If you run a business in Northern Ireland, it can feel like all the real action on AI is happening somewhere else – in London, San Francisco, Silicon Valley or China. Yet the reality is that AI is already reshaping how companies of every size operate, and regions like Northern Ireland have a genuine chance to lead, not follow.
That is exactly what Clare McGee explored in a recent fireside chat with Russ Shaw CBE, founder of Global Tech Advocates, recorded during our Activate AI showcase in Derry. With a front‑row seat on what’s happening in tech hubs around the world, Russ cuts through the noise to explain what this moment really means for local SMEs.
Speaker Bio: Russ Shaw CBE is a prominent British-American technology advocate and founder of Tech London Advocates (TLA) and Global Tech Advocates (GTA), launched in 2013 and 2015 respectively to support the private sector tech ecosystem. Based in London, he campaigns on digital skills, diversity, and infrastructure, having previously held senior roles at Skype, O2, and Virgin Media.
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Watch the full Clare McGee and Russ Shaw Activate AI fireside chat below and share it with someone in your network who needs a practical, region‑focused take on what AI really means for their business.
https://www.awakenhub.com/blog/russ-shaw-global-tech-advocates-fireside-chat-activate-ai
Russ starts by zooming out: the US and China are racing ahead, taking very different routes, the US leaning towards more closed‑source approaches, China embracing open source, with big implications for the cost and accessibility of AI tools for everyone else. He also talks about how countries like Nigeria and Indonesia are using AI to leapfrog stages of development, and why understanding this geopolitical backdrop matters even if you’re “just” running a business in Derry or Belfast.
But he doesn’t stay abstract for long. Clare presses him on where the UK really sits in the global AI race and what all those big headline initiatives, the AI Action Plan, Tech First (aiming to train 7.5 million people), and the Tech Prosperity Plan’s infrastructure funding, actually mean for a typical Northern Ireland SME. Russ’s answer: there is real money, free training and opportunity on the table, but only for the regions and founders who show up and shout about what they’re building.
One of the most powerful sections of the conversation is Russ’s external view of Northern Ireland as an AI hub in the making. He highlights three ingredients that impressed him on his visits: deep pools of entrepreneurial talent, strong universities such as Queen’s and Ulster, and a growing cluster of over 100 AI‑related firms. Crucially, he frames Northern Ireland’s unique position, part of both the UK and the EU, as a genuine calling card when talking to investors and global tech players.
Clare pushes this further, asking how he would pitch Northern Ireland’s AI story to someone in London, San Francisco or Washington. Russ points to our track record in cyber and creative tech, the quality of local leadership, and strong ties into Ireland, the wider UK and the US, all at a lower cost base than London or Silicon Valley. His challenge back to us is simple: the story is good, but it only works if we tell it with confidence and invite the world in to see what’s really happening on the ground.
Where this fireside chat really earns a watch is in the second half, when it moves from policy to practice. Clare speaks for many founders when she says, “AI sounds great, but I don’t know where to start.” Russ responds with a clear, non‑hyped roadmap for getting your business AI‑ready.
He starts with the basics: get your data house in order. Map your data sources, clean and standardise what you already have, fix duplicates, and put sensible governance around who owns and accesses it, all while staying compliant with GDPR. From there, he suggests picking a couple of real pain points and experimenting with tools like AI chatbots, for example, deploying a simple FAQ bot on your website, trialling it, analysing transcripts, and iterating based on real customer interactions.
Alongside the “how”, Russ tackles the fears that often stall SMEs: security, ethics and those scary AI headlines. His message is reassuringly down‑to‑earth: focus on good digital hygiene, identity checks, strong passwords, multi‑factor authentication, software updates, robust backups, and keep a human firmly in the loop to check AI outputs and spot hallucinations.
Towards the end of the conversation, Clare and Russ talk about what it takes to move from one‑off pilots to genuine business transformation. That means shifting from “AI projects” to platform thinking, embedding AI into core workflows, and making sure leadership is signalling that AI is mission‑critical, not a side hobby.
Russ is clear that this is as much about people as it is about tools. He argues that if you have a 10‑person company, all 10 should go through some form of AI training, leveraging programmes like AICC, SkillUp, the NI Chamber AI Academy and Tech First, so that AI isn’t something only “the techie in the corner” understands. He also encourages leaders to actively celebrate good use cases inside the business, so teams can see tangible benefits rather than abstract hype.
The conversation closes with a very practical challenge Russ would like every Northern Ireland business owner to tackle in the next week: go back into your organisation and ask some simple but uncomfortable questions. What are we already doing with AI? What are we not doing? Is our database in any shape to support AI? Who’s experimenting, and who’s still completely on the sidelines?
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Those answers, he says, become your starting point for engaging with AI more actively and making sure you’re not left behind as this wave accelerates.
If you’re an SME founder, leader or policymaker in Northern Ireland (or any smaller region wondering how to plug into the global AI economy), this fireside chat is well worth your time. It combines global context, a realistic assessment of where the UK and Northern Ireland sit, and very concrete next steps you can act on tomorrow.
Activate AI: Bridging Gaps, Boosting Productivity & Growth.This project is part of the Regional Tech Booster programme, funded by the UK Government and supported by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, in partnership with the UK Tech Cluster Group.
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