Role
Georgi Iliev is Venture and Product Development Manager at Nottingham Business School, a Founding Member of the Centre for Business and Industry Transformation (CBIT), and Head of the award-winning CBIT Venture Builder.
He specialises in AI-driven business transformation, applied artificial intelligence, AI for business, venture building, product development and innovation management. Drawing on a background in software engineering and innovation, Georgi helps organisations translate AI into viable products, improved operating models and scalable opportunities, with commercialisation forming part of this wider work.
Through CBIT, he works across research, enterprise and executive education, connecting university expertise with startups, SMEs, technology providers and public-sector partners.
Career overview
AI transformation and product innovation
Georgi's work focuses on the practical and responsible adoption of AI within startups and SMEs. He helps organisations identify valuable applications, redesign business processes, develop new products and build the capabilities needed to adopt emerging technologies successfully.
His applied work encompasses generative AI, intelligent agents, workflow automation, demand forecasting, digital twins and AI-enabled decision-support systems. He developed an AI solution that reduced an internship-matching process from approximately one month to two hours and has helped businesses introduce AI across product development, operations, customer service, sales and marketing.
Venture building and innovation development
Georgi became a Founding Member of CBIT in 2022 and established the CBIT Venture Builder in 2023. He has developed a portfolio of more than 20 high-growth-potential startups and SMEs across AI, health technology, clean technology, advanced manufacturing and consumer products.
Through CBIT and the Venture Builder, Georgi has supported more than 40 businesses with an estimated combined valuation exceeding £750 million. His work includes business model innovation, product-market fit, market validation, technology roadmapping, growth strategy, investment readiness and international market development.
The CBIT Venture Builder was named Technology Innovation Champion at the 2024 UK Innovation Awards.
Funded innovation and international engagement
Georgi has contributed to the development and delivery of public-private research and innovation programmes with a combined value exceeding £15 million. These include programmes funded by UK Research and Innovation, Innovate UK, BBSRC, EPSRC, the European Union and the British Council.
His international work includes AI workforce development, AI for business, venture building and research-commercialisation programmes delivered with government, university and science park partners in China and Thailand.
Georgi was selected for the Google for Education Higher Education Faculty AI Fellowship. His fellowship work explores how AI is reshaping university business models, with a focus on the connections between education, research, enterprise and practical AI capability-building for businesses.
Before joining Nottingham Business School, Georgi was Technology Lead and Head of Product and New Product Development at the WMG Accelerator, University of Warwick. He began his career as a software engineer working on UK and European innovation projects in advanced manufacturing, digital platforms and privacy-enhancing technologies.
Research areas
Georgi's research sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, organisational transformation, product innovation and entrepreneurship. It is applied and developed in collaboration with businesses, researchers, technology providers and public-sector partners.
His principal research interests are:
- Responsible AI adoption in startups and SMEs
- AI-enabled business and organisational transformation
- Generative AI, intelligent agents and workflow automation
- Digital twins and data-driven decision systems
- AI workforce development and organisational capability
- Product and service innovation
- Business model innovation and commercialisation
- Venture building and entrepreneurial ecosystems
- Research commercialisation and university-industry collaboration
Georgi is undertaking a PhD by Publication at Nottingham Business School. His research examines how SMEs adopt AI and how these technologies affect organisational processes, workforce capabilities and business models.
Projects
Flagship AI and digital transformation projects
BeefTwin – UKRI, £974,701
An AI-enabled digital twin for the UK beef value chain. Georgi advises the technical team and contributes to the AI implementation, platform development and digital twin strategy.
BarberBoss Knowledge Transfer Partnership – Innovate UK, approximately £224,000
Georgi conceived and developed this project and supervises its delivery. It is introducing AI-enabled demand forecasting, intelligent business agents, data integration, process automation and improved warehouse and supply-chain management.
AI Workforce Development Programme – Thailand Government - MHESI
As part of a Chiang Mai University-led team working with Thailand's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Georgi contributes to sector-focused AI skills and workforce-development programmes covering food manufacturing, wellness and tourism, marketing and data analysis, strategic management, and business incubation. The team has designed and delivered more than five workshops for more than 350 participants from businesses across Thailand, combining practical AI adoption, agentic system development and hands-on prototyping.
Collaborative Commerce Marketplace - CCM
An AI-enabled CBIT platform using business capability profiles and foundation models to match businesses and researchers with funding, commercial and research collaboration opportunities.
Venture building and research commercialisation
Train the Trainer – British Council and Thailand Science Research and Innovation, £392,000
Georgi leads the CBIT Venture Builder team in equipping university and science park staff to mentor researchers in innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialisation.
The Blue Zone Consortium – BBSRC, £315,109
Georgi supports participating researchers and businesses with value proposition development, market validation, scalability assessment, product roadmapping and investment readiness.
CBIT Venture Builder
Georgi established and leads the Venture Builder, supporting more than 20 startups and SMEs with product development, AI adoption, market validation, growth and investment readiness.
FAIR-SPACE – UKRI, £8,660,006
Georgi contributed to the venture-building activity, helping research teams assess the commercial applications and scalability of technologies developed for future space operations.
WMG Accelerator – High Value Manufacturing Catapult
As Technology Lead, Georgi guided product and technology strategy across the accelerator portfolio. His work supported businesses including Ecomar Propulsion, Hotel Manager and Concrete4Change in developing their propositions and securing public and private investment.
Digital platforms and advanced manufacturing
PriVELT – EPSRC, £1,179,482
As Technical Project Manager, Georgi coordinated the development of a privacy-aware personal data management and value-enhancement platform.
IMPACT – Innovate UK, £887,414
Georgi contributed to a digital manufacturing platform that enabled users to upload, analyse and prepare 3D models for an innovative multi-axis manufacturing process.
PLATFORM – Innovate UK, £485,683
Georgi helped develop a platform for analysing 3D manufacturing files and submitting them for automated post-processing using an AI-enabled CNC simulation engine.
KET4CleanProduction – EU Horizon 2020, €4,898,510
As Scrum Master and Software Engineer, Georgi coordinated the delivery of a competency-based business matchmaking platform supporting manufacturing SMEs in adopting advanced technologies.
External activity
Georgi designs and delivers postgraduate and executive education in AI-driven business transformation, innovation, entrepreneurship and product development.
His teaching and programme leadership include the Level 7 Leading AI-driven Business Transformation executive microcredential, alongside lecturing and dissertation supervision at Nottingham Business School and supervision and guest teaching at Warwick Manufacturing Group.
Georgi is part of the core delivery team for the MSc Strategic Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management at Nottingham Business School.
His short-course and module delivery for external partners includes the Go-Global AI Business Transformation Programme for Fudan University School of Management, AI-powered business transformation and change-management sessions for QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a bespoke Rolls-Royce AI-focused graduate-development programme, and teaching for Warwick Manufacturing Group, Loughborough Business School and other partners.
As part of a team led by Chiang Mai University and working with Thailand's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Georgi contributed to the design and delivery of more than five AI skills and workforce-development workshops for more than 350 participants from businesses across Thailand.
Georgi also leads the CBIT Venture Builder delivery team for the Train the Trainer programme, supported by the British Council and Thailand Science Research and Innovation. The programme equips university and science park staff to mentor researchers in innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialisation.
Georgi is the Founder of the Transforming SMEs with AI Conference, an annual flagship UK event focused on practical, real-world AI adoption by SMEs. It is delivered in partnership with industry partners, including Innovate UK Business Connect.
Georgi was selected for the Google for Education Higher Education Faculty AI Fellowship. His fellowship focus is how AI is reshaping the university business model, particularly the connections between education, research, enterprise and practical AI capability-building for businesses. He has also held a Perplexity AI Business Fellowship and is a Fellow of Advance HE.
His invited speaking and mentoring includes Innovate UK BridgeAI AI Labs, the Innovate UK Faraday Battery Challenge, Imperial College and UKRI AI SuperConnector, Manchester Venture Builder, and the Nottingham Tech for Good Festival.
Sponsors and collaborators
Selected funders and public-sector partners include UK Research and Innovation, Innovate UK, BBSRC, EPSRC, the British Council, the European Union, Thailand Science Research and Innovation, and Thailand's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation.
University and research collaborators include Nottingham Trent University, the University of Warwick, the University of Sheffield, Loughborough University, Imperial College London, the University of Manchester, Fudan University and Chiang Mai University.
Selected industry and technology collaborators include BarberBoss, ACTAtek, JakinID, Kapdaa, Rolls-Royce, AWS, Google for Startups, Siemens, MathWorks, Google For Education, Perplexity, HubSpot, Miro, Notion, Make, Lovable and Base44.
Publications
Ma, X., Iliev, G., Bal, J. and Chan, A. Y. Y. (2025), “Every staff is a superstar and everyone is an entrepreneur”, Human Resource Development International, 28(5), pp. 617–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2025.2563425