Morrisons has appointed Dr Mohsen Ghasempour as its first Chief AI Officer, reporting directly to chief executive Rami Baitiéh. The former Kingfisher executive will establish a central function responsible for data and AI across customer growth, operations, manufacturing, and commercial performance.
The appointment signals that AI is becoming a dedicated business function rather than another project sitting inside IT.
It also raises a question every organisation must answer: who should own AI?
Chief executives understand the strategy but rarely have enough time to examine every process. Finance leaders bring commercial discipline, while sales leaders can generate enthusiasm without necessarily possessing the technical depth.
IT teams understand systems and security, although they are already busy and may lack the change-management experience required. A CMO may understand customers and adoption, but usually lacks the necessary technical capability.
The ideal AI leader therefore needs an unusually broad combination of technical knowledge, process automation, project delivery, governance, communication, employee training, and organisational leadership.
Those people remain scarce, which explains why experienced AI leaders can command six-figure salaries.
What This Means For SMEs
Most SMEs cannot justify employing a full-time Chief AI Officer. However, they still need one accountable person identifying worthwhile opportunities, managing implementation, training employees, monitoring risks, and measuring commercial results.
Where that capability does not exist internally, businesses may need external implementation support or managed AI talent. This is precisely the skills and affordability gap that the GATE Project and GATE Talent are designed to address.
What This Means For Enterprises
Enterprises should determine whether AI has genuine executive ownership or merely sits within an already stretched department. Whoever leads it requires sufficient authority, budget, and access to improve processes across the entire organisation.
Morrisons has recognised that successful AI adoption requires somebody whose primary responsibility is making the business better through AI. Every organisation now needs its own answer to the same question.
Read Morrisons’ official appointment announcement and watch The Answer To Who Should Run AI In Your Business: Watch here
The Briefing: What Else You Need to Know
US-First Model Reviews Could Leave UK Businesses Waiting
The White House has asked OpenAI and Anthropic to withhold new frontier models from British safety testers until American agencies complete their security reviews. Anthropic has reportedly complied, although the change affects review sequencing rather than creating a complete UK cutoff.
The concern for UK businesses involves competitive timing. American organisations could test powerful capabilities before their British competitors receive equivalent access.
SMEs should therefore avoid building critical launches around unconfirmed model availability and retain alternative tools whenever a workflow depends upon frontier capabilities. Read the complete Reuters report for further details.
Businesses Are Losing Track Of Their Own AI Agents
Dataiku has introduced Agent Management, a central control layer that discovers agents across different platforms, monitors their behaviour and business performance, and identifies the risks they carry. General availability is planned for October.
Its existence reveals a growing governance problem. Businesses are allowing employees and departments to deploy agents without always knowing what information they access, which actions they perform, or whether they still create value.
Most SMEs do not immediately need another expensive platform. They should begin with a simple register covering every agent, its owner, purpose, permissions, data access, and shutdown procedure. The dashboard comes later; understanding what already operates inside the business comes first.
Read Dataiku’s explanation of enterprise agent management for further details.
Google’s Model Gap Shows How Quickly AI Leadership Changes
Google DeepMind recently acknowledged that its leading model trailed Anthropic’s Opus 5.5 by 24 points on one intelligence index. Days later, Google announced Gemini 4 Argon, initially limiting access to selected cybersecurity partners while broader safety testing continues.
The meaningful story concerns how quickly competitive leadership changes. A provider appearing comfortably ahead can lose ground within months, while another major release can rearrange the market again.
SMEs should avoid designing permanent workflows around whichever model currently leads a benchmark. Keep prompts, data, and processes portable, then retest important use cases whenever Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI releases a significant upgrade.
Read the complete Reuters report on Gemini 4 for further details.
Amazon Lets Claude Work Inside Seller Central
Amazon has released a beta Selling Partner connector for Claude. Sellers can connect their Seller Central accounts, examine sales, inventory, and listing performance, receive recommendations, and approve actions without repeatedly switching platforms.
This also demonstrates how major platforms will decide which external agents receive access and under what conditions. Claude may be supported today, although those relationships and permissions can change.
SMEs selling through Amazon should test the connector on a controlled workflow while retaining access to their underlying processes and data. Operational efficiency is valuable, but dependence upon one agent-platform relationship creates another business risk.
Review the official Amazon Selling Partner connector for current availability.
The AI Visibility Debate Is Missing The Commercial Risk
Marketing specialists continue debating whether GEO and AEO represent new disciplines or simply extensions of SEO. Traditional search still generates substantial traffic, although AI answers have created another visibility surface where customers encounter, compare, and shortlist businesses before visiting their websites.
That distinction matters because AI visibility extends beyond website rankings. Models draw signals from company websites, trusted publications, customer reviews, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and wider brand authority.
For an SME selling high-value services, even a small proportion of buyers using AI for comparisons could represent considerable lost revenue. The immediate question is therefore practical: when prospective customers ask AI about your category, does your business appear accurately and persuasively?
Read Conductor’s AEO and GEO benchmarks for further context.
California Requires Disclosure Of AI-Generated Performers
California has introduced legislation requiring video and audio advertisements to disclose when they use AI-generated performers. New York introduced a similar requirement earlier this year, suggesting that synthetic-performer disclosure could become a wider advertising standard.
The wider story concerns the amount of inexpensive synthetic content entering the market. As AI makes polished advertising easier to produce, regulators and platforms increasingly want audiences to understand what is artificial.
SMEs advertising within the United States should add disclosure checks to their creative process now. They should also invest in recognisably human expertise, opinions, and experiences because authentic authority will become more valuable as generic AI content multiplies.
Read California’s official announcement for further details.
AI Is Reshaping Which Jobs Businesses Still Need
Goldman Sachs Research estimates that artificial intelligence reduced monthly American payroll growth by approximately 16,000 jobs during the year it examined. Around 25,000 monthly roles were affected through substitution, while AI-supported growth created approximately 9,000 positions elsewhere.
The lesson extends beyond reducing headcount. AI removes certain tasks while creating demand for people who can implement systems, redesign processes, train employees, monitor performance, and manage risk.
SMEs should examine roles at task level before removing or replacing them. Repetitive work may become automated, while judgement, customer relationships, technical implementation, and change management become more valuable. The strongest workforce strategy will combine responsible automation with deliberate reskilling.
Read Goldman Sachs’ complete employment analysis for further details.
The Shift - What Could Your Business Automate Right Now?
Most businesses already have access to powerful artificial-intelligence tools. The greater opportunity sits inside repetitive processes that quietly consume employee time, delay customers, and create inconsistent results.
A recorded sales call could update the CRM, create tasks, draft follow-up emails, and prepare the salesperson’s next steps. A property inspection could turn photographs and voice notes into a structured report. Recruitment teams could screen hundreds of applications against agreed criteria, while experienced people retain responsibility for interviews and appointments.
Customer complaints could also be categorised by urgency and sentiment before reaching the appropriate employee. One podcast could trigger guest communication, transcription, clips, blogs, social posts, and follow-up messages automatically.
1. Map Repeated Workflows
List the activities happening every day, every week, or whenever a customer completes a particular action. Pay attention to repeated documents, manual reporting, delayed handovers, copied information, and tasks waiting for somebody’s response.
2. Separate Automation From AI
Straightforward automation moves information and triggers predefined actions. Artificial intelligence becomes valuable when a process requires reading, interpreting, comparing, categorising, summarising, drafting, or making recommendations.
3. Decide Where Humans Remain Involved
Human review should remain central wherever decisions involve hiring, legal exposure, financial commitments, cybersecurity, health and safety, or sensitive customer situations. Technology should remove repetitive effort while preserving judgement, accountability, and relationships.
First-Mover Action
Choose one recurring process that currently causes delays or unnecessary administration. Document every step, identify the trigger, decide which systems must connect, and clarify where approval remains essential.
Build one assisted version before expanding further. Measure the time saved, output quality, error rate, customer experience, and commercial impact across several weeks.
The Big Question For Businesses
Which repeated process would you refuse to design manually if you were building your business today?
Explore all twenty practical examples in 20 Real AI Use Cases Already Transforming Businesses.
What We’re Working On
1. FDE Support Is Available For UK Businesses
The main story explains why businesses need somebody responsible for turning AI opportunities into practical improvements. The GATE Project provides an accessible way for SMEs to begin that work without immediately recruiting a six-figure AI leader.
Each business receives a Future Development Engineer for twenty weekly hours across a structured three-month placement. Associates combine software-engineering experience with additional training across process automation, AI agents, n8n, Claude operating systems, and business implementation.
For £600 monthly, businesses receive 240 hours of support identifying repetitive processes, building initial automations, documenting internal knowledge, and improving how work moves across teams.
Click here: https://wa.me/447364154416?text=Talent
Or scan the QR code below to discuss an available placement directly through WhatsApp.
2. GATE Talent Has Officially Launched
GATE Talent is now a registered United Kingdom business, with its new website and talent-matching platform launching shortly.
The platform will help employers identify highly skilled African professionals across software engineering, AI implementation, automation, and related technical disciplines. Businesses will be able to describe their requirements and receive suitable candidate matches from the available talent network.
The wider objective involves closing the United Kingdom’s AI skills gap while creating meaningful international career opportunities for talented African professionals.
3. Tenacious Receives Two UK Awards
Tenacious AI Marketing Global has received two honours within the Corporate Vision Media Innovator Awards 2026.
We were named Generative Engine Optimisation Agency of the Year – UK and received the AI Innovation & Business Transformation Excellence Award – UK.
These awards recognise our work helping organisations improve their visibility across AI search while implementing artificial intelligence within practical business operations. They also reflect the wider direction connecting Tenacious, the GATE Project, and GATE Talent.
Final Takeaway
This issue carries one clear message: successful AI adoption requires ownership.
Whether your business is choosing models, deploying agents, improving AI visibility, or automating workflows, somebody must remain accountable for the outcome, governance, and commercial value.
SMEs rarely need a six-figure Chief AI Officer, although they still need one responsible person connecting strategy with implementation.
Begin with one repeated process, retain human oversight where consequences matter, and measure the results before expanding further. The strongest advantage will come from disciplined implementation that improves how the business genuinely operates.
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