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AI Reality Check
Live events · Webinars · Insights
What AI actually does inside B2B distribution and manufacturing, seen running and explained by the people deploying it.
The AI Reality Check newsletter
AI news for UK distribution and manufacturing leaders, once a month. Every story is checked against its source and given a Reality check. Hosted by Kevin McGirl.
In person · Thursday 15 October 2026
A free afternoon of working deployments, partner case studies, a tour of the innovation labs and a panel on practical AI. Here is how it went.
From the first event
Three sessions from the Manufacturing Technology Centre. Leave your details and we will send you the slides, the write-ups and the recap video.
What this is
No vendor theatre. Real operators, real systems, and enough time to ask the awkward questions.
Half-day, in-person sessions for distribution and manufacturing leaders: working deployments, partner case studies and time with peers.
Coming in 2027: shorter live sessions online, for people who cannot travel to an event.
Articles and research drawn from what is said on stage: specific, attributed and written for people who run operations.
Technology partners meet the people who decide. We build sessions around real customers and real results, not pitches.
Who it is for
The first event brought operators from building and plumbing supplies, tools and hardware, automotive parts, flooring and interiors, electrical and technology distribution, and manufacturing.
Merchants, trade counters and wholesalers keeping sites supplied.
Thousands of small, fast-moving lines where stock accuracy decides margin.
Long-tail catalogues, next-day promises and picking at scale.
Bulky, cut-to-order stock and deliveries that are hard to get right.
Cable, climate and connectivity: high value lines and plenty of returns.
Shop floors, labs and lines where AI meets machines.
On stage so far
Operators, founders and technology leaders who presented at the first AI Reality Check.
Insights
Articles and research built from what is said at our events. New pieces after every session.
Partners · 3 min read
How to tell a room that buys from a room that merely attends: the questions a technology vendor or marketer should put to any B2B event organiser before committing budget.
Event recap · 3 min read
Our first AI Reality Check, at the MTC in Coventry, put working deployments in front of distribution and manufacturing leaders. What the sessions covered, and what comes next.
Future events
AI Reality Check is a series. At each event we bring a small number of technology partners into the room alongside MTC, in front of the people who buy and specify AI for distribution and manufacturing. If you are interested in taking part in future events as a partner, speaker or host, get in touch.
For business leaders
If you are planning AI projects in 2027 and would like advice on where to start, or if you have a specific use case in mind, get in touch with Kevin. He'll point you in the right direction and arrange introductions to proven technology solution providers who can help.
