'Natural partnership': Leeds event hears how Yorkshire's SMEs can learn from India on AI adoption
Northern business leaders and policymarkers have joined forces with Indian counterparts for a special event on how to make AI more accessible to small businesses and tackle the regional productivity gap.
The Northern Powerhouse Ethnic Minority Business & Policy Forum (NPH Forum) today convened an event at Leeds Beckett University last Thursday called ‘India meets North of England: Powering UK SMEs with AI Innovation Labs’.
It was centred on a new paper authored by Ganapathy Sankarabaaham, CEO of Vajra Global India and XITE Create UK, which sets out a practical model for SMEs to deploy their first live AI use case within ten weeks.
Mr Sankarabaaham said: “This paper is written for the owner of a ten-person business, not a corporate CTO. What SMEs are getting wrong about AI is that they think they need to boil the ocean before they start.
"The AI Innovation Lab model flips that entirely — you identify one high-value problem, you build a focused solution, and you have a live result in ten weeks. That first use case changes everything: the mindset, the confidence, and the business case for what comes next.”
Event moderator Sharon Jandu OBE, Managing Director of the NPH Ethnic Minority Business & Policy Forum and Founder of the Yorkshire Asian Business Association, said: “For a business owner on the ground, AI feels exciting and intimidating in equal measure. What I hear most often is not ‘I don’t believe in it’ it’s ‘I don’t know where to start’.
"The Innovation Lab model answers that question directly. It gives SMEs a starting point that is proportionate, practical, and fast.
"The NPH Forum exists to ensure that the North’s diverse business community is not left behind in the conversations that shape our regional economy. AI is one of those conversations. The event showed that when you bring together the right expertise from Leeds, from India, from across our sector the path from awareness to action becomes very clear.”
Vishakha Yaduvanshi, Consul General of India, said: “India is no longer a destination for outsourcing it is a powerhouse of deep technology capability and entrepreneurial energy.
"The partnership between Indian innovators and Northern England’s SME community is a natural one, built on shared ambition and a commitment to making technology work for people.”
With Northern England facing a 26 per cent productivity gap relative to the national average, speakers argued that practical AI adoption represents one of the most significant opportunities available to smaller businesses.
Canon Simon Baldwin, Associate Director for Knowledge Exchange at Leeds Beckett University, said: “SMEs are the backbone of the Northern economy, and this event is exactly the kind of partnership-driven thinking that translates research and innovation into real competitive advantage for smaller firms.”