Following the Business Mentors Association's (ABM) recent publication, AI and the Future of Business Mentoring, we spoke to Ben Jacobs, Business Mentor at ABM, about how AI is reshaping decision-making in small and medium-sized businesses, and the role business mentors can play in facilitating the adoption of AI technology. This report provides a practical, evidence-based view of where support is most urgently needed, so the UK's AI ambitions lead to business outcomes that keep people at the center of things.
Q: Why is the role of business mentoring being “reimagined” by artificial intelligence (AI)?
AI is reshaping business mentoring in three very practical ways. First and foremost, we transform the businesses we support. For many small and medium-sized businesses, AI is moving from a “nice-to-have” to a strategic issue around productivity, quality of service, customer experience, and competitiveness.
In our own work at ABM, we saw AI-focused mentoring conversations more than double in the second half of 2025. This is a clear sign that business leaders are trying to figure out where AI truly creates value and whether it's just noise. However, we also know that business leaders don't always know where to research and evaluate the opportunities, questions, and doubts that often arise when considering AI.
Second, we are transforming the tools and practices of mentoring itself. Mentors are starting to use AI to enhance rather than replace relationships in order to become better mentors. That means using AI to reduce administration, support post-session reflective practice, sense-check thinking, uncover additional avenues, and help mentors prepare more effectively. When used well, it improves quality and consistency, reduces role strain and protects health. This also means that mentors can provide more value to more companies and work effectively with a broader portfolio of mentees.
Third, expectations of business support organizations like ours are changing. It is no longer enough to simply say “AI is important.” We have a responsibility to operationalize that insight in a way that is safe, ethical and truly useful. In practice, this means building and curating AI tools that can be used in mentoring sessions to structure thinking, consider options, and make stress-testing decisions. In between sessions, these tools can help maintain momentum, capture actions, support reflection, and provide guidance prompts to help business leaders without losing touch. That's why we've been developing AI-enabled tools for mentor training, mentor matching, and practical session support.
Q: How does Professional Business Mentor support the UK's national AI implementation mandate?
answer: We help leaders transform AI from headlines and “noise” to clear commercial plans. This means you can identify high-value use cases, prioritize your efforts, test your assumptions, and build the confidence to act. Equally important, mentors help companies protect customer trust, treat data well, and do so responsibly, taking into account the human impact. This ensures that the implementation strengthens the health of the team rather than exhausting them.
An even bigger benefit is that AI can become a platform for innovation, new services, new ways of delivering value, and more personalized customer experiences. But that advantage only lasts if the adopter is responsible. This means building in sensible guardrails around data, privacy, accuracy, and bias to ensure trust is protected. This means that if the UK wants to broadly and responsibly deploy AI, it needs people who can guide it from the frontline. Professional business mentors already exist.
AI opportunities and strategic focus
Q: What is the key evidence that AI is rapidly growing as a concern for small businesses?
answer: ABM sees the amount of AI-focused mentoring doubling in 2025, reflecting the proliferation of small and medium-sized businesses seeking help with AI as a business challenge or opportunity. Furthermore, according to the ONS, as of July 2025, 14% of businesses plan to implement some form of AI within the next three months, the highest level since tracking began. Taken together, these paint a picture of a business ecosystem that is ready and willing to adopt new technologies, but lacks the know-how to do so effectively without external assistance.
Q: What specific risks does the white paper highlight that structured mentoring can help manage small businesses?
answer: The biggest risk we see is unstructured adoption and people experimenting informally without a strategy or guardrails. In one group of business leaders we spoke to, more than 60% said they don't have an AI strategy, even though many companies are already experimenting with tools on a daily basis. Structured mentoring can help turn “shadow AI” into a safe progression. It’s important to be clear about what your business is trying to achieve, where AI fits commercially, and the importance of protecting customer trust, confidentiality, data privacy, and compliance.
It also helps leaders avoid two common traps: overconfidence (assuming the outcome is always right, or thinking that the risk is someone else's problem) and inaction (waiting for complete certainty while competitors practice and learn). It also helps teams manage the human aspects, such as how roles change, how decisions are made, and how work continues to feel purposeful rather than automated.
Ethics, governance and employee impact
Q: What issues are currently dominating the mentoring conversation around AI?
answer: At the beginning of a conversation, leaders often immediately ask, “What tool?”, but good business leaders start somewhere else by asking, “What is your business?” and “Where is the market moving?” and “How can we use AI to get to our destination faster?”
Conversations quickly turn to business models and strategies (where value is created), operating model questions (how work is actually done), and employee impacts (skills, roles, job design, anxiety).
We also saw that trust and ethics always come up, such as fairness and bias, transparency with customers and staff, and what is “good” when AI is involved in decision-making.
Governance is also a major theme. Who is responsible for AI-powered products? What simple guardrails are appropriate for small and medium-sized businesses? How to manage privacy, confidentiality, and ownership of AI-generated work. In reality, this is a cultural shift from fear and hype to informed experimentation.
Q: What support and training do you offer business mentors on AI?
We have developed a course designed to give experienced practitioners confidence in helping companies develop AI strategies and execute AI investments safely and responsibly. In addition to structured learning on data security, privacy, ethical use, and change management, we provide mentors with hands-on experience and practical AI tools. Since late September 2025, 200 mentors have enrolled in the “AI for Business Mentoring Course.”
Q: What impact does a small-scale training intervention for mentors have on the broader business community?
answer: Even small, focused training interventions can have ripple effects throughout the business community. Individual mentors may work with more than 20 companies per year. As mentors improve their skills, for example by learning how to frame the opportunities, risks, and ethics of AI in plain language, their expertise spills over into boardrooms, leadership teams, and founder conversations at dozens of small and medium-sized businesses. Better equipped mentors can help multiple companies make more informed decisions, design smarter experiments, and avoid common pitfalls. This is a powerful multiplier for capabilities, innovation, and responsible AI adoption across the broader ecosystem.
