The Supermums Business Hub will be available to women across the UK. But while the ambition is national, Heather believes meaningful change needs to start locally, which is why the first physical Supermums Business Hub will be opening in Hastings in November this year.

The Hub will be a place where female founders, freelancers and women returning to work can work alongside one another, learn practical AI and technology skills, access business support, coaching and consultancy, and build business relationships. They will also have the chance to connect with female freelance AI Champions and technology specialists who have graduated through the Supermums training programmes over the last 10 years – and to become those experts themselves.

AI is rapidly changing how small businesses operate – from marketing and administration to customer service, websites, CRM and business operations. Heather believes that, for many female entrepreneurs, the challenge isn’t whether they should embrace AI, it’s knowing where to start: they need to know which tools genuinely matter and who they can trust to help them implement them.

The organisation particularly focuses on mums returning to work, women looking to reskill or upskill and female freelancers whose existing roles are being transformed by AI. According to the International Labour Organisation, in high-income countries 9.6% of female employment is in occupations with the highest exposure to generative AI, compared with 3.5% of male employment.

For Heather, the mission is personal. She spent 25 years designing and delivering business support and employability programmes and 20 years running businesses of her own so has experienced firsthand how embracing technology could create opportunities for flexible, well-paid and meaningful work. After settling near Hastings to start a family, she decided to use that experience to help other women do the same and launched Supermums in 2016 following the birth of her second child.

Now she believes that AI represents the next major turning point for women. She says: “Ten years ago, technology changed the direction of my own career. I saw the opportunities it could create for women to build flexible, well-paid careers, and I wanted other mums to have access to those opportunities too.

“Now we’re standing at another turning point with AI. It’s transforming businesses and it’s transforming jobs. I don’t want women to be frightened of that change or left behind by it. I want women to be at the forefront of it.”

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