The event honours outstanding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), innovators, and business leaders in Oxfordshire.

Entries are now being accepted following an extension to the deadline, now set for Monday, August 10.

Sarah Beal, business support service manager at Enterprise Oxfordshire Business, said: “Our track record of impact, combined with opportunities such as the Marketplace and Celebration Event, showcases the real value of engaging with Enterprise Oxfordshire Business.

“These platforms give businesses and entrepreneurs the chance to connect, showcase what they do and access the support that can help them take their next step with confidence.”

Held at Oxford Town Hall the marketplace and awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday, November 4.

The event brings together the county’s business community for an evening of networking, knowledge-sharing, and celebration.

It includes an exhibition marketplace and an awards ceremony.

The awards recognise achievements across categories such as Business Leader of the Year, Start-Up of the Year, and Growth Business of the Year.

Businesses or individuals who have engaged with Enterprise Oxfordshire Business since April 2022 are eligible to participate.

Entry is free across all award categories.

The annual event is part of Enterprise Oxfordshire Business’ ongoing efforts to support the county’s business community and promote commercial success.

Last year’s ceremony, also held at Oxford Town Hall, highlighted the value of connecting entrepreneurs, showcasing services, and celebrating business achievement.

The marketplace format gives businesses a space to present their services and connect with peers.

Earlier this year, the Growth Hub Cluster Impact Report highlighted the contributions of Enterprise Oxfordshire Business and similar hubs in neighbouring regions between April 2020 and March 2025.

During this period, the hubs collectively supported 92,719 businesses, delivered 178,563 hours of business support, and helped launch 3,934 new businesses.

They also helped to create 6,970 jobs and safeguard 6,093 positions.

For every £1 of core government funding, the cluster generated an additional £24 to support SME growth and delivered £35 in economic and social value.

Ms Beal said: “Events like this, alongside our wider Growth Hub support, demonstrate the real impact that targeted, accessible business support can have.

“Whether a business is just starting out or looking to scale, we want to encourage people across the county to engage with us, access support and be part of Oxfordshire’s growing business community.”

Enterprise Oxfordshire became the new trading name of OxLEP in April last year.

This followed a two-year transition and now operates under a Teckal company model with Oxfordshire County Council as its sole shareholder.

Details about award categories, sponsors, and exhibiting opportunities are available at www.enterpriseoxfordshirebusiness.com/marketplace-and-celebration-2026.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Only 12% of the UK’s 100 biggest eCommerce brands are ready for AI systems to complete purchases directly on shoppers’ behalf, according to Varn Search Marketing. The findings suggest broad gaps in preparedness for so-called agentic commerce.

The agency reviewed the country’s largest eCommerce sites to assess whether they were configured to let generative AI platforms carry out transactions. Its research found that most retailers examined were not set up for this form of automated shopping.

Among the brands identified as unprepared were M&S, Currys and Barbour. The smaller group classed as prepared included Ted Baker, Gymshark and Castore.

The study focuses on an emerging retail model in which AI tools do more than help consumers search for products. In this model, AI agents move through the purchase journey and complete checkout directly, with little or no manual input from the shopper.

That shift is not yet fully available to the public in the UK, but testing and phased rollouts are already under way in some markets. Varn said the timetable for wider access remains uncertain, even as work on autonomous checkout and agent-initiated payments continues.

US signals

The report points to signs from the US market that consumer behaviour may already be starting to change. It cites a Morgan Stanley survey from December 2025, which found that 23% of Americans had made a purchase via AI.

Morgan Stanley also estimated that AI-assisted shopping could account for USD $385 billion in US eCommerce spending by 2030. While that figure relates to the American market, it indicates the commercial expectations building around the technology.

For retailers, the issue is not only whether customers want to use AI shopping tools, but whether websites are technically open to them. Product feeds, site architecture and permission settings are likely to determine whether AI systems can identify items and complete transactions without being blocked.

Retailers that fail to adapt could face reduced visibility if shopping journeys increasingly move away from conventional search and browsing. If transactions begin inside AI interfaces rather than on traditional storefronts, access to those systems may become an important route to sale.

Readiness gap

Andy Mollison, Head of Search and Innovation at Varn Search Marketing, said: “Agentic commerce isn’t a distant retail trend; it’s an immediate paradigm shift that will catch unprepared brands completely off guard. Our research shows a staggering disconnect between the speed of AI development and UK retail readiness. At Varn, we are actively auditing and restructuring eCommerce sites to bridge this gap, ensuring their data architecture, technical SEO, and product feeds are seamlessly readable by autonomous AI bots. The American market has already given us a blueprint for how fast consumer behaviour shifts when AI handles the checkout. If UK brands don’t start optimising for machine-to-machine commerce right now, they will lose both search visibility and become entirely invisible to the next generation of shoppers.”

The findings add to a wider debate in retail and digital marketing over how AI will affect discovery, conversion and brand control. Ecommerce businesses have spent years refining websites for human visitors and conventional search engines, but agent-based shopping introduces a different set of technical and commercial questions.

One question is whether established retailers can adapt quickly enough if AI-led shopping gains traction. Another is how brands will manage pricing, merchandising and customer relationships if the shopper’s main interaction takes place through a third-party AI assistant rather than on the retailer’s own site.

Varn said its assessment covered the UK’s top 100 eCommerce brands. On its measure, only a small minority currently appear configured to permit direct purchases by generative AI platforms.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Tes has appointed Wayne Strydom as head of AI and innovation as it develops its Tes360 platform for schools and trusts.

Strydom brings more than 10 years of experience in AI strategy, digital transformation and technology delivery across large organisations. His role includes shaping Tes’s AI strategy, supporting responsible innovation across the business and identifying ways schools and educators can use advances in artificial intelligence.

The appointment adds a senior AI-focused role to Tes’s leadership team at a time when education groups are weighing how generative AI and related tools can be used in classrooms and school administration. For suppliers to the sector, that debate has increased pressure to demonstrate clear governance around data use, oversight and ethics.

Strydom has previously built and scaled AI and digital service divisions and led transformation programmes for major organisations. Tes also pointed to his earlier connection to education through a technology business aimed at helping underserved communities build skills for entering the workforce.

Tes provides schools and trusts with software and services covering timetabling, special educational needs and disabilities provision, behaviour management, staff wellbeing, parents’ evenings, recruitment and professional development. It also publishes Tes Magazine, giving the group a presence in both software and education media.

At the centre of its product strategy is Tes360, a connected platform designed to bring together information from across school operations. The aim is to give school leaders and trust executives a broader view of activity across their organisations.

AI focus

Tes is positioning AI as part of that broader platform strategy rather than as a standalone product line. The approach reflects a wider trend in education technology, with suppliers embedding AI into existing workflows such as planning, analysis and administrative tasks instead of offering isolated tools.

For Tes, the focus is on reducing repetitive work and generating insights from data already held across the platform. That is particularly relevant for school groups facing budget pressure, staffing constraints and growing demand for clearer oversight across multiple sites.

“Education has always been about people, and AI should strengthen the incredible work that teachers, school leaders and education professionals already do,” said Wayne Strydom, head of AI and innovation at Tes.

“My focus is on helping Tes further harness AI responsibly and ethically. The goal is not to replace human judgement, but to remove friction, automate repetitive tasks and empower educators with richer, more actionable insights derived from the unparalleled breadth and depth of the Tes platform that no other technology provider can achieve.”

“What attracted me to Tes was the opportunity to combine my passion for education with an organisation that is already making a meaningful difference to schools and learners. Tes360 is a foundation for innovation, and I’m looking forward to working with teams across the business to explore how AI can help us deliver even greater value for our customers.”

Platform strategy

Tes traces its roots back more than a century and has expanded from publishing into software and services for schools. In recent years, many education suppliers have tried to connect products acquired or developed across different parts of school management to create more unified platforms.

That has made interoperability and data sharing more important to commercial strategy. A connected system can create cross-selling opportunities for vendors, but schools also want assurance that data is handled carefully and that any automation does not undermine professional judgement.

Governance, ethics and data responsibility are central to Tes’s approach as AI becomes more prominent in education. Those issues carry particular weight in a sector dealing with children’s information, safeguarding responsibilities and high expectations around transparency.

Rod Williams, Chief Executive Officer at Tes, said: “Wayne brings a combination of deep technical expertise, strategic vision and a passion for education. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an ability to translate complex technologies into practical outcomes that deliver value. As we continue to evolve Tes360 and develop new ways to support schools, this experience will help ensure we remain at the forefront of responsible innovation.”

The hire suggests Tes wants more formal leadership around how AI is developed and applied across its products and internal operations. For school customers, the practical test will be whether those tools save time and improve decision-making without adding complexity.

Strydom’s appointment follows the launch of Tes360 and marks another step in the company’s push to build a broader software platform for schools and trusts. His role will focus on how AI is introduced across that platform and how those tools align with the sector’s demands for trust, oversight and clear educational value.