If you've been telling yourself AI is "a bit like Y2K" and will quietly blow over, this episode is the wake-up call.

I sit down with Simon Kinsey, founder of Sparkstone Technology and Agent Factory, for a properly unflinching conversation about what AI actually means for SMEs right now. Simon spent 10 years as a chartered accountant before backing himself into business, has run Sparkstone for 28 years, and has kept the same senior team around him for 20 of those. He knows what resilience looks like — and he's just rebuilt a piece of software in six months that would previously have taken eight man-years.

This is not hype. This is someone who builds the stuff, selling it to people who use it every day.

What you'll take away:

• Why curiosity is the single most underrated trait in any business owner — and why it's non-negotiable now
• The honest truth about SMEs and AI: the biggest blocker isn't the tech, it's the lack of intent at the top
• What an AI "agent" actually is, broken down in plain English — a prompt, a tool, a container, and a way to repeat the job
• The real-world example of a hairdressing wholesaler pulling an extra £250k a year from WhatsApp photos of handwritten orders
• The chartered accountants saving a full person a month on VAT returns — with a build that pays for itself in 90 days
• Why "there are no easy jobs left" — and what that means for how you hire, train and promote
• The billion-dollar one-person business that Sam Altman predicted — and the founder who's already done it
• Why Claude and desktop AI tools are only "the tiniest scratch on a massive surface"
• And the line every business owner needs tattooed somewhere visible: if you're coasting, you're dying

We also get into the uncomfortable stuff — the minister for AI who doesn't use AI, 73% of employers reporting AI projects sabotaged by their own teams, and why the education system is still training people for 1952.

Simon's closing line on entrepreneurship is one of the best I've had on the podcast: "The minute you go into business, you're inherently unemployable."

Whether you're running a £10m business wondering where to start, or a one-person operation asking whether AI is worth bothering with (spoiler: day one, always), this one's for you.

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Find Simon Kinsey: sparkstone.co.uk | agentfactory.co.ukFind me: simonellson.com | westdorset.actioncoach.co.uk