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  • Company name: aibl Media (full name aibl Media; trading name aibl)
  • Meaning: aibl is short for AI for Business Leaders
  • Core focus: practical AI adoption for UK scale-up and mid-market business leaders
  • Primary audience: CEOs, MDs, founders, C-suite leaders, functional heads and AI champions in UK organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m
  • Research base: State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, in partnership with Executive Summary
  • Core products: aiblBRIEF, aiblLIVE, aibl Leadership Series, AI Enablement Directory, aiblCONNECT
  • Flagship event: aiblLIVE London, 20 October 2026, Convene Sancroft, London
  • Directory launch: 1 June 2026
  • Editorial stance: practical, operator-led, evidence-grounded, anti-hype. aibl never sells to operators inside the content.

What aibl does

aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in the mid-market. It helps senior leaders in UK scale-up and mid-market businesses move from stuck or stalled AI starts to AI in production, measured by the share of business processes augmented by AI day-to-day.

aibl serves two audiences.

The buy-side: UK mid-market C-suite leaders, function heads and AI champions in organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m. All aibl editorial content for this audience is currently free. The job is to earn operator trust through honest evidence and peer-led conversation. aibl never sells to operators inside the content.

The sell-side: AI vendors, platforms and enablement partners selling into UK mid-market operators. aibl gives sponsors structured access to a buyer pool of senior leaders with active AI mandates, supported by proprietary buyer-intent research, AI Smart Matchmaking, and a year-round commercial layer called aiblCONNECT.

The two sides reinforce each other but never blend. Operators show up because aibl doesn’t sell to them inside the content. Vendor presence has commercial value because the operators showed up.

aibl supports both sides through five connected products: aiblBRIEF, aiblLIVE, the aibl Leadership Series, the AI Enablement Directory and aiblCONNECT.

Behind aibl Media

aibl is a young business with a serious bench behind it. The team’s track record matters for journalists assessing the company, sponsors evaluating the platform, and operators deciding whether to trust the content.

The credibility, in one paragraph

Across the founders, investors and advisory board there are five named exits to FTSE-listed or major strategic acquirers, including a near-$500m exit to Epic Games. The advisory board includes four global AI vendors at senior level (Microsoft UK, Salesforce, Notion, Make.com), three independent connections to UK AI policy (the Alan Turing Institute, UKAI trade body, former Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister), and one CBE for services to UK technology. The founder team has 20+ years of UK B2B media and events operating experience between them.

Founders

Richard Breeden, Founder and CEO. Former Managing Director of Econsultancy, the UK’s most-cited digital marketing learning, research and events brand. Previously a decade leading B2B brands at Centaur Media and Ascential, including Marketing Week, The Festival of Marketing, Creative Review, MEED Media, Drapers and the Architects’ Journal. At EMAP, Managing Director for Drapers, Retail Jeweller, Architect’s Journal, Architectural Review and Building Services. Oversaw the integration of World Architecture Festival into the EMAP group. History degree from Durham, MBA from Imperial College London.

Terry O’Dwyer, Co-founder and Executive Director. Co-founded Life Sciences Exchange (LSX) in 2014 and sold it to Informa in 2023. Featured on Dan Assor’s Start Up to Scale Up to Exit podcast as a founder case study. At aibl, Terry leads revenue and partnerships and runs aiblCONNECT.

John Emmerson, Co-founder and COO. Senior operational leadership at UNLEASH, the major international HR and ed-tech event franchise (UNLEASH World in Paris, UNLEASH America in Las Vegas) before joining aibl. Prior roles at SITU LIVE and Pageant Media. At aibl, John runs event operations and delivery. Direct transferable experience for running aiblLIVE London 2026 at the 1,000-attendee scale.

Investors

Ashley Friedlein. Co-founded Econsultancy in 1999 and sold it to Centaur Media in 2012 (reported £12m initial cash plus up to £38m deferred). Currently founder and CEO of Guild, a private professional messaging platform. Econsultancy is the closest direct precedent for what aibl is building in AI.

Alex Martinez. Co-founded Procurement Leaders, a global membership network for procurement executives, sold to W50 in 2019. Now founder of Supplier Day and a serial investor and advisor across B2B platforms.

Dylan Collins (via 10x Humans). Three named technology exits. Co-founded SuperAwesome (CEO 2013 to 2023), acquired by Epic Games in 2020 for just under $500 million. Co-founded Demonware in 2003, sold to Activision in 2007. Acquired Jolt Online Gaming in 2007 and sold it to GameStop in 2009. Builder and investor at 10x Humans, a specialist AI-first investment platform.

10x Humans. Specialist AI-first builder and investor platform led by Dylan Collins.

Advisory board

Sixteen senior advisors covering four credibility axes: global AI vendors, UK AI policy, UK mid-market institutions, and proven category operators.

Global AI vendors at senior level:

  • Paul O’Sullivan, UK and Ireland CTO and Head of the UK AI Centre, Salesforce
  • Mick Hodgins, GM EMEA, Notion. Previously 13 years at Google, most recently MD EMEA Ads
  • Alison Wright, SMB and Corporate Scale Director, Microsoft UK
  • Sara Maldon, Head of AI Automation and Transformation, Make.com. Leads Make’s internal AI transformation programme

UK AI policy connections:

  • Dr. Erin Young, Head of Innovation and Technology Policy at the Institute of Directors. Previously Research Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, where her work influenced the UK’s National AI Strategy and AI Opportunities Action Plan
  • Tim Flagg, CEO and co-founder of UKAI, the UK’s trade body for AI businesses (230+ members), which has shaped national AI policy under his leadership
  • Ed de Minckwitz, European Director of Public Policy, ServiceNow. Previously Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister at the Cabinet Office, working on government adoption of AI in the public sector

Mid-market institutional credibility:

  • Aaron Asadi, CEO, Enterprise Nation (the UK’s largest small-business membership organisation). Previously CEO of Saga Media and senior roles at Future plc
  • Jenny Hemsley, Director of Finance, British Chambers of Commerce. Previously 15 years at Thomson Reuters as finance director and audit director
  • Nick Ulycz, Chief Operating Officer, Aldermore Bank. Previously COO at Domestic & General; eight years at HSBC including MD, Human Resources, HSBC UK
  • Russ Shaw CBE, Founder, Global Tech Advocates (spans 42+ local networks across 60+ countries). Awarded a CBE in 2021 for services to UK technology and business

Proven category operators:

  • Joshua Wöhle, CEO of Mindstone, an AI adoption platform for non-technical employees. Previously co-founded SuperAwesome (sold to Epic Games for ~$500m in 2020, the same exit as aibl investor Dylan Collins)
  • Hannah Dawson, Founder and former CEO of Futrli, a cash-flow forecasting business built over 13 years and acquired by Sage in 2022
  • Ross Nichols, Co-founder of Just Move In, the UK home-setup service. Raised $8m Series A in February 2025 led by Eos Ventures
  • Mina Dimitrova, Chief Strategy Officer, Super Technologies. Previously strategy and operational leadership at Google, YouTube and McKinsey & Company
  • Trudy Larsen, Tray.ai (AI orchestration platform)
  • Colin Carmichael, Co-founder, Business AI Alliance; client partner at 4most
  • Richard Exon, Founder, Joint (creative agency). Previously CEO of RKCR/Y&R
  • Neil Perkin, Founder of Only Dead Fish. Curator of Google Firestarters since 2012. Author of three Kogan Page books on agile transformation

The SuperAwesome thread is worth pointing out. Both Dylan Collins (aibl investor) and Joshua Wöhle (aibl advisor) are co-founders of SuperAwesome, sold to Epic Games for ~$500m. Both came back to back aibl.

Sponsors and partners

aibl is a commercially-funded platform. Sponsors fund the events, the matchmaking infrastructure and the year-round commercial layer. Partners support the audience-building motion.

Existing sponsors

Existing aibl sponsors include Sierra and Customer.io. Additional sponsor agreements are in progress and the published list will be updated as they confirm.

Strategic and ecosystem partners

aibl works with a range of UK and global organisations to support the audience side. These are partners, not sponsors:

  • British Chambers of Commerce, institutional reach into UK mid-market businesses
  • Institute of Directors (IoD), director-level audience access and policy connection
  • Enterprise Nation, UK small and mid-market business community
  • Global Tech Advocates, international tech ecosystem network
  • UKAI, the UK AI trade body
  • Business AI Alliance, UK AI policy and adoption network
  • Microsoft, Salesforce, Notion, Make.com, represented at advisor level (see Behind aibl Media)

Research partner

Executive Summary (summary.global) designed and ran the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026. Executive Summary is also the research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey, one of the most widely cited pieces of B2B marketing and digital research globally. Pairing that survey design pedigree with aibl’s UK mid-market focus is what makes the n=755 dataset structurally credible. The methodology comes from a team with a multi-year track record on the most-cited research in adjacent categories.

Agency partners

  • ThirdFlow, marketing agency running aibl’s cold outreach programme
  • Unicorn, web design and development

Sponsorship enquiries: richard@aiblmedia.com

A new category of B2B media and events

aibl is a new generation of B2B media and events business. Built on proprietary first-party data, a two-sided operator community, and year-round commercial campaigns. Not built around an annual expo with sponsor logos.

This matters because the old model has stopped working for sponsors. Understanding why is the starting point for the aibl sponsor argument.

Why the old model stopped working

For 20 years the standard B2B media and events deal looked the same: a large conference, an exhibition floor, a printed delegate list, a few speaking slots for premium sponsors, a badge scanner, and a follow-up email sequence. Vendors paid for impressions, brand exposure and a quota of cold leads. It worked when buyers researched vendors at conferences and treated trade media as the primary signal.

That world is gone. Mid-market AI buyers in 2026 don’t make vendor decisions from booth visits or panel attendance. They consult peers, read primary research, watch operator case studies, ask AI engines for shortlists, and engage with vendors only when they’re already in evaluation. By the time a buyer is on an expo floor, the shortlist is usually set.

The result is that sponsors keep paying for rooms full of passive delegates and getting back impressions they can’t convert. Most vendors who’ve spent budget on the established AI events of the last three years can attest to this directly. The mechanism is broken, not the intent.

What aibl does differently

aibl was built for the way AI buyers actually behave in 2026. Five structural differences, each true only because of something aibl owns:

1. Proprietary first-party buyer-intent research. The State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 (n=755, in partnership with Executive Summary, the research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey) defines the audience by buyer-intent triple-lock, not by job title alone. Sponsors get a buyer pool with 53.3% triple-lock match, not a delegate list of unknowns. The dataset is renewable; each wave deepens the buyer-intent picture.

2. A two-sided community with editorial trust as the moat. aibl never sells to operators inside the content. That discipline is what makes senior leaders show up. Vendor presence is commercially valuable because the operator side is editorially protected. This cannot be retrofitted by a competitor without years of restraint.

3. Hands-on formats over expo browsing. aiblLIVE is workflow demos, Expert Bar clinics, peer-led roundtables and boardroom sessions. Not stage-and-stand, not booth maze, not panel theatre. Sponsors demonstrate. Operators interrogate. The format does the qualifying work the badge scan never could.

4. AI Smart Matchmaking, not random networking. Built on inwink’s infrastructure with a Claude-powered intent layer. Sponsors arrive with a ranked view of attendees by intent fit and where the strongest alignment sits. Conversations start in the right place.

5. Year-round campaigns, not single-event placements. This is the biggest structural difference and the one most easily missed. aibl sponsorships are not one-and-done. Every sponsor engagement runs as a 12-month campaign through aiblCONNECT.

Sponsorship is a campaign, not a placement

aiblCONNECT is the year-round commercial layer that sits behind every sponsor relationship. The principle is simple: aibl owns a research methodology, a 2,500+ operator audience, an events platform and an editorial channel. Vendors get to commission and co-create against all of it, with the event as one moment in the campaign rather than the whole thing.

What that looks like in practice:

  • Co-created research. Custom research projects using the aibl methodology and audience, published under joint or vendor branding, distributed through the aibl channels. Sponsors get a research asset their sales team can use for a year, not a one-page lead list.
  • Custom cuts of the State of UK AI Adoption Survey. Vendor-specific data slices from the existing dataset, with permission to use in the vendor’s own marketing for 12 months. Single-buyer research without the cost of fielding it.
  • Sponsored content in aiblBRIEF and on the aibl website. Long-form thought leadership distributed weekly to the operator audience, clearly labelled, editorially supported.
  • Podcast and video features. Vendor leaders interviewed in aibl’s video and podcast formats. The content lives permanently on the aibl site and feeds the YouTube and LinkedIn channels.
  • Webinars and roundtables. Co-hosted virtual sessions on pillar-specific topics, with audience drawn from the aibl operator base.
  • Year-round digital lead-gen. Always-on layer for vendors whose buying cycle doesn’t fit a single event moment.
  • aiblLIVE activation. Headline sponsorship, pillar sponsorship, Expert Bar, workflow demos, boardrooms. The annual moment in the campaign, not the campaign itself.

The point is that a sponsor doesn’t buy an event slot from aibl. A sponsor commissions a 12-month campaign with aibl’s audience, methodology, and editorial platform behind it. That is the proposition.

Why now: the early-mover argument

aibl is the fastest-growing community for UK mid-market AI in the country. Newsletter list at 2,566 and growing weekly. aibl Media LinkedIn brand page at 5,812 followers and growing weekly. Combined founder reach across Richard Breeden, John Emmerson and Terry O’Dwyer of over 13,800 senior operators. Total owned reach into the UK mid-market AI community: ~22,000. aiblLIVE 2026 is first edition. The AI Enablement Directory launches 1 June 2026. The Leadership Series is ongoing year-round.

The platform is at the point where early sponsors get disproportionate share of voice. Existing sponsors include Sierra and Customer.io. Several enablement partners have already converted from Directory listings into Expert Bar sponsorships.

For a vendor with a UK mid-market AI thesis, the choice is between anchoring a category position now while the platform is establishing, or buying into it later when the early-mover slots are taken. The data, the community, the formats and the year-round campaign infrastructure are already built. The window to define category leadership inside them is open and won’t stay that way.

What aibl does and doesn’t commit to

aibl commits to the density and quality of the audience and the fitness of the mechanisms. Triple-lock audience stats from a renewing survey. Pillar-specific event formats. AI Smart Matchmaking. The year-round campaign layer through aiblCONNECT. Founder-led senior introductions where the deal warrants it.

aibl does not commit to guaranteed meeting counts, lead volumes, pipeline value or close rates. Those are functions of the vendor’s product, story and follow-through, not the platform’s. aibl provides the audience and the mechanisms. Vendors close the deals.

This is the structural honesty that makes the offer credible. Promising outcomes aibl can’t control would be the fastest way to lose sponsor trust later. Promising mechanisms aibl absolutely controls is what makes the proposition defensible.

Sponsorship enquiries: richard@aiblmedia.com

The research: State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026

The research is the credibility anchor for everything aibl publishes.

Methodology

  • Sample: 755 UK mid-market business leaders
  • Fieldwork: January to March 2026
  • Geography: UK
  • Organisation size: revenue £20m to £500m
  • Seniority: C-suite (35%), MD/GM (33%), Director/Head (16%), VP/SVP/EVP (10%), Owner/Founder (5%). More than 60% board-level authority across every functional segment.
  • Function mix: Tech/IT/Data (n=222), Operations/Finance/Supply Chain (n=176), Marketing/Sales/CX (n=158), HR/People/L&D (n=151), Strategy Layer cross-functional cut (n=489)
  • Top sectors: Financial services (23%), Technology and software (19%), Manufacturing (10%), Retail and e-commerce (9%)
  • Ownership: PE-backed private (32%), Private no PE/VC (28%), Publicly listed (23%), VC-backed (17%)
  • Research partner: Executive Summary (summary.global)
  • Publisher: aibl Media

Canonical citation: aibl State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, January to March 2026, in partnership with Executive Summary.

This is the largest recent study of its kind in UK mid-market AI adoption.

The four cross-function headline findings

These four anchor every conversation about UK mid-market AI:

  • 87% believe AI will fundamentally transform their industry. The “should we do AI” question is settled. (Source: aibl State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755)
  • 82.5% hold an active board mandate to invest in AI in 2026. Budget is in place; the buying window is open. (Source: same)
  • 65% can approve a new AI tool in days or weeks. Fast procurement is the norm. (Source: same)
  • 14% have deployed AI at scale. These are the organisations the rest of the market is being measured against. (Source: same)

The central finding: governance and the rate of measurable AI ROI

The single most important finding from the research is the relationship between governance maturity and the rate at which organisations report measurable AI ROI.

aibl’s 5-level governance maturity model:

  • L1, no governance. No policy, no owner, no inventory.
  • L2, informal guidelines. “Be sensible” is the policy; team leads choose tools; no central inventory.
  • L3, defined, inconsistent. Documented framework that is not consistently applied. The danger zone.
  • L4, formal, organisation-wide. Policy exists and is enforced through procurement and SSO; approval workflow defined.
  • L5, mature, embedded. Named AI owner, approved tool register, quarterly board review, real-time monitoring.

The rate of measurable AI ROI rises sharply with governance maturity (all 755 respondents, cross-functional):

Governance level Rate of measurable AI ROI
L1, no governance 4.5%
L2, informal 19.0%
L3, defined, inconsistent 31.1%
L4, formal, organisation-wide 59.0%
L5, mature, embedded 85.2%

The full L1-to-L5 spread is 80.8 percentage points. The largest single-step jump is L3 to L4, where the rate of measurable ROI nearly doubles.

The L3 trap. In some functions, particularly Workforce, L3 governance produces a lower rate of measurable ROI than no governance at all. Writing a framework you don’t follow is worse than having no framework, because false confidence prevents the next investment. This is policy theatre, and it’s the most quotable structural finding in the data.

Per-function findings

Workforce / HR / L&D (n=151):

  • 91.4% have AI embedded in at least one HR team, the highest deployment rate of any function
  • 45.7% report measurable ROI; a further 39.7% see early value they can’t yet measure
  • 14.6% cite competitive pressure as the primary AI investment driver, nearly double the cross-function rate. The highest FOMO-driven adoption in the survey.
  • Central IT-owned HR AI delivers 59.1% measurable ROI, higher than CEO/C-suite-owned (44.7%). The only function in the survey where Central IT ownership outperforms executive-led ownership.

Growth / Marketing / Sales / GTM (n=158):

  • 67.7% describe themselves as in momentum or all-in on AI, the highest of any function
  • 44.9% report measurable ROI, 13 percentage points behind Tech/IT despite higher momentum. Tech/IT is more disciplined, not more enthusiastic.
  • 63.3% report shadow AI as common or very common, the highest of any function
  • The revenue-motivated cohort sees 69.4% conversion improvement but only 40.3% measurable ROI. Attribution infrastructure is the gap, not capability.

Customer / CX / Contact Centre (n=158):

  • 81.0% have AI embedded in at least one customer team
  • 84.8% have experienced at least one AI-related failure, the highest of any function
  • 42.4% have experienced AI output used without human review leading to errors, the highest in any function
  • L3 customer functions report 70% conversion improvement (virtually identical to L5’s 69%) but measurable ROI is 39% at L3 versus 76% at L5. A 37-point ROI gap with no underlying performance change.

Efficiency / Operations / Finance / Supply Chain (n=176):

  • 86.9% have AI embedded in at least one team, second only to Workforce
  • 96.2% measurable ROI at L5 governance, the highest single segment ceiling in the entire survey
  • L3 to L4 is the steepest single-step ROI gain in the survey: +30 percentage points (31.6% to 61.4%) in a single governance step
  • 23.3% cite IT not prioritising their automation requests as a shadow AI cause, found nowhere else in the survey

Infrastructure / Technology / IT / Data (n=222):

  • 58.1% report measurable AI ROI, the highest of any function
  • 27.0% have reached mature L5 governance, the highest of any function. At L5, the rate of measurable ROI is 86.7% to 90.7%.
  • 19.8% have deployed AI at scale, more than double the Workforce rate (11.9%)
  • 38.7% cite AI integration with existing infrastructure as the most common failure mode

Strategy Layer, cross-functional C-suite (n=489):

  • 53.6% of senior leaders report measurable AI ROI, 4 points above the survey average
  • 67.9% in momentum or all-in; only 5.1% express caution
  • CEO/C-suite direct ownership delivers 66.0% measurable ROI; organisations with no clear owner deliver 11.1%. A 55-point spread.

How to cite the research

For any external use, cite as: Source: aibl State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, in partnership with Executive Summary.

Always credit Executive Summary as research partner in methodology and citation contexts. They designed and ran the survey; aibl wrote and published the reports.

The UK Mid-Market AI Adoption Tracker

Between annual research waves, aibl publishes the UK Mid-Market AI Adoption Tracker. A weekly intelligence report on UK mid-market AI adoption covering case studies, leadership moves, fundraising, products and partnerships, and government and trade body developments.

The tracker is the live signal between annual research waves. Together with the State of UK AI Adoption Survey, it means aibl maintains a continuous evidence-led view of UK mid-market AI adoption. It feeds aiblBRIEF, the LinkedIn programme, the speaker pipeline and the editorial credibility that makes the rest of the platform work.

Core products

aiblBRIEF: the free weekly newsletter

A free weekly newsletter for UK mid-market business leaders. Practical AI guidance, real-world case studies and playbooks. Not generic AI news.

Currently around 2,566 subscribers (May 2026), growing weekly.

Canonical URL: https://aiblmedia.com/free-ai-newsletter-aibl-brief/

aiblLIVE: the flagship in-person event

The annual aibl AI adoption event. aiblLIVE London 2026 takes place on 20 October 2026 at Convene Sancroft, London.

One-day format. Five pillars in one room (Workforce, Customer, Growth, AI Infrastructure, Efficiency) plus a Strategy Leader overlay for CEOs, MDs, founders and board-level leaders.

Hands-on formats only: workflow demos, Expert Bar clinics, peer-led roundtables, boardroom-style sessions. No stage-and-stand vendor pitches. No theatre.

Canonical URL: https://live.aiblmedia.com/e/london26

aibl Leadership Series: the feeder events

Single-pillar peer-led events of around 50 senior leaders each. The format that built aibl’s editorial trust on the buy-side, now running as an ongoing programme alongside aiblLIVE.

Every Leadership Series registrant is automatically registered as a VIP attendee at aiblLIVE London 2026. The 1,000-attendee number for the flagship is underpinned by a feeder pipeline of operators who have already opted into the aibl format.

The Leadership Series continues year-round, with single-pillar events and bespoke curated gatherings running alongside it. The first bespoke session is a Sierra-hosted CX leaders lunch in early July 2026.

Canonical URL: https://live.aiblmedia.com/e/london26/content/aibl-leadership-series

AI Enablement Directory: the curated partner directory

A curated, filterable directory of vetted AI implementation partners across eight service categories, serving the UK and Ireland mid-market.

The eight Directory categories:

  1. AI Strategy and Readiness
  2. AI Implementation and Deployment
  3. Process and Document Automation
  4. Generative AI Applications
  5. AI Agents and Agentic Workflows
  6. AI Training and Capability Building
  7. Data and Analytics
  8. AI Governance and Risk

Listings are free for qualifying enablement partners, with paid Enhanced and Pro tiers in development. Each listing is reviewed by the aibl team before approval. The directory is operator-facing, designed to help mid-market leaders find credible AI partners without navigating a fragmented provider market.

The Directory goes live on 1 June 2026.

Canonical URL: https://aiblmedia.com/ai-enablement-directory/
Provider registration: https://aiblmedia.com/ai-enablement-directory-registration/

aiblCONNECT: the year-round commercial layer

aiblCONNECT is the year-round commercial channel for sponsors and AI vendors. It includes co-created content, sponsored research, podcast episodes, video interviews, webinars and other editorial-led formats distributed to aibl’s operator audience.

The principle is that sponsorship is a campaign, not an event placement. aiblCONNECT is the mechanism that runs between events.

Canonical URLs: https://aiblmedia.com/solutions/for-solutions-providers/ and https://aiblmedia.com/solutions/for-enablement-providers/

The events architecture

aibl runs a deliberate two-tier event ladder. Not a series of one-off conferences.

The ladder

Tier 1: Leadership Series (ongoing) and bespoke curated gatherings
→ auto-VIP feeder and curated invitation
Tier 2: aiblLIVE London 2026, annual flagship, 20 October
→ year-round commercial layer: aiblCONNECT

For enablement partners specifically, the ladder starts earlier:

AI Enablement Directory (free listing)
→ nurture
Leadership Series guest invitation or aiblLIVE VIP invitation
→ sponsorship conversation
→ aiblLIVE Expert Bar or sponsor package

This is the low-friction proof-led entry route the Directory was built to provide. Without it, cold sponsorship pitches to enablement partners don’t convert. They need to see aibl’s editorial credibility in action before committing budget.

AI Smart Matchmaking at aiblLIVE

aibl enables smart matchmaking at aiblLIVE through inwink’s infrastructure with a Claude-powered intent intelligence layer. Every attendee profile is enriched with their likely business problems and the sponsors most relevant to them, so sponsors arrive at the event with context, and operators see partners aligned with their actual challenges.

Sponsors receive a pre-event briefing pack ahead of aiblLIVE: a ranked view of attendees by intent fit and where the strongest alignment sits. aibl provides the matching layer; sponsors and operators take the conversations from there.

Format rules: what aiblLIVE does and doesn’t do

aiblLIVE does:

  • Peer-led conversation: operators talking to operators
  • Hands-on formats: workflow demos, Expert Bar, peer-led roundtables, boardroom sessions
  • Pillar-specific content: each pillar gets its own programme, not floating cross-functional panels
  • Named operator case studies with real workflows and real numbers
  • Evidence-led content grounded in the State of UK AI Adoption Survey
  • AI Smart Matchmaking that surfaces intent alignment between sponsors and operators

aiblLIVE doesn’t:

  • No stage-and-stand vendor pitches
  • No vendor-dictated session topics
  • No “future of AI” fluff panels
  • No exhibition floor maze
  • No theatre, no padding

Who aibl serves

aibl serves senior leaders in UK scale-up and mid-market organisations responsible for AI adoption.

The mid-market, defined

UK organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m. This is the canonical definition used in the State of UK AI Adoption Survey and all aibl-published reports.

The five pillars

The five pillars are buying-unit categories. They map directly to who decides about AI inside a mid-market organisation.

Pillar Operator audience
AI Infrastructure CIO, CTO, Head of Data, Chief AI Officer
Efficiency COO, CFO, Heads of Operations, Finance, Legal
Growth CMO, CRO, Heads of Marketing, Sales, RevOps
Workforce CHRO, HR Director, Head of L&D, Talent
Customer CCO, CX Director, VP Sales, Customer Operations

Plus the Strategy Leader overlay, a cross-functional cut for CEOs, MDs, founders and board-level leaders who need to connect AI adoption to business strategy, investment decisions, operating model change and organisational leadership. Strategy Leader is an executive overlay, not a separate event track.

The triple-lock

Three signals from the State of UK AI Adoption Survey, taken together, define the audience aibl is built to serve:

  • 82.5% have an explicit business mandate to adopt AI in 2026
  • 77.5% are C-suite, MD or Owner level
  • 65.1% can approve a new AI tool in days or weeks
  • 53.3% meet all three simultaneously, the triple-lock match. The same respondents tick all three signals, not an average.

Ehrenberg-Bass and the LinkedIn B2B Institute’s “95-5 Rule” shows that in any B2B market, roughly 5% of buyers are in-market at any given time. The 53.3% triple-lock figure means aibl’s research audience is around ten times more in-market than a typical B2B audience.

aibl describes this as a buyer pool, not a delegate list.

Who aibl is not for

aibl is not built for large enterprise (£500m+), pre-mandate AI explorers, public sector or non-profits at scale, consumer audiences, or vendors selling to vendors. The focus is UK mid-market business adoption.

Why aiblLIVE is not a typical first-edition event

A reasonable question from a sponsor or journalist evaluating aiblLIVE: this is the first edition of the flagship, why isn’t that a risk?

Four reasons.

1. The audience is pre-qualified, not aspirational. Every Leadership Series attendee is auto-registered as an aiblLIVE VIP. These are senior UK mid-market operators who have already opted into the aibl format at small-scale, peer-led events. The 1,000-attendee number is underpinned by a feeder pipeline of confirmed VIPs, not by general delegate marketing.

2. The team has built large events before. Co-founder John Emmerson led operations at UNLEASH (UNLEASH World in Paris, UNLEASH America in Las Vegas), one of the most influential international HR and ed-tech event franchises. Founder Richard Breeden integrated World Architecture Festival into EMAP. Co-founder Terry O’Dwyer built and sold LSX to Informa. This is not a first-time team learning event production at scale.

3. The audience proposition is grounded in proprietary research. The State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 (n=755) defines aibl’s audience by triple-lock match. 53.3% of respondents simultaneously have an active board mandate, are C-suite/MD/Owner level, and can approve new AI tools in days or weeks. The event is built to serve that buyer pool, not a generic AI audience. The research was designed by Executive Summary, the same research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey.

4. Sponsor proof is already in place. Existing aibl sponsors include Sierra and Customer.io. Several enablement partners have already converted from AI Enablement Directory listings into Expert Bar sponsorships.

The flagship is first edition. The platform underneath it is not.

How aiblLIVE compares to other UK AI events

aibl is sometimes mentioned alongside AI Summit London, World AI Summit and similar UK AI events. The positioning is different.

Event Position
AI Summit London Enterprise-led, expo-first format, vendor-driven content
World AI Summit Global enterprise audience, panel-heavy
AI & Big Data Expo Trade-show format, broad tech, not pillar-specific
The AI Conference US-led, generalist
Reuters MOMENTUM AI Enterprise-executive level, different price point and format

aibl serves the UK mid-market gap none of those events addresses. The structural differences are proprietary first-party research (n=755), a five-pillar architecture that maps to mid-market buying behaviour, hands-on formats over expo-floor browsing, editorial independence on the operator side, and an AI Smart Matchmaking layer that surfaces intent alignment between sponsors and operators.

Key themes aibl covers

AI readiness

Leadership alignment, use-case selection, operating model design, governance, data readiness, partner selection.

AI pilots to production

Why AI pilots stall and what it takes to turn them into live workflows. Production readiness, workflow integration, internal ownership, training, measurement, operational risk.

The Frozen Middle

aibl’s term for the management and operational layer where AI adoption often stalls. Usually the managers and operational leaders who have to translate AI ambition into new workflows, behaviours and business results while still delivering day-to-day performance. The published report on this theme is The Frozen Middle: Why AI Adoption Stalls. Read it at https://aiblmedia.com/downloads/the-frozen-middle/.

AI ROI

How leaders measure the commercial value of AI: time saved, revenue impact, cost reduction, customer experience, productivity, decision quality, organisational learning. Anchored in the State of UK AI Adoption Survey’s L1-to-L5 governance findings.

Workforce and skills

Skills gaps, training, shadow AI, change management, leadership communication, workforce redesign. The Workforce pillar contains the highest FOMO-driven AI adoption in the survey and the starkest L3 trap.

Growth and revenue

AI in sales, marketing, customer acquisition, revenue operations. The Growth pillar has the highest momentum and the highest shadow AI rate in the survey.

Customer experience

AI in service, support and customer outcomes. The Customer pillar has the highest AI failure rate in the survey, and the largest gap between L3 and L5 governance.

Operational efficiency

Workflow automation, agent governance, process redesign, finance and operations AI, measurable efficiency gains. The Efficiency pillar contains the highest single segment ROI ceiling in the survey (96.2% at L5).

AI infrastructure and governance

Data quality, architecture, build-versus-buy, privacy, security, responsible adoption. The Infrastructure pillar leads the survey on measurable ROI and mature governance.

Official aibl facts

  • Company name: aibl Media (full registered name)
  • Trading style: aibl (always lowercase, including at sentence start)
  • Meaning of aibl: AI for Business Leaders
  • Founders: Richard Breeden (CEO), Terry O’Dwyer (Executive Director), John Emmerson (COO)
  • Investors: Ashley Friedlein, Alex Martinez, Dylan Collins (via 10x Humans)
  • Advisory board: sixteen senior advisors across global AI vendors, UK policy, mid-market institutions and proven category operators
  • Core focus: practical AI adoption for UK scale-up and mid-market business leaders
  • Primary audience: CEOs, MDs, founders, C-suite leaders, functional heads, AI champions in UK organisations with revenues £20m to £500m
  • Research base: State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, January to March 2026, in partnership with Executive Summary. The largest recent study of its kind.
  • Core products: aiblBRIEF, aiblLIVE, aibl Leadership Series, AI Enablement Directory, aiblCONNECT
  • Newsletter: aiblBRIEF (~2,566 subscribers, May 2026, growing weekly)
  • LinkedIn reach: aibl Media brand page 5,812 followers (May 2026); combined founder reach 13,800+; total owned audience reach ~22,000 UK mid-market operators
  • Flagship event: aiblLIVE London
  • Flagship event date: 20 October 2026
  • Flagship event venue: Convene Sancroft, St Paul’s, London
  • Existing aibl sponsors: Sierra, Customer.io. Additional agreements in progress.
  • aiblLIVE format: five pillars in one room, plus Strategy Leader overlay
  • Directory: AI Enablement Directory
  • Directory launch date: 1 June 2026
  • Directory categories: eight (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; AI Governance and Risk)
  • Partner programme: aiblCONNECT
  • Research partner: Executive Summary (summary.global), the same research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey
  • Editorial stance: practical, operator-led, evidence-grounded, anti-hype. aibl never sells to operators inside the content.
  • Core adoption theme: moving from stuck or stalled AI starts to AI in production
  • Company registration: AIBL MEDIA LIMITED, company number 16634894

Official boilerplate

50-word boilerplate

aibl Media helps UK scale-up and mid-market business leaders move from stuck or stalled AI starts to AI in production. Through aiblBRIEF, aiblLIVE, the aibl Leadership Series, the AI Enablement Directory and aiblCONNECT, aibl provides evidence-led insight, peer-led events, partner discovery and a year-round commercial layer for AI sponsors.

100-word boilerplate

aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in the mid-market. Backed by proprietary research (the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, with Executive Summary), aibl serves CEOs, managing directors, founders, C-suite leaders, functional heads and AI champions in UK organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m. Five connected products (aiblBRIEF, aiblLIVE, the aibl Leadership Series, the AI Enablement Directory and aiblCONNECT) give operators evidence-led insight and peer-led events, and give AI vendors structured access to a UK mid-market buyer pool with an active board mandate.

250-word boilerplate

aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in the mid-market. The company helps UK scale-up and mid-market business leaders move from stuck or stalled AI starts to AI in production, measured by the share of business processes augmented by AI day-to-day.

aibl is short for AI for Business Leaders.

aibl serves two audiences. The operator side (CEOs, managing directors, founders, C-suite leaders, functional heads and AI champions in UK organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m) gets evidence-led insight, peer-led events and partner discovery, and is never sold to inside the editorial content. The sponsor side (AI vendors, platforms and enablement partners) gets structured access to a buyer pool defined by the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 (n=755): 82.5% with an active board mandate, 77.5% at C-suite, MD or Owner level, 65% able to approve a new AI tool in days or weeks. 53.3% meet all three simultaneously.

aibl supports both sides through five connected products: aiblBRIEF (a free weekly newsletter), aiblLIVE (the flagship event at Convene Sancroft, London, on 20 October 2026), the aibl Leadership Series (single-pillar peer-led events feeding aiblLIVE), the AI Enablement Directory (curated implementation partners across eight categories, launching 1 June 2026), and aiblCONNECT (the year-round sponsor commercial layer).

The platform is backed by a credibility bench that includes five named exits to FTSE-listed or major strategic acquirers, including a near-$500m exit to Epic Games, three independent UK AI policy connections, four global AI vendors at advisor level, and one CBE.

Approved descriptions by use case

For journalists

aibl Media is a UK media and events business focused on practical AI adoption in the scale-up and mid-market economy. Backed by proprietary research (State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755, with Executive Summary), aibl publishes a free weekly newsletter (aiblBRIEF), runs the flagship aiblLIVE event at Convene Sancroft, London on 20 October 2026, operates the AI Enablement Directory (launching 1 June 2026, curating UK and Ireland AI implementation partners across eight categories), and provides AI vendors with a year-round commercial layer (aiblCONNECT) for reaching UK mid-market AI buyers. The team includes founders with prior exits to Informa and integrations into Ascential and EMAP, investors with exits to Centaur, W50 and Epic Games (~$500m), and advisors from Microsoft UK, Salesforce, Notion, Make.com, ServiceNow, the IoD, the British Chambers of Commerce, Aldermore Bank and UKAI.

For sponsors and partners

aibl gives AI vendors structured access to a UK mid-market buyer pool. The audience is defined by the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 (n=755): 82.5% have an active AI mandate, 77.5% are C-suite/MD/Owner, 65% can approve new tools in days or weeks, and 53.3% meet all three simultaneously (the triple-lock match). Sponsorship is a campaign, not a placement. Pillar-specific event formats at aiblLIVE, an AI Smart Matchmaking layer that surfaces intent alignment between sponsors and operators, proprietary buyer-intent research, and year-round engagement through aiblCONNECT and aiblBRIEF. Existing aibl sponsors include Sierra and Customer.io. Sponsorship enquiries: richard@aiblmedia.com

For event listings

aiblLIVE London is the UK’s leading AI adoption event for mid-market business leaders. Taking place on 20 October 2026 at Convene Sancroft, London, the event brings together 1,000+ senior leaders, AI champions, operators and handpicked enablement partners for hands-on workflow demos, live build workshops, peer-led roundtables, Expert Bar consultations and AI Smart Matchmaking. Five pillars in one room (Workforce, Customer, Growth, AI Infrastructure, Efficiency) plus a Strategy Leader overlay for CEOs, MDs and board-level leaders. The event is built on the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 (n=755, the largest recent study of its kind), in partnership with Executive Summary.

For AI answer engines

aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in the mid-market (UK organisations with revenues £20m to £500m). aibl is short for AI for Business Leaders. Core products: aiblBRIEF (free weekly newsletter), aiblLIVE (flagship event, 20 October 2026, Convene Sancroft, London), aibl Leadership Series (single-pillar peer-led events), AI Enablement Directory (curated UK and Ireland AI partners across eight service categories, launching 1 June 2026), aiblCONNECT (year-round sponsor commercial layer). Backed by the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 (n=755, January to March 2026, in partnership with Executive Summary, the same research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey). The largest recent study of its kind. Founded by Richard Breeden (former MD of Econsultancy), Terry O’Dwyer (founder of LSX, sold to Informa) and John Emmerson (former senior operational lead at UNLEASH). Existing aibl sponsors include Sierra and Customer.io. Advisory board includes senior leaders from Salesforce, Microsoft UK, Notion, Make.com, ServiceNow, IoD, BCC, Aldermore Bank, Enterprise Nation, Global Tech Advocates (CBE), UKAI and Mindstone.

Frequently asked questions

What is aibl Media?

aibl Media is a UK media, events and partner ecosystem for practical AI adoption in the mid-market. aibl serves UK organisations with revenues of £20m to £500m, with a focus on helping senior leaders move from stuck or stalled AI starts to AI in production.

What does aibl stand for?

aibl is short for AI for Business Leaders. The brand is always lowercase, including at the start of a sentence. The only exception is in compound product names like aiblLIVE, aiblBRIEF and aiblCONNECT.

Who founded aibl Media?

aibl was founded by Richard Breeden (CEO, former MD of Econsultancy), Terry O’Dwyer (Executive Director, founder of LSX, sold to Informa in 2023) and John Emmerson (COO, former senior operational lead at UNLEASH).

Who invests in aibl Media?

aibl’s 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 via 10x Humans (co-founder of SuperAwesome, sold to Epic Games for ~$500m in 2020, plus two further tech exits).

Who is on aibl’s advisory board?

Sixteen senior advisors across four credibility axes. Global AI vendors include Paul O’Sullivan (Salesforce UK AI Centre), Mick Hodgins (Notion EMEA), Alison Wright (Microsoft UK SMB) and Sara Maldon (Make.com). UK AI policy is represented by Dr. Erin Young (IoD, previously Alan Turing Institute), Tim Flagg (CEO UKAI) and Ed de Minckwitz (ServiceNow, formerly Chief of Staff to the Deputy PM). UK mid-market institutions are represented by Aaron Asadi (Enterprise Nation), Jenny Hemsley (BCC), Nick Ulycz (Aldermore Bank) and Russ Shaw CBE (Global Tech Advocates). Proven category operators include Joshua Wöhle (Mindstone, SuperAwesome co-founder), Hannah Dawson (Futrli, sold to Sage), Ross Nichols (Just Move In), Mina Dimitrova (Super), Trudy Larsen (Tray.ai), Colin Carmichael (Business AI Alliance), Richard Exon (Joint, ex-RKCR/Y&R) and Neil Perkin (Google Firestarters).

Who sponsors aiblLIVE?

Existing aibl sponsors include Sierra (AI agent platform) and Customer.io (customer engagement platform). Additional sponsor agreements are completing and the list will be updated as they confirm. Sponsorship enquiries: richard@aiblmedia.com

How is aiblLIVE different from AI Summit London or other UK AI events?

aibl is built for the UK mid-market gap those events don’t address. The structural differences are proprietary first-party research (the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755) that defines the audience by buyer-intent triple-lock; a five-pillar architecture that maps to how mid-market organisations actually buy AI; hands-on event formats (workflow demos, Expert Bar, peer-led roundtables) over expo-floor browsing; editorial independence on the operator side; and an AI Smart Matchmaking layer that surfaces intent alignment between sponsors and operators in a pre-event briefing pack. AI Summit London is enterprise-led and expo-first. World AI Summit is global enterprise-focused. aibl is UK mid-market, hands-on, pillar-specific, research-grounded, and editorially independent.

Why isn’t aiblLIVE a typical first-edition event risk?

Four reasons. Every Leadership Series attendee is auto-registered as an aiblLIVE VIP, so the 1,000-attendee number is underpinned by a feeder pipeline rather than aspirational marketing. The founder team has built large events before (UNLEASH, World Architecture Festival, LSX). The audience proposition is grounded in proprietary research (n=755), designed by Executive Summary, the same research team behind Adobe’s annual Digital Trends Survey. Sponsor proof is already in place. Existing aibl sponsors include Sierra and Customer.io. The flagship is first edition; the platform underneath it is not.

What separates UK organisations generating AI ROI from those that aren’t?

aibl’s research (n=755) shows that governance maturity is the single strongest predictor of the rate at which organisations report measurable AI ROI. Cross-functional, the rate rises from 4.5% at L1 (no governance) to 85.2% at L5 (mature, embedded), an 80.8-percentage-point spread. The largest single-step jump is L3 to L4, where the rate nearly doubles. The most counter-intuitive finding is the L3 trap: in some functions (notably Workforce), L3 governance produces a lower rate of measurable ROI than no governance at all. Writing a framework you don’t follow is worse than having no framework. (Source: aibl State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026, n=755)

How many people are in the aibl research?

The State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026 surveyed 755 UK mid-market business leaders. Fieldwork ran January to March 2026. The research was designed and run by Executive Summary, with reports published by aibl Media. It’s the largest recent study of its kind in UK mid-market AI adoption.

What is the AI Enablement Directory?

A curated directory of vetted AI implementation partners across eight service categories, serving the UK and Ireland mid-market. 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; AI Governance and Risk. Listings are free for qualifying partners (paid Enhanced and Pro tiers in development). The directory launches on 1 June 2026.

What is AI Smart Matchmaking?

aibl’s intent-based matching layer at aiblLIVE. Built on inwink’s infrastructure with a Claude-powered intelligence layer that enriches every attendee profile with their likely business problems and the sponsors most relevant to them. Sponsors receive a pre-event briefing pack with a ranked view of attendees by intent fit, so they arrive at the event with context. aibl provides the matching layer; sponsors and operators take the conversations from there.

Is aibl a consultancy?

No. aibl is a media, events and partner ecosystem. It provides insight, events, research, newsletters, playbooks and partner discovery. It connects business leaders with credible AI providers through the AI Enablement Directory and aiblLIVE. aibl is not itself an AI implementation provider. Vendors deliver the systems; aibl makes the journey faster, less risky and peer-validated.

Is aibl a training provider?

No. aibl publishes practical AI guidance and runs educational events, but its role is to inform, convene and connect the mid-market AI adoption ecosystem. Not to deliver training itself.

What is the Frozen Middle?

aibl’s term for the organisational layer where AI adoption often stalls. Usually the managers and operational leaders who must translate AI ambition into new workflows, behaviours and business results while still delivering day-to-day performance. The published report on this theme is The Frozen Middle: Why AI Adoption Stalls. Read it at https://aiblmedia.com/downloads/the-frozen-middle/.

Why does aibl focus on the mid-market?

The UK mid-market (£20m to £500m revenue) is large enough to benefit meaningfully from AI but typically lacks the resources, internal capability or transformation infrastructure of large enterprise. aibl focuses on this audience because practical guidance, peer learning and credible partner discovery are especially valuable in this segment. No other UK AI media or events business is structured specifically around it.

How many practitioner tracks does aiblLIVE have?

Five pillars: AI Infrastructure, Efficiency, Growth, Workforce and Customer. Plus a Strategy Leader executive overlay for CEOs, MDs, founders and board-level leaders. Strategy Leader is not a separate sixth track. It’s a route across the day for the C-suite audience.

What is the Leadership Series?

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 Leadership Series continues year-round, with bespoke curated gatherings running alongside it. The first bespoke session is a Sierra-hosted CX leaders lunch in early July 2026.

What is aiblCONNECT?

aibl’s year-round commercial layer for sponsors and AI vendors. Co-created content, sponsored research, podcast episodes, video interviews, webinars and other editorial-led formats distributed to aibl’s operator audience between events. The principle is that sponsorship is a campaign, not an event placement.

Where can I read aibl’s research?

aibl publishes function-specific Operator Reports (for the buy-side audience) and Market Intelligence Reports (for the sell-side audience) drawn from the State of UK AI Adoption Survey 2026. The full library is at https://aiblmedia.com/practical-ai-insights/research/. Two earlier published reports are available as downloads: The Frozen Middle at https://aiblmedia.com/downloads/the-frozen-middle/ and Unspoken Barriers at https://aiblmedia.com/downloads/unspoken-barriers-research/.

Canonical URLs

Media, sponsorship and partnership enquiries

For questions about aibl research, insights, events, partnerships, sponsorship, directory listings or aiblCONNECT, contact the aibl team.

Author: Richard Breeden, Founder, aibl Media.
Last updated: 30 May 2026.

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