“Are you digitally curious?” That was the question Andrew Grill posed to a packed audience at this year’s Elite Business Live. He challenged them with a quick-fire test of their tech habits: Have you Googled yourself recently? Listened to a podcast this week. Bought crypto? Use ChatGPT daily?
This session felt more like a wake-up call, a masterclass, and an invitation to think differently about the role of technology in our lives and businesses.
Grill, a globally recognised futurist, AI expert, and former IBM executive, didn’t stand on stage to lecture. He came to inspire, and he delivered. His message? The future isn’t something that just happens to us. It’s something we help shape. But only if we stay curious enough to engage with it.
Curiosity is the superpower of the future
“The future belongs to the curious,” Grill explained, sharing a personal journey that began with building burglar alarms as a child using a 101 electronics kit. His first computer? The Sinclair ZX80, which now sits in a glass case at the Science Museum.
Curiosity, he said, has powered his entire career, from running startups to working with major global tech firms. And now, it’s what businesses must lean into if they want to survive the AI revolution.
“We’ve seen ten years of innovation in just two,” he told us. “Even I can’t keep up.” That wasn’t a throwaway line. It was a powerful reminder of just how fast things are moving, and how vital it is for business leaders to stay one step ahead by asking better questions sooner and asking them sooner.
Understanding AI, one “aha” moment at a time
Grill has a knack for making the complex feel accessible. He stripped back the mystery of AI by explaining that tools like ChatGPT work by predicting the next most likely word, not by thinking or understanding.
“Ask it, ‘Who was the first person on the moon?’ and it will say ‘Neil Armstrong,’” he said. “Not because it knows, but because those words statistically follow that question.”
Still, what sounds simple can be powerful in practice. Grill illustrated this with live examples, from AI that can find Wally in a picture without even knowing what a “Wally” is. One moment that stood out in the session was when he described how he helped a teacher friend create an entire lesson plan using ChatGPT over a drink at the pub. Her response? “I didn’t know AI could do that.” That was her “aha” moment.
And as Grill urged, those moments are the gateway to real transformation. “If you’re not playing with these tools,” he warned, “you’re already falling behind.”
AI won’t replace people
Perhaps the most quoted line of the morning came next:
“AI won’t replace people. People who use AI will replace people who don’t.”
Grill was unequivocal: SMEs, in particular, need to stop thinking of AI as a future threat or a luxury for big corporates. It’s a tool for right now. It can drive growth, improve decision-making, and sharpen competitive edge.
He gave tangible examples. A boutique retailer increased sales by 30% using AI-powered recommendations. A café used AI for smarter shift scheduling, cutting labour costs by 15% and reducing customer wait times by 20%. An e-commerce business deployed a chatbot trained from its FAQs, and no manual scripting was needed.
He even built a voice assistant for a restaurant in minutes using just a PDF of the menu. It could answer customer questions in real-time, including how dishes could be adapted for dietary requirements. No developer needed. No technical wizardry. Just curiosity and a willingness to explore.
But what about the risks?
Grill didn’t gloss over the risks, far from it. He showed a chilling deepfake of himself, “AI Andrew,” and shared how Stephen Fry’s voice was cloned without his consent using just a dataset of audiobook recordings. He played clips. They were shockingly convincing!
And that’s where Grill’s message turned from exciting to urgent. AI scams, voice cloning, and deepfake fraud are already happening. The CEO of Ferrari, a finance minister, and Arup’s Hong Kong office were tricked into sending $25 million to a scammer on a fake video call.
His advice?
- Turn on two-factor authentication for everything.
- Train your teams.
- Most importantly: set up a family or team password. A simple, offline phrase that confirms identity when all else fails.
It’s the kind of low-tech solution that might just save you in a high-tech world.
Putting AI on your organisation’s chart
Grill didn’t just want us to adopt AI tools; he wants us to embed them into our organisations. Literally.
“In 2025, we need to put AI on the org chart,” he said. “If it’s there, we’ll finally start treating it like part of the team.”
He encouraged businesses to run internal AI hackathons, bringing together the “born digital” (those raised on smartphones) and the “going digital” (those learning on the go) to crowdsource ideas and innovations. “You already have the answers in the room,” he said. “You just need to unlock them.”
Five actions to take away
Before stepping off stage, Grill left the room with five practical, actionable takeaways:
- Be more digitally curious. Try new tools. Explore what’s possible.
- Experiment with five AI tools. Find ones that suit your business needs.
- Identify your high-impact use cases. Customer service? Forecasting? Content creation? Start there.
- Set up a family or team password. Protect yourself and those around you.
- Host a hackathon. Your people are the key to your next breakthrough.
As the applause echoed and Grill stepped into the upcoming panel discussion, something had shifted. The audience was no longer just absorbing ideas. They were ignited by them. Minds were racing, not with fear of the future, but with possibility. The room buzzed with a new energy: one of action, intention, and imagination.
When change is constant, curiosity isn’t just a trait…it’s a strategy! And those bold enough to nurture it won’t just keep up. They’ll lead the way.
