AI in business

Am I using AI? Every day. But let's be clear, it hasn't replaced a soul. It's the sharpest little process assistant I've ever had, quietly making sure nothing slips through the cracks. It flags what's due, chases the loose ends and finally drags us off the paper and online, where things actually get done.
Has it stopped me hiring? Not a chance. It hasn't cost anyone their job. It's simply helped my people do more, and do it better. AI handles the admin, my team handles the humans.
Now for the bit everyone skips. AI is a brilliant assistant and a terrible boss. Lean on it blindly, skip the governance, and you're one confident hallucination away from a very awkward tribunal. And those bargain tools? They love a quiet price hike the second you're hooked. So use it to sharpen your processes, not to run them for you.

I use AI heavily, and I am also a bit of a doomer about it. Both are true. At Zmartly it drafts, researches and clears the admin that used to swallow hours, and honestly it has not replaced anyone. But the question that keeps me up is not this year’s headcount, it is which jobs are still here in five years. We are automating the entry-level work that used to teach people the trade, and you cannot grow a senior from nobody. On the risks, the one I watch most is cost. You are billed by usage, the provider can raise the price at any stage, and you have no say in how much. Today’s rate is an introductory rate. By the time it climbs you have designed the manual alternative out, so you simply pay. Add weak governance, the government’s own figures show 17 per cent of AI users have no policy at all, and overreliance, where the answer sounds right until you are the one who has to know. Scale with it, but keep asking what still stands when the price moves and the edge is gone.

AI is already adding real value to our business, particularly in research, analysis and producing first drafts. The best way to think of it is like hiring a bright graduate: fast, capable and impressive, but prone to mistakes, so everything it produces needs a senior pair of eyes. It allows people to work faster and spend more time on higher-value tasks, and has probably reduced the need for incremental headcount rather than directly replacing jobs.

The risks are equally real. Businesses can become over-reliant on tools they don't fully understand, while poor governance creates obvious risks around data, accuracy and accountability. Perhaps the greatest long-term risk is that people stop questioning the output: AI should support human judgement, not gradually replace it.