Bridge AI Showcase: Everyone’s Building the Car. No One’s Teaching People to Drive.

I spent yesterday at the Bridge AI Annual Showcase. It was energising, generous, smart. The kind of event where ambition shows up early and stays for the good food and business opportunity. But I left with a quiet itch.

Everyone’s talking about AI — and no one’s talking about how anyone’s meant to use it.

1. The tech’s impressive. The guidance isn’t.

Researchers demoed serious work. Startups showed clever use cases. The government talked infrastructure and investment. All vital. But how do we address the messy middle? How do regular people go from “I’ve heard of ChatGPT” (and maybe it scares me) to “this is saving me three hours a day.” That’s not a funding gap. That’s an imagination gap. We talk about edge cases, foundation models, GDP uplift. But who’s talking about the kid in Stoke trying to revise smarter? The small business owner drowning in email? The social worker writing the same note twenty times a day?

2. AI doesn’t need hype. It needs translation.

PwC shared that only 18% of workers are using AI tools. That’s not a tech problem. That’s a trust problem - a comprehension problem. And it's not solved by another panel on ethics. Or another promise of 10 million jobs by 2035. It's solved by giving people a reason to try. A use case they recognise. A moment where AI helps them today - not in some future productivity report.

Right now, most of what we call “AI adoption” is happening at the extremes: Execs chasing efficiency. Engineers chasing performance. Where’s the in-between?

3. If we want adoption, we need a user manual. Not a manifesto.

We’ve got world-class research. We’ve got funding. We’ve got Keir Starmer signalling the strategic importance. But you can’t regulate your way to understanding. You can’t build trust with wizardry. You get there by giving people tools that work, in words they understand, for problems they have. No magic. No manifesto. Just making the tech make sense.

Bridge AI was brilliant. Genuinely. But it reminded me that democratising AI isn’t a technical challenge - it’s a communication one.

Right now, everyone’s building the car. But no one’s teaching people to drive.

If you're curious where to start - or how AI could save you three hours a day - stay tuned. Or get in touch. We’re building the user manual.

And for good measures, here's a photo of me in-front of St Paul's on my way home in the London sunshine.