AI adoption: where businesses really are
An honest view of the gap between AI ambition and day-to-day reality, and what meaningful adoption looks like beyond the hype.
Founder, Situate AI
Joanna Wake
At the forefront of future skills for 15 years.
AI speaker, policy voice and subject matter expert on all things AI, helping leaders and audiences build AI literacy, AI fluency and AI confidence, and understand what artificial intelligence means for work, skills and society.
15 years
Future skills
Tens of thousands
reached through the tech and future skills courses Joanna created and instigated
Speaker
live audiences, webinars, podcasts and media, from keynotes to parliamentary briefings
Founder
twice exited, first business founded in 2011, Situate AI is company three
AI keynote speaker · Subject matter expert in AI · UK
Ideas that move a room forward.
A woman AI speaker based in England and booked across the UK, Joanna works as a keynote speaker, AI panelist, webinar host and workshop lead. From keynotes and panels to parliamentary briefings, she connects business skills today and tomorrow with the decisions leaders need to make next.
AI literacy for every workforce
Why people at every level need the confidence and judgement to use AI well, not just access to the latest tools.
The AI skills gap
What today’s workforce can realistically do, where capability is falling short and the practical skills organisations need to build now.
The risk of not upskilling
The commercial, social and workforce consequences of waiting: lost productivity, widening inequality, losing the global race for AI capability, and people being left behind.
Women, business and AI
How women can shape the AI economy, why representation matters and what leaders can do to create more inclusive routes into opportunity.
My founder story
A single mum who earned a master's degree without ever holding an undergraduate one, building businesses while overcoming many obstacles along the way. It took nerves of steel and an insane amount of resilience to start from nothing in 2011, build and sell not one company but two, and turn every setback into fuel for the third. Situate AI is that third act: simplifying AI and creating genuine, instant impact for businesses in every sector.
Not in employment, education or training
A rising number of young people are not in employment, education or training, and as AI changes jobs faster than ever the risk of leaving them behind grows. What it means, and what has to happen next.
Policy expertise
Inside government. Outside it. On the ground.
Joanna has been inside the creation of policy, outside it informing policy and lobbying for change, and above all on the ground with businesses and young people, delivering future skills for 15 years. She knows the reality of what the issues actually are, where the skills gaps are, the risks we face and what the solutions can be.
About Joanna
A career built around what comes next.
Joanna Wake is the multi-award-winning founder of Situate AI and one of the UK’s most experienced voices on AI, digital skills and the future of work.
Her career began with nine years in central government, shaping national skills and apprenticeship policy from the inside. She started her first business in 2011, launched RAW Digital Training in 2013 and has twice exited, with Situate AI as her third company. After selling RAW Digital Training in 2020, she worked as a national director for the buyer, a tech apprenticeship provider, where she drove innovation, introduced AI courses, lobbied to change government policy and kept the focus of apprenticeships firmly on young people. She is also UK Brand Ambassador for SheAI, a UN-certified AI education platform.
In 2024, before most people had even opened an AI app, she initiated a prompt engineering course. Today, through Situate AI, she directly delivers AI training to businesses of every size and in every sector across the UK, from teams of 6 to organisations with 6,000 staff, and to learners aged 17 to 70. The courses she has created and instigated reach far beyond her own delivery: thousands of people, in businesses and among young people, across the UK. That reach spans seven years of RAW Digital Training, which she led as founder. Now her role as a subject matter expert in formulating AI courses means her knowledge is set to reach a global audience.
Joanna has appeared on television and podcasts, delivered parliamentary briefings, presented at academic and industry conferences, and spoken to audiences in the thousands, always with a rare ability to make AI land without the jargon.
Writing for young people
AI, explained for the generation growing up with it.
Joanna writes regular articles for young people on AI, careers and the world of work: honest, jargon-free guidance on building AI confidence early, from getting hands-on with the tools to understanding what AI can and cannot do.
A recent published article
In the press
A story the papers keep telling.
Coverage of Joanna's work building businesses, shaping skills policy and championing the next generation.
Teesside Live
On building and leading RAW Digital Training
Chronicle Live
The Monday Interview: a managing director's story
Chronicle Live
On bringing digital training to young people
The Northern Echo
On why vital training can't be left to chance
Recognition along the way
Winning innovation and IT awards for over a decade, including Innovator of the Year at the WIN Awards, Digital Leaders 100, and Women in IT Awards.
Keynote speaker · AI panelist · Subject matter expert in AI · Media