Kampala’s business communities don’t usually host conversations that make CEOs squirm. However, on July 29, 2026, that’s exactly what happened at the 7th Business Trendsetters Forum, trends expo and Awards Gala. The gathering that started with discussions about Purpose and Artificial Intelligence(AI) and later as a celebration of Uganda’s business achievers ended as a challenge tickling fresh business ideas to almost everyone in the room.
The theme said it all: “People, Purpose, and Artificial Intelligence in Business.” Under that banner, the forum brought policymakers, entrepreneurs, innovators, lawyers, and development partners into one space to wrestle with a question every industry is quietly asking: “As AI reshapes how business gets done, what’s actually going to separate companies that thrive from companies that just survive?” Organized by Business Trends Galore and chaired by founder Yvonne Mpanga, the event has become one of Uganda’s clearest snapshots of where business thinking is heading.
The Case Against Betting Everything on AI
Lydia Obbo Ochieng, a corporate and legal figure and corporate governance expert, opened the discussion with a warning dressed up as a framework. Sustainable businesses, she said, stand on four legs: people, purpose, artificial intelligence, and capital. Leaning too hard on just one, especially AI, is how companies end up moving fast toward nowhere in particular.
She wasn’t anti-technology. Far from it, she called AI one of the most powerful tools ever handed to business leaders. But her caution was sharp: don’t let it replace the judgment calls that actually define leadership. As she put it, “AI should support informed decision-making rather than replace leadership, judgment, or accountability.” For Obbo, that line is where responsible AI governance begins, and she framed it as a leadership duty, not an IT policy.
“Fix What’s Broken With AI, Don’t Throw Out What Works”
Primera Muthoni, representing the Uganda Management Institute, took the conversation from theory to practice. Her advice to entrepreneurs in the room was almost the opposite of what a tech conference usually preaches: don’t rebuild your business around AI, reinforce it..
She broke it down to four systems every business runs on, customers, finances, operations, and decisions driven by data, and argued the smartest move is folding AI into each one without disturbing what’s already working. Where she saw genuine upside was in the repetitive stuff. She noted that AI “can significantly enhance customer engagement by automating routine interactions,” freeing staff for the parts of the job that actually need a human. But she was firm that once an issue gets complicated or sensitive, the algorithm needs to step aside for a person. Her closing advice doubled as a warning to over-eager adopters: start with one function, test it, prove it, and only then expand.
A Justice Gap AI Might Actually Help Close
The forum’s most sobering statistic came from Tonny Galandi Kiire, Team Lead at Diamond Advocates, and 2025-2025 Business trendsetter Award winner- Private sector who noted that: Uganda has just one lawyer for every 5,000 people. The consequence, he said, is that roughly 80% of Ugandans go without real access to legal help, not because the law doesn’t apply to them, but because it’s too far away or too expensive to reach.
That gap is exactly why Diamond Advocates exists, he explained. It was built to use technology to widen access to legal knowledge and speed up the kind of research and communication that used to take weeks. But Galandi’s bigger point was about where the profession is headed. The crimes lawyers deal with today, he argued, look nothing like those of twenty years ago. Armed robbery has given way to cybercrime and digital fraud. His conclusion doubled as a challenge to every lawyer in the room: understand the technology shaping crime today, or risk becoming unable to protect the clients who need you most.
Rebuilding, Not Just Adapting
Representing the 2024-2025-2026 Business trendsetter- private two time nominee and finalist The VC of Victoria University, Dr. Lawerence Muganga, Conan Businge, Manager of Marketing and Student Recruitment, brought the education sector into the mix, arguing that institutions can’t treat AI as an add-on feature bolted onto old systems. It has to be built into the structure itself, from top to bottom. His confidence in where his own institution stood was blunt: “we are leading it in Uganda and East Africa.”
Recognizing the People Already Getting It Right
Once the trends triggers ( as the organizer fondly calls them) wound down, the event moved into its awards segment, honoring individuals across categories spanning public sector leadership, education, media, youth achievement, and lifetime contribution to Uganda’s economy. Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) Registrar General Mercy K. Kainobwisho was recognized for her early adoption of tech in institutional leadership. Kasole Bwelele of Kampala Parents’ School and veteran broadcaster Drake Ssekeba and Peter H. Kaujju were honored for decades of sustained influence in their respective fields.
Among the business trends exhibitors who gave attendees a hands-on look at Ugandan enterprise in action were Jena Herbals famous for their Covidex and Jena Cough, Prof Bio research, Rapcio a sports based App, K-Roma Ltd (makers of Bella Products), Kirungi Foods, URSB, and Victoria University among several others all showcasing their uniqueness of product and service.
What made this year’s Business Trendsetters Forum stand out wasn’t that AI came up. In 2026, it comes up everywhere. It’s that nobody on stage or the audience let it go unchallenged or without a tactic on which tools to adapt. All conceded that technology can make business tasks faster, but only people, purpose, and judgment can make it matter or impactful. That’s the balance the forum kept coming back to, and one that all left the room pondering on.
