of UK businesses with 10 or more employees reported using AI in June 2026. This is self-reported use, not proof of a return on investment.
ONS · July 2026 →The Director’s AI BriefAutumn 2026
For directors making the next business decision
AI is changing the way companies compete.
What’s your next move?
Faster answers. Different customer expectations. New ways of getting work done. Find where AI could help your business—and what you need to keep control of.
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The Director’s AI Brief · PDF edition
What every UK director needs to know about AI
A practical report on customers, sales, operations, people and the decisions directors need to make. Includes a 30-day action plan to discuss with your team.
10-page PDF · 5.4 MB · Published 9 October 2026
You don’t need an “AI transformation” project to ask a useful question: where does your team spend time on work that could be done better?
The risk is spending on tools without changing the process—or changing the process without checking the result. Start with a real business problem, a small test and someone responsible for the outcome.
— The DirectorHelp teamEvidence, with the context left in
There is opportunity. There are limits.
more issues resolved per hour on average in a study of AI assistance for 5,179 support agents. Results varied with experience; this is not a forecast for your team.
NBER working paper · 2023 →In a consultant experiment, AI improved performance on suitable tasks but made correct answers less likely on a task beyond its capabilities.
Harvard Business School research →Problem → pilot → proof
Start where the work gets stuck.
These are suggested pilots to explore, not promises of savings. The linked tools help you prepare; they don’t send messages or make changes to your systems.
01Customer service
Fewer repeat questions. More time for the difficult ones.
Your team answers the same questions while complicated cases wait.
- A practical AI pilot
- Trial an assistant that finds answers in approved help material and drafts replies for a person to check. Keep a clear route to a human.
- What to measure
- Resolution time, repeat contacts, customer satisfaction and incorrect answers—not just the number of replies.
- Keep a person responsible
- People handle complaints, unusual cases and decisions about refunds or compensation.
02Sales & marketing
More relevant follow-up. Less content for content’s sake.
Enquiries go cold, customer notes are scattered and content takes too long to produce.
- A practical AI pilot
- Use approved product facts to draft a follow-up or campaign, then have someone check the claims, audience and timing before sending.
- What to measure
- Qualified enquiries, response time and conversion, alongside complaints and unsubscribes.
- Keep a person responsible
- A person approves claims and outreach. Automating the drafting does not give permission to send.
03Operations
Less copying between systems. Fewer things falling through the gaps.
Orders, documents and spreadsheets need repeated checking and re-keying.
- A practical AI pilot
- Test extracting information from a small set of documents and flagging missing fields. Compare it with the original before anything updates your live system.
- What to measure
- End-to-end processing time, corrections, exceptions and the cost of human checking.
- Keep a person responsible
- Assign an owner for exceptions and keep approval before payments, live record changes or customer commitments.
04Procurement
Compare what suppliers are really offering.
Quotes use different assumptions and important terms are buried in documents.
- A practical AI pilot
- Ask AI to organise a small set of approved quotes into the same comparison format, citing the page for each price, exclusion and term. Verify every entry.
- What to measure
- Comparison time, omitted terms, factual errors and total cost over the same period.
- Keep a person responsible
- A person checks supplier claims and approves the purchase. Keep confidential terms in an approved environment.
Changing the work means involving your people
What happens to roles and departments?
Some tasks may shrink; checking, exception handling and customer judgement may become more important. A pilot should tell you what actually changes before you redesign a role.
The ILO’s 2025 global analysis found that job transformation is more likely than wholesale replacement. Its estimates describe potential exposure—not observed redundancies. Read the ILO research →
ONS’s July 2026 analysis also found that AI adoption had not yet translated into widespread changes in overall workforce headcount. Read the UK evidence →
Bring this question to your consultation
“Which repeat task costs us time—and how would we know if AI made it better?”
Bring an example you can discuss without sharing personal data, confidential contracts or customer records. We can start with the process.
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