# Should a Small Business Hire an AI Lead? Canonical URL: https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/should-a-small-business-hire-an-ai-lead Publication: Dan Fitzpatrick Insights Author: Dan Fitzpatrick Topic: AI Strategy for Business Published: 2026-09-26T15:54:14.000Z Modified: 2026-09-26T15:55:09.180Z Most small businesses do not need to hire an AI lead yet. Official figures show almost none do. Appoint an AI steward from inside first, give them three duties, and hire only when the work outgrows the time. ## In brief Most small and medium-sized businesses should not hire an AI lead yet. Appoint an AI steward from inside instead: someone the team already asks for help, given protected time, a direct line to the owner and three duties (keep the list, keep the rules, keep the evidence). Hire from outside when that work outgrows the time, when AI starts acting on your systems, or when it touches decisions about people. ## Key takeaways - Very few small businesses hire for AI: the ONS found recruitment of new staff with AI-related skills at around 2% among the smallest businesses it surveyed, rising to 10% among those with 250 or more employees. - Small firms build AI capability by training the people they have: around 62% of UK businesses citing a lack of expertise were training or retraining existing staff. - In a small business the AI lead's job is keeping three things in order, not building AI: the list of approved tools and jobs, the rules, and the evidence of what AI saves. - The Steward Rule: appoint an AI steward from inside first, with protected time, a direct line to the owner and three written duties, and hire from outside only when the work no longer fits the time. - The steward keeps things in order but the owner still decides; who decides when AI goes wrong stays with leadership. - Three signals mean it is time to hire: the steward's work outgrows the time for three months running, AI starts acting on your systems, or your AI use touches decisions about people. - The most common mistake is handing AI to whoever seems good with computers, with no time and no authority, or hiring a title before you know the work. Probably not yet. Most small and medium-sized businesses do not need to hire an AI lead in their first year with AI. They need to name one person already on the team as the AI steward, give them protected time and a direct line to the owner, and hold them to three duties: keep the list of approved tools and jobs, keep the rules, and keep the evidence of what AI is saving. Hire from outside when that work outgrows the time, or when AI starts connecting to your systems. That answer surprises owners who have just watched a competitor post a job ad with "Head of AI" at the top. It should not. The official figures show that almost nobody your size is hiring for AI, and the firms getting somewhere are growing the skill inside. ## Do small businesses actually hire AI specialists? Very few do: the evidence says small firms build AI capability by training the people they already have, not by recruiting. The clearest picture comes from the UK's Office for National Statistics. Its [July 20, 2026 article on AI in UK businesses](https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/artificialintelligenceinukbusinesses/2023to2026), drawn from the Business Insights and Conditions Survey, found that recruiting new staff with AI-related skills "rises from around 2% among the smallest businesses to 10% among those with 250 or more employees." Among businesses that named a lack of expertise as a barrier, around 62% said they were training or retraining existing staff instead. The same article found that only 11% of businesses with 10 or more employees had given AI-related training to more than half of their workforce. The British Chambers of Commerce tells the same story from the other end. Its [March 18, 2026 research with Atos and the University of Essex](https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/news/2026/03/half-of-smes-using-ai-with-limited-headcount-impact-so-far/) found 54% of UK firms actively using AI, up from 35% a year earlier, while 95% of SMBs (SMEs in the UK and Europe) using AI reported no change to the size of their workforce over the past year. AI arrived in these businesses without a single new hire to carry it. The American picture matches. A [Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses survey published March 17, 2026](https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2026/small-businesses-embrace-ai-but-need-training-and-support-to-fully-harness-it), of 1,256 business owners in the program, found 76% already using AI but "only 14% say AI is fully embedded in their core operations," and 73% said they would benefit from more access to training and implementation resources. Read those three sources together and a pattern appears. Use is wide. Depth is thin. And what owners say they lack is not a new employee with "AI" in the job title. It is someone in the building who makes the tools part of how the work gets done. ## What does an AI lead actually do in a 20-person business? In a small business the AI lead's job is not building AI; it is keeping three things in order so everyone else can use it well. Picture the work that needs doing. Someone has to know which tools people are allowed to use, and which jobs those tools are used for. Someone has to hold the rules: what never goes into a chatbot, and what a person must check before anything leaves the building. And someone has to notice whether any of this is paying off, so the owner can decide what to do next. None of that needs a computer science degree. It needs a person who is close to the daily work, trusted by colleagues and willing to say "I don't know, let me find out." A large company might need engineers to build models, connect data and run infrastructure. A 20-person firm buying Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini licenses does not. It needs a keeper, not a builder. That is why I use a different word for the role. ## The Steward Rule The Steward Rule is what I suggest a small business does before it hires anyone to lead AI: appoint an AI steward from inside first. Choose someone the team already asks for help, close to the daily work, and give them protected time, a direct line to the owner and three duties: keep the list of approved tools and the jobs they are used for, keep the rules on what never goes in and what a person checks, and keep the evidence of what AI is saving. Hire from outside only when the steward's work no longer fits the time you gave it. Each part of that definition does a job. **Someone the team already asks.** Every business has this person. They are the one colleagues lean over to when a prompt goes sideways. They are rarely the most senior and not always the most technical. What they have is the one thing a new hire takes months to earn: people already bring them their questions. **Protected time.** A steward with no time is a volunteer, and volunteers drift back to the work they are measured on. Two hours a week is a sensible start for a business of 10 to 50 people, and something else must come off their plate to make room. Write it into their role. **A direct line to the owner.** The steward keeps things in order. The owner still decides. The Readiness Test is three questions an organization must be able to answer consistently, from the top to the front line, before it can call itself AI ready: What is AI for here? What may I do with it? Who decides when it goes wrong? The steward can draft answers to the first two. The third stays with leadership, however good the steward is. **The list.** One page naming the approved tools, the jobs each is used for and the person who uses it. If you pointed AI at one job first, as I suggest in [how a small business should start using AI](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/how-should-a-small-business-start-using-ai), the list begins with that job and grows one line at a time. **The rules.** The steward keeps your AI policy current and understood. If you do not have one yet, the [One-Page Five](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/does-a-small-business-need-an-ai-policy) gives the questions it must answer. **The evidence.** Once a month, the steward tells the owner what AI saved, what it got wrong and what people are asking for next. This is the duty most often skipped, and the one that turns a hunch into a decision. Take a hypothetical 22-person heating and plumbing firm. The office manager already fields every "how do I get it to do this?" question. The owner makes her the AI steward, takes supplier invoice chasing off her desk to free two hours a week, and books a 30-minute call on the first Monday of each month. By the third call she can say which jobs AI is doing, which rule nearly got broken and where the engineers want help next. The owner can then decide with evidence, not with whatever he last read. ## The Mistake I See Most Often The mistake I see most often is handing AI to whoever seems good with computers, with no time and no authority, and calling that a strategy. Across the business teams I train, the pattern repeats. The owner asks the youngest person in the office, or the one who set up the Wi-Fi, to "look after the AI stuff." Nobody takes anything off their desk. Nobody tells the rest of the team that this person now holds the rules. Six months later the owner wonders why nothing has changed, and starts looking at job ads. The second version of the mistake is the job ad itself: hiring a title before you know the work. An outside hire arrives into a business with no list, no rules and no evidence, and spends months discovering what a steward would already know. Worse, it tells everyone else that AI belongs to someone else. The businesses that do well treat AI capability as something the team grows. One business I have worked with shows the other way: theidol.com. In April 2023 I spoke about AI in marketing at a business event in Penrith. A year later their marketing team was using AI for content writing, and the managing director asked me back to show teams across the business what was possible. The spark came from outside. The capability grew inside, in the people doing the work. ## When should a small business hire an AI lead? Hire when the steward's work outgrows the time you gave it, when AI starts acting on your systems, or when your use touches decisions that carry legal weight. Three signals tell you the moment has come. **The work outgrows the time for three months running.** When the steward's two hours become a day a week, month after month, you have evidence of demand. Now you can write a job description from what the steward actually does, not from someone else's ad. **AI starts connecting to your systems or acting on its own.** Chatbots that draft text need a steward. Agents that log into your accounting software, send emails or update customer records need someone who understands access, permissions and what happens when it goes wrong. Before you let any agent act for you, run it through the [Errand Test](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/ai-agents-for-small-businesses). If you plan several such errands, technical skill is now a genuine gap. **Your AI use touches decisions about people.** Screening job applicants or judging whether a customer is creditworthy already sits under employment, equality and data protection law in the UK and the US. In the EU, both appear on the list of high-risk uses in [Annex III of the EU AI Act](https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/annex/3/), which names AI used "to analyse and filter job applications, and to evaluate candidates" and AI used "to evaluate the creditworthiness of natural persons." That calls for specialist governance advice. It may not call for a full-time hire. Even then, the hire works to the steward's list. It does not replace it. The person who knows which jobs AI does in your business, and who the team trusts with their questions, is worth more after a specialist arrives, not less. ## What should you do this week? Appoint your steward this week, and give them the three duties in writing. Here is how a business of 20 can do it without a project. 1. **Ask the team one question:** "When you get stuck with AI, who do you ask?" The name that comes up most is usually your steward. 2. **Find out what is already in use.** People are almost certainly using AI tools nobody approved. The [Daylight Rule](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/shadow-ai-small-business) shows how to surface them safely before you decide anything. 3. **Write the three duties into the steward's role:** keep the list, keep the rules, keep the evidence. Name what comes off their desk to make room. 4. **Tell the whole team.** One message from the owner: this person holds the list and the rules, and questions go to them. 5. **Book the first monthly call** for 30 days from now, and ask for three things: the list, the rule that nearly broke, and one thing AI saved. Then give your steward what they need to teach others. A steward cannot pass on skills nobody gave them, which is where [training that actually changes what people do](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/ai-training-for-small-business-teams) comes in. ## Where to go next If you want a clear answer to "what is AI for here, what may people do with it, and who decides when it goes wrong" before you appoint a steward or write a job ad, that is exactly what my [AI strategy and governance work](https://theaieducator.io/ai-strategy-and-governance?utm_source=business.theaieducator.io&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=should-a-small-business-hire-an-ai-lead) is built for. If you want to see where your business stands first, take the free [Workplace AI Readiness Check](https://theaieducator.io/workplace-ai-readiness?utm_source=business.theaieducator.io&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=should-a-small-business-hire-an-ai-lead): 21 questions, about eight minutes, scored across seven dimensions. ## Sources and further reading - [Artificial intelligence in UK businesses: 2023 to 2026](https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/artificialintelligenceinukbusinesses/2023to2026), Office for National Statistics, July 20, 2026. - [Half of SMEs Using AI, With Limited Headcount Impact So Far](https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/news/2026/03/half-of-smes-using-ai-with-limited-headcount-impact-so-far/), British Chambers of Commerce, March 18, 2026. - [Annex III: High-Risk AI Systems, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the EU AI Act)](https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/annex/3/), regulation dated June 13, 2024, via the EU AI Act Explorer (Future of Life Institute). - [Small business AI survey press release](https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2026/small-businesses-embrace-ai-but-need-training-and-support-to-fully-harness-it), Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, March 17, 2026. *Dan Fitzpatrick is The AI Educator, a Forbes contributor and bestselling author who helps businesses use AI well, safely and every day. [More about Dan](https://theaieducator.io/about).* ## Frequently asked questions ### Does a small business need an AI specialist? Usually not at first. Most small businesses use off-the-shelf AI tools, which need someone to keep the approved list, the rules and the evidence of value rather than an engineer. Official UK figures show very few small firms recruit for AI skills; most train the staff they already have. ### Who should be responsible for AI in a small business? One named person on the existing team, working to the owner. Choose the colleague people already ask when they get stuck with AI, give them protected time and three duties, and keep the final decisions, including who decides when AI goes wrong, with the owner or leadership team. ### What does an AI lead do in a small company? An AI lead in a small company keeps AI use in order so everyone else can use it well. That means maintaining the list of approved tools and the jobs they are used for, keeping the rules on data and checking, and reporting monthly on what AI saves and gets wrong. ### Should I train existing staff or hire someone with AI skills? Train existing staff first. They know your customers, your work and your risks, which an outside hire takes months to learn. UK statistics show training or retraining existing staff is the most common response to an AI skills gap. Hire when the work outgrows the time or needs technical skills. ### When should a small business hire an AI lead? Hire when one of three things happens: the internal steward's AI work outgrows their protected time for three months running, you want AI agents connected to your systems or acting on your behalf, or your AI use touches decisions about people, such as hiring or creditworthiness. ### What is an AI steward? An AI steward is an existing team member given protected time, a direct line to the owner and three duties: keep the list of approved AI tools and jobs, keep the rules on what never goes in and what gets checked, and keep the evidence of what AI is saving the business. --- Source: [Should a Small Business Hire an AI Lead?](https://business.theaieducator.io/posts/should-a-small-business-hire-an-ai-lead) Publisher: [The AI Educator](https://theaieducator.io)