How AI has changed entrepreneurship forever (and how business support must adapt)

In short, this talk is a call to action: for founders to harness AI not just to build faster, but to build smarter - and to also ensure startup & innovation ecosystems are structured to use AI to innovate more effectively from day one....

AI is fundamentally reshaping the way startups are created, validated, and scaled. What once required large teams and months of work can now be achieved by a single founder in days. This acceleration, however, creates both opportunities and risks.

We'll discover a) How startups can move faster than ever before, and b) how ecosystems that support them (accelerators, incubators, government programmes, and investors) must adapt or risk becoming obsolete. This talk will explore:

* How AI is transforming every stage of the startup journey, from ideation through to scaling.

* Why validation, not funding or pitch polish, must become the defining metric in the AI era.

* How startup support organisations can redesign their programmes to remain relevant, flexible, and evidence-driven.

* What founders, policymakers, and investors must demand from each other to avoid a tsunami of AI-facilitated “zombie startups” and instead fuel globally competitive companies.

By the end of this session, attendees will:

* Understand how AI tools are accelerating startup creation and validation.

* Recognise the new risks and cultural pitfalls that accompany AI’s democratisation of entrepreneurship.

* Learn practical strategies for applying AI to customer discovery, prototyping, and testing.

* Be equipped to re-think startup support models with faster rhythms, data-driven checkpoints, and real market validation at their core.

* Leave with concrete questions to challenge their own organisations: Are we keeping pace with founders? Are we rewarding proof of demand over appearances? Are we enabling pivots, or prolonging failure?