Nobody in the room has AI figured out
That's not a problem
We ran a survey with some of the operators coming to OX1 Manchester on 16th April. Directors and heads of function from fast-growing brands, running ecommerce, operations, merchandising, tech, finance. People who know what they’re doing.
Average AI confidence score across the group: 5.3 out of 10.
60% have no formal AI policy in place, including at businesses where AI use is actively encouraged. The most common blocker isn’t cost or capability or someone at the top saying no. It’s just not knowing where to start.
The things people actually want to use AI for aren’t ambitious. Automating trade meeting notes. Cleaner forecasting. Product descriptions that don’t take half a day. Weekly reports that don’t eat a morning. Operational problems that have existed for years and now look like they might finally be solvable. Nobody is trying to reinvent anything. They just want Monday back.
The other thing that came through clearly: everyone is experimenting, and nobody knows what anyone else is doing. Someone in ecommerce has built something quietly. Someone in ops has a workflow running in the background. One respondent described their current situation as “fragmented and manual, with valuable knowledge spread across teams.” The shared learning that would make all of it faster and less risky isn’t happening because there’s nowhere for it to happen.
That’s what OX1 is for. But we should be straight about what it is and isn’t.
Everyone involved in building this aren’t standing at the front of the room with the answers. Nobody has AI solved right now. The technology is moving too fast for that to be true of anyone, regardless of what their LinkedIn bio says. What the people in the room have is practical experience, honest questions, and no commercial reason to pretend otherwise.
The question sitting underneath a lot of the survey responses was this: “is this replacing me or my team?” That question doesn’t get asked out loud very often. It should. It’s the room OX1 is trying to create.
If your confidence is sitting around a five, you’re in good company. If you’ve got something running in the background that nobody else in the business knows about, same. If you’re not sure whether your business is ahead or behind, you’re probably right not to be sure, because the reference points don’t really exist yet.
That’s not a reason to wait. It’s a reason to be in the room.
16th April. Hallé St Peters, Manchester. Brand-side operators only.