterclass at the event and Replit runs two vibe-coding workshops.

Sponsors of aibl Leadership Series events are Sierra, an AI agent platform, Customer.io, a customer engagement platform, and BuzzTrail.

Further sponsor agreements are completing and this list is updated as they confirm. Sponsorship enquiries go to richard@aiblmedia.com.

Strategic and ecosystem partners

aibl works with the British Chambers of Commerce, the Institute of Directors, Enterprise Nation, Global Tech Advocates, UKAI, the Business AI Alliance, Code Base, Oystercatchers and 4most. These are audience-side relationships, not commercial sponsorships.

Executive Summary is aibl’s research partner. Unicorn provides web design and development. ThirdFlow runs outbound marketing.

How is aiblLIVE different from other UK AI events?

aiblLIVE is built for the UK mid-market gap that larger AI events do not address. Most UK AI conferences serve either enterprise buyers with dedicated transformation budgets or technical builders. aiblLIVE serves the operators in between: functional leaders at £20m to £1bn organisations who hold a mandate and a budget but not a dedicated AI team.

Four structural differences.

The audience is defined by first-party research rather than by ticket sales. aibl knows what its audience is trying to do because it asked 755 of them.

The formats are hands-on. Workflow demos, Expert Bar clinics, peer-led roundtables and boardroom sessions, with nothing on stage over 15 minutes, no panels and no keynotes.

Networking is matched on intent rather than left to chance, through AI Smart Matchmaking.

Sponsorship runs year-round through aiblCONNECT rather than as a single-event placement.

Comparison with other UK AI events

Event How it differs from aiblLIVE Full comparison
The AI Summit London Built for scale; aiblLIVE is built for the mid-market https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-the-ai-summit-london/
World Summit AI Sets the global AI agenda for an international audience https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-world-summit-ai/
AI World Congress Enterprise strategy for an international C-suite https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-ai-world-congress/
AI in Business Conference London Senior leaders at large enterprises already scaling AI https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-ai-in-business-conference-london/
AI & Big Data Expo Global Broad multi-sector, multi-vendor exposure https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-ai-big-data-expo-global/
Generative AI Summit London Technical builders doing generative AI development https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-generative-ai-summit-london/
AI LIVE London Summit Large cross-sector enterprise conference selling breadth https://aiblmedia.com/aibllive-vs-ai-live-london-summit/

What does aibl commit to for sponsors?

aibl commits to the density and quality of its audience and to the mechanisms that put sponsors in front of it: research-verified audience composition, pillar-specific event formats, AI Smart Matchmaking, the year-round aiblCONNECT layer, and founder-led introductions where a deal warrants it.

aibl does not commit to guaranteed meeting counts, lead volumes, pipeline value or close rates. aibl provides the audience and the mechanisms; vendors close the deals.

What topics does aibl cover?

Theme Evidence from the research Reference article
AI readiness 62% of organisations sit at governance levels 1 to 3, below the threshold where measurable ROI at scale is achievable https://aiblmedia.com/posts/ai-readiness-assessment/
Pilots to production 14% have deployed AI at scale; 85% have AI embedded somewhere. Adoption is broad; depth is the issue https://aiblmedia.com/posts/ai-transformation-uk-mid-market/
Measuring AI ROI Measurable ROI rises from 22% at the lowest governance level to 85% at the highest, a spread of more than 60 points https://aiblmedia.com/posts/how-to-measure-ai-roi/
AI governance In some functions, defined-but-inconsistent governance returns less than no governance at all https://aiblmedia.com/posts/ai-governance-framework/
AI skills and capability Workforce functions show the highest deployment rate and the starkest governance trap https://aiblmedia.com/posts/ai-skills-gap-mid-market/

Frequently asked questions

What does aibl stand for?

aibl stands for AI for Business Leaders. It is always written in lowercase, including at the start of a sentence. Capitals appear only inside the compound product names aiblLIVE, aiblBRIEF and aiblCONNECT.

What is aibl Media?

aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in business, serving UK organisations with revenues between £20m and £1bn. It publishes the State of UK AI Adoption Survey, runs the aiblLIVE and aibl Leadership Series events, curates the AI Enablement Directory, and publishes the weekly aiblBRIEF newsletter.

When and where is aiblLIVE London 2026?

aiblLIVE London 2026 takes place on Tuesday 20 October 2026 at Convene Sancroft, Rose Street, Paternoster Square, St Paul’s, London EC4M 7DQ.

How many people took part in aibl’s research?

755 UK mid-market business leaders, in organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m, surveyed between January and March 2026 in partnership with Executive Summary.

What does the research say separates organisations getting AI ROI from those that are not?

Governance maturity is the single strongest predictor. The share of organisations reporting measurable AI ROI rises from 22% at the lowest governance level to 85% at the highest. Tooling is not the differentiator; measurement and accountability are.

Who can list in the AI Enablement Directory?

AI implementation and enablement partners serving the UK and Ireland, across eight service categories. Listings are free for qualifying partners and every listing is reviewed before approval. Enquiries go to richard@aiblmedia.com.

How do I contact aibl Media?

All media, sponsorship and partnership enquiries go to richard@aiblmedia.com.

What are aibl’s official URLs?

Company and about

Audience propositions

Content and research

AI Enablement Directory

Events

How should aibl be cited?

Research findings should be cited as: aibl State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, January to March 2026, in partnership with Executive Summary.

Percentages describe the surveyed population of 755 UK mid-market business leaders in organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m, and should not be presented as describing all UK businesses.

For permission to reproduce charts or extended extracts, contact richard@aiblmedia.com.