About this Event
61% of SME leaders say skills and change management are their biggest AI barrier - not budget, not tools, not the tech itself.
That stat came from our own survey of SME engineering businesses in late 2025 . And it points to something worth paying attention to: the problem isn't access to AI. The problem is knowing where it fits, what it can't do, how to handle the genuine risks - and how to roll it out across an organisation without creating chaos.
This free 45-minute live session with Q&A is built for industrial SME leaders wrestling with exactly that - over a light lunch, in person, with other owners and directors in the room.
Why most industrial SME leaders are stuck
Two forces are holding leaders back, and they reinforce each other.
The first is risk. Data leakage, hallucinations, security exposure, IP concerns, regulatory questions, and the very real fear of getting it wrong in public. These are not paranoid concerns - they are legitimate operational risks that deserve to be managed properly, not waved away.
The second is meaningful overwhelm. Not the lazy kind. The kind that hits when a serious leader looks at the landscape honestly: dozens of tools launched every month, conflicting advice, half their team already using AI off the books, the other half resistant, no clear sense of where to start, no time to figure it out, and the nagging awareness that competitors are quietly compounding their lead.
That combination - real risk plus real overwhelm - is why most industrial SMEs are still dabbling rather than operating. The biggest risk, though, isn't using AI badly. It's not using it at all while your competitors keep moving.
Who this is for
Owners, MDs, directors and team leads at industrial SMEs - engineering, manufacturing, construction and IT - who want a clear, practical view of where AI fits in their business. Across operations, production, project delivery, admin, customer service, finance, sales, marketing, or wherever the pressure points are.
If you've dabbled with ChatGPT, asked someone on the team to "have a look at AI", or sat through a webinar that left you with more questions than answers - this session is designed to cut through.
What we'll cover in 45 minutes
- Where AI genuinely helps inside an industrial SME, and where it falls flat
- How to think about risk properly - what's real, what's overstated, and the guardrails that matter
- Why meaningful overwhelm holds serious leaders back, and how to cut through it with structure rather than more tools
- Custom GPTs, Projects and Gems - what they are and when they're worth building
- How to move from one-off prompts to a repeatable brief-to-output process
- How to roll AI out across a team so it sticks - pilots, ownership, SOPs, and the small set of habits that decide whether adoption holds or fades
Followed by live Q&A and informal chat over lunch - bring your questions.
Why we built this
Working hands-on with engineering, manufacturing, construction and IT SMEs keeps surfacing the same pattern: plenty of curiosity about AI, plenty of individual experimentation, very little structure. People are using AI like a playbook they dip into occasionally rather than a system they build into how the business runs.
You've already lived this before. Think about the last system you rolled out. A CRM. ISO 9001. A lean programme. The software was bought. The training was run. The launch email went out. Six months later, half the team used it properly. The other half worked around it. AI is the same pattern - only faster, more visible, and with more at stake.
We at SME take a systems-minded approach to growth and innovation - and this session applies that same thinking to AI adoption. No fluff, no tool demos, no vague promises. Just a way to move from interest to implementation, and from implementation to something that holds.
For the wider picture of where this fits, see our work on AI for sales and marketing.
Stay for the day - hot-desk on us
This Lunch & Learn sits inside the Crawley Innovation Centre's "Work from Here Wednesday" - which means anyone who attends can stay on and use the centre as a free hot-desking space for the rest of the day. Useful if you fancy a change of scene, want to follow up on what you've heard while it's fresh, or simply get a productive afternoon in among other local business owners and innovation-minded teams.
More info on the hot-desking part of the day here:
What past attendees have said
"Such an eye-opening talk - real tangible takeaways to implement."
"Made such a complicated subject feel manageable."
"Practical points I could implement straight away."
Date, time and location
Wednesday 27th May 2026, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Crawley Innovation Centre, Crawley Business Quarter, Fleming Way, Crawley RH10 9QL
45 minutes of content plus 15 minutes of live Q&A. Lunch provided. Stay on to hot-desk for the rest of the day if you'd like.
About the host
Hosted by Stefan Buss BSc(Ind Eng), Founder of Sales & Marketing Engineers - a consultancy built for industrial and technical SMEs, helping owners engineer growth through simple, systemised approaches to business, AI, and customer acquisition
Highlights
⏱ 45 minutes + 15 minutes Q&A
🥪 Light lunch included
📍 In-person at the Crawley Innovation Centre
🎟 Free to attend
👥 For industrial SME leaders - engineering, manufacturing, construction, IT
💻 Stay on to hot-desk for the afternoon
🎤 Live Q&A with Stefan Buss
🏢 Crawley Business Quarter, Fleming Way, Crawley RH10 9QL
About this event / practical info
What you need to attend:
- Yourself, ideally with a colleague or two
- A notepad - you'll leave with practical ideas, guardrails and frameworks worth writing down
- A laptop if you'd like to stay on and hot-desk after the session
What happens after you register:
- Confirmation email
- Calendar invite
- A reminder email 24 hours before
Free parking - more venue details for the CIC:
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Crawley Innovation Centre, Fleming Way, Crawley, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
