Insights on AI adoption, digital transformation, and technology strategy for franchise and multi-site businesses.
I built a working system in five days last week. The kind of thing that would have been a six-month project with a small team a decade ago. I am genuinely amazed at what AI tools now make possible. And then I spent another five days making it actually safe to put in front of …
Read more “I Built a System in Five Days. Here’s What Took the Other Five.”
I had a conversation recently with an operations director at a large franchise network. We were talking about IT investment. Sharp person. Knew exactly what was going on. “I agree we’re underinvested,” they said. “But you won’t get the exec team to spend any money on it.” They had cut IT so hard, for so …
After a recent LinkedIn post about AI accuracy in franchise operations, the conversation went somewhere I did not expect. The most common response was not about artificial intelligence at all. It was about what happens after the efficiency arrives. One comment in particular stuck with me: “The risk is the savings just get absorbed into …
Read more “Measure What Matters to Your Customers, Not What Is Easy to Count”
Everyone is talking about agentic AI. Not the chatbot-answers-your-question kind. The new kind. AI that does not just advise — it acts. It processes a refund. It chases a late invoice. It triages a customer complaint, updates the CRM, and escalates to the right person. It reads the operations manual your franchisees never open and …
Read more “Before You Hire a Digital Agent; Fire a Bad Process”
Last night I attended my first meeting of the MK AI Users Group — I’d been a member for a while but finally made it along. It was hosted by Aiimi at their offices, which genuinely live up to their reputation as one of the best working environments in Milton Keynes. Stephanie kicked things off …
Read more “The experience gap: why your next AI hire might be your youngest”
I was in a conversation recently with a business leader – smart, experienced, running a successful operation – and they said something that stopped me in my tracks. “We’ve already automated the low-hanging fruit.” I hear this a lot. It is said with the quiet confidence of someone who has done the work, ticked the …
There’s no shortage of serious commentary about AI — its potential, its risks, its implications for business. I’ve written plenty of that myself. But sometimes the best way to capture an experience is to just be honest about it. So here, in verse, is a rather candid account of my journey with AI development tools …
There is no shortage of excitement around artificial intelligence. Hardly a day goes by without a headline promising that AI will revolutionise everything from customer service to supply chains. And to be fair, the potential is genuinely extraordinary. McKinsey estimates that generative AI alone could generate between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion annually across 63 …
Read more “How Will AI Actually Deliver Value in Your Business?”