AI for Business in the UK: How to Use AI With Purpose
AI is becoming part of everyday business. However, simply buying more AI tools will not make a company more productive. The real opportunity comes from knowing where AI can save time, improve processes and support your people, while keeping your business and its data secure.
At Bespoke IT Solutions, we are speaking to more businesses that want to understand what AI could mean for them.
Some are already trying tools such as Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT. Others are unsure where to begin. Meanwhile, many business owners are discovering that employees may already be using AI without clear guidance or an agreed company policy.
Therefore, our first piece of advice is simple: do not begin with the latest AI tool. Begin with your business.
A good AI strategy does not start with AI. It starts with understanding your business.
Look at where people are losing time, which processes cause frustration and where information is being entered more than once. These problems provide a much better starting point for AI.
AI use is growing across UK businesses
AI is moving into the mainstream. According to the Office for National Statistics, self-reported AI use among UK businesses with 10 or more employees increased from around 12% in late 2023 to around 35%.
35%
of UK businesses with 10 or more employees reported using AI.
Self-reported use increased from around 12% in late 2023.
However, uptake varies between industries. The same ONS analysis found that 58% of businesses in information and communications reported using AI, compared with 13% in construction.
More importantly, adoption is still relatively shallow. This suggests that many companies are testing AI rather than using it across the whole business.
AI has moved beyond the experimental stage. The next challenge is learning how to use it in a joined-up, secure and useful way.
AI is about more than creating content
When people hear the term “AI”, they often think about ChatGPT or tools that create text and images.
Generative AI is certainly useful. Nevertheless, business AI covers a much wider range of technology.
Create and summarise
Generative AI can help draft content, summarise information and restructure documents.
Analyse and predict
AI can find patterns in data and support areas such as forecasting and business analysis.
Support employees
AI assistants can help people find information, prepare documents and complete routine tasks.
Improve workflows
AI and automation can work together to reduce manual steps and make processes easier.
As a result, businesses should not view AI as just another piece of software. Instead, the focus should be on what the technology could help the organisation achieve.
Where could AI help your business?
For many small and medium-sized businesses, the best opportunities are not highly complex. They involve the routine tasks that take up valuable time every week.
Look for time being lost in areas such as:
- Searching for information across different systems
- Writing routine emails and documents
- Taking and summarising meeting notes
- Creating regular reports
- Copying information between applications
- Responding to common customer questions
- Reviewing large amounts of information
- Carrying out repetitive administration
None of these activities sounds especially dramatic. Yet, when they are repeated across a team, they can consume a large part of the working week.
In fact, the ONS found that improving business operations was the most common use of AI among larger businesses, reported by more than 60%.
The best use of AI may not be replacing a job. It may be removing the repetitive work that stops someone doing their job well.
Start with the problem, not the tool
It is easy to see an impressive AI demonstration and immediately begin looking for ways to use that technology.
However, we recommend taking the opposite approach.
First, identify a real business problem. Next, work out what that problem is costing in time, money or missed opportunities. Then consider whether AI, automation or an improvement to the existing process could help.
Bespoke IT’s advice: ask these questions first
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- How much time is the current process taking?
- How many people are involved?
- Are we entering the same information more than once?
- Do we already own technology that could help?
- What information would the AI need to access?
- Do we understand the security and data risks?
- Who will check the AI’s output?
- How will we measure whether it has helped?
Importantly, AI will not always be the right answer. Sometimes a simple automation will work better. In other cases, the process itself needs to be fixed first.
That is why an independent review of your technology and processes can be so valuable.
Avoid creating AI overload
One risk businesses should consider is the rapid growth of disconnected AI tools.
For example, marketing may choose one platform while finance starts using another. Sales might then introduce a separate tool. At the same time, individual employees could create accounts for free AI services they discover online.
Consequently, the business can end up paying for several tools that overlap. More importantly, nobody has a clear picture of where company information is going.
Before buying another AI tool
Pause and check what technology your business already owns.
You may already have access to features that could solve the problem. Therefore, understanding your existing IT environment should form part of any AI review.
Trust and accuracy still matter
AI can produce impressive answers very quickly. Unfortunately, an answer that sounds confident is not always correct.
This becomes especially important when AI is being used to support financial, legal or other high-impact business decisions.
50%
identified hallucinated facts or numerical errors as their main concern when using AI in financial markets.
Bloomberg poll of more than 100 senior decision-makers at its 2026 AI in Finance Summit in London.
“Trustworthiness depends on whether an AI’s outputs can be interrogated and validated.”
Amanda Stent, Head of AI Strategy & Research at Bloomberg
In our view, this is a useful rule for any business using AI.
Keep people involved, check important information and understand where your data comes from. In addition, make sure employees know that AI can produce inaccurate information.
AI should be part of your cyber security conversation
Before introducing a new AI tool, you need to know what information employees will put into it, who can access that information and what controls are in place.
There is also the issue of “shadow AI”. This happens when employees use AI tools without the knowledge or approval of the business.
As a result, AI adoption and cyber security should not be treated as separate projects.
Six questions for your management team
- Do we know which AI tools our employees are using?
- Do staff know what company information they can and cannot share?
- Do we have an agreed approach to AI?
- Are access rights and permissions appropriate?
- Who is responsible for checking important AI output?
- Have employees received suitable guidance and training?
These do not need to be difficult conversations. In fact, clear guidance can give employees more confidence to use AI in a safe and useful way.
Will AI replace jobs?
Understandably, this is one of the biggest concerns surrounding AI. However, the current UK picture is more complex than some headlines suggest.
The ONS reports that AI use has not yet resulted in widespread changes to overall workforce headcount among the businesses in its analysis.
Nevertheless, the way some tasks are completed is clearly changing.
For example, research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford found that 56% of surveyed UK journalists used AI professionally at least once a week. Common uses included transcription, translation and grammar checking.
Rather than asking how many jobs AI could replace, ask what work AI could remove so your people have more time to do what people do best.
Prepare now for the next stage of AI
Another area businesses should watch is agentic AI.
Instead of simply answering a question or creating content, these systems are intended to support more complex workflows involving several steps.
Bloomberg Intelligence has highlighted possible applications within banking. However, it has also pointed to challenges around data governance, older technology and regulation.
For most SMEs, there is no need to rush towards every new development. Instead, focus on building the right foundations.
Get your data, cyber security, systems and processes in order first.
With stronger foundations in place, your business will be better prepared to benefit from new AI tools as they develop.
A practical way to get started
Our advice is to start small and focus on a genuine business need.
A six-step approach to business AI
- Identify the problem. Look for wasted time, repeated work and frustrating processes.
- Review what you already have. Understand your current technology before buying another platform.
- Consider your data. Decide what information the AI would need and who should have access to it.
- Include cyber security. Make security part of the project from the beginning.
- Run one useful project. Avoid trying to change the entire business at once.
- Measure the result. Check whether it has saved time, reduced costs or improved the experience for customers and employees.
Build an AI plan around your business, not the hype
AI has huge potential. However, following every new trend is unlikely to deliver the best result.
The businesses that gain the most from AI will be those that connect it with their wider technology, cyber security, people and processes.
Most importantly, they will know why they are using it and how they will measure whether it is working.
Not sure where to start with AI?
That is exactly where Bespoke IT Solutions can help.
Our approach is not about selling you the latest AI tool. Instead, we take the time to understand your business, the technology you already use and the problems you want to solve.
We can help you explore where AI or automation could save time, reduce repeated work and help your people work more effectively. Just as importantly, we can help you consider cyber security, access and data from the beginning.
Bespoke IT Solutions can help you:
- Review how AI could support your business
- Identify repeated work and opportunities for automation
- Understand the technology you already own
- Explore appropriate AI and Microsoft solutions
- Consider data, access and cyber security
- Reduce the risk of disconnected or unapproved AI tools
- Create a practical technology roadmap based on genuine business needs
You do not need to know which AI tool you want before speaking to us.
We would rather begin by talking about the problems you want to solve.
Let’s explore where AI could genuinely save your business time and help your people work more effectively.
Sources and further reading
The statistics and external research referenced in this article are drawn from the following sources:
- UK Government: AI Adoption Research
- Office for National Statistics: Artificial intelligence in UK businesses, 2023 to 2026
- UK Government: AI trials for UK businesses
- Financial Times: What does AI mean for a responsible business?
- Financial Times: Future of AI
- Bloomberg: UK finance leaders on barriers to AI adoption
- Bloomberg Intelligence: Agentic AI in banking
- Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: AI adoption by UK journalists
