ONE brings MIT expert back to Aberdeen to put AI at the head of the north east ventures

‍ Life sciences founders from across north east Scotland joined the latest AI for Venture Growth workshop, led by Paul Cheek, Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Alongside invited founders from all of the region's growth sectors, they spent a hands-on session putting AI to work where it counts, from customers to operations, with human judgement always firmly in the driving seat.

Knowing your customer through thorough primary market research sits at the heart of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework behind the entrepreneurial education Opportunity North East Limited delivers. AI now lets founders test their thinking before they ever speak to a customer, so every real conversation counts for more!

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Kimberley Mackenzie is founder of Formartine Bio Limited, which develops accessible tools to help horse owners and veterinary professionals monitor equine health and recognise changes earlier.

Kimberley had this to say:

"Today's session has made me think about two things I need to change at Formartine Bio. First, I'm going to use AI to stress-test my assumptions with synthetic customers before speaking to real horse owners and veterinary professionals — not to replace those conversations, but to make sure I'm asking much better questions when I have them.

"Second, I need to move beyond simply using AI to help me do more and start automating more of the business. At the moment I'm still the human bottleneck in too many workflows. I want to build processes that can run in the background and report back to me when my input or a decision is actually needed.

"AI has massively expanded what feels possible for a small company like Formartine Bio. My next challenge is to focus that potential into action — building the right things, automating what I can, and concentrating my own time where it adds the most value."