FNB and Art of Scale have announced the second instalment of Founders at Work, inviting founders and business leaders of SMEs with annual turnover of R8 million or more who want to scale their businesses.
The new series of hands-on AI Build Labs will help participants to practically implement AI, developing working systems around specific business problems to free up time, strengthen execution and create capacity for growth.
For established businesses, scaling requires more than ambition. It requires the systems, processes, and leadership capacity to support a larger enterprise. Founders at Work will help participants apply AI to overcome the challenges that absorb their time and constrain their ability to grow.
The new format responds to a clear finding from Year One: established businesses are using AI widely, but not yet deeply. Among participants who completed an AI readiness assessment, 81% reported using AI daily or more frequently, mostly for isolated tasks. Skills and time were the most frequently identified barriers to deeper adoption, followed by security concerns, unclear return on investment and budget constraints.
“Most business owners we engage with have already experimented with AI. The next step is to move beyond experimentation and build systems that free up time and deliver measurable business value, while people remain responsible for the decisions. That is the shift we are helping founders make,” says Heather Lowe, SME Development Head at FNB.
What Year One showed:
Founders at Work launched in September 2025. In its first year, the programme attracted more than 1 500 founders and executives from all nine provinces and recorded over 1 000 live attendances across nine events. Online sessions extended its reach to five provinces beyond those served in person.
The programme achieved an average Net Promoter Score of +80 across the nine events, indicating a high willingness among participants to recommend the programme. Female-owned businesses made up 40% of pooled in-person masterclass attendance, while youth-owned businesses accounted for 24%.
In May, the programme shifted from masterclasses built around scaling principles to Build Labs focused on specific business problems.
In the year-end survey, 85% of participants said they would attend a masterclass designed to help them solve their most important scaling problem, while none said they would not.
Participant feedback consistently highlighted the value of leaving with a working AI system that could continue to be used in the business.
What changes in the second instalment:
The second cycle will retain the practical Build Lab format while introducing a longer preparation period and more structured support before, during and after each session.
Each Build Lab will include a short masterclass, followed by a guided build that participants can join in person or online, as well as post implementation clinics.
Participants will be supported to develop a working AI system around a specific business problem and continue refining it after the session.
The expanded approach responds directly to feedback from Year One, in which 64% of survey participants asked for pre-work and setup instructions in advance. The Year Two design will also strengthen outcome measurement by confirming whether completed systems are working within participants’ businesses.
“Attendance grew when founders were given an opportunity to solve a real business problem in the room. The second instalment builds on that demand by giving participants the preparation, practical guidance and continued support needed to integrate these systems into their businesses,” says Jason Goldberg, Co-Founder of Edge Growth and Art of Scale.
Founders at Work is free for qualifying businesses and is aimed at established, scaling businesses rather than start-ups.
Apply at www.foundersatwork.co.za/build-lab-one/