Automation5 May 20267 min read
Process automation beats AI hype. SiliconANGLE said it four times this week.
SiliconANGLE ran four pieces between April 30 and May 4 saying the same thing in slightly different words. The enterprise value isn't in flashier models. It's in process work that ships, holds up under load, and connects to the systems that already run the business. After 120+ AI projects across 15+ industries, I keep seeing the same pattern in UK SMBs. The teams winning at AI didn't pick the cleverest tool. They picked the boring process first. This is the four-step "boring first" method, with one client example.
UK business and governance5 May 20268 min read
Mark Cuban says AI will split companies into winners and bankrupt losers. He’s mostly wrong.
On 5 May 2026, Mark Cuban told Benzinga that AI will split companies into winners and those that go out of business. The clip travels well. The framing is wrong for almost every UK small and mid-sized business. The real split is winners and the quietly stagnating, and that's a slower, more dangerous problem than bankruptcy because nobody calls a board meeting about it.
UK business and governance5 May 202612 min read
Is AI actually worth it for my small business? The honest answer in 5 numbers
After 120+ AI projects across 15+ industries, I keep getting the same question from UK SMB owners. Is AI actually worth it for my business, or is it the next blockchain? The honest answer comes down to five numbers. Typical break-even of 3 to 6 months. Average hours saved of 5 to 12 a week. A failure rate of 30 to 50%. A ROI gap of 98.7 times when management doesn't support the rollout. And a cost of standing still that's invisible until a competitor undercuts you. This piece is the practitioner's straight answer, with sources, decision flowchart, and FAQ.
UK business and governance5 May 202613 min read
AI for UK accountants in 2026: I tested what 12 firms actually use (not what Sage sells you)
A practitioner walk-through of which AI workflows actually stuck in 12 UK accounting firms and which were quietly switched off. Based on hands-on work across tax prep, bookkeeping, audit, payroll, and advisory. Includes a comparison of Sage AI, Xero JAX, Dext, Iplicit, AccountsIQ AI, and ChatGPT-on-private-data, plus an honest take on the 60% data-entry stat the vendors love. The post finishes with a four-step audit framework any UK firm of 5 to 50 staff can run this quarter to find the one workflow worth redesigning, and a frank take on advisory work in the wake of the SRA's Garfield AI authorisation for legal services.
AI agents and tools5 May 202611 min read
I tested 8 AI chatbots with 8 UK small businesses. Three worked. Five wasted their money.
Eight chatbot platforms, eight real UK SMBs, three workflows each, four weeks of running. Three of the eight produced measurable wins on tier-one support deflection, lead qualification, and FAQ handling. Five did not. Here's the table of which platform fit which workflow, what the deployment actually looked like, and the four questions that would have saved every losing client about £4,000 in licence fees.
AI strategy29 Apr 202610 min read
Your AI Vendor Is Learning From Your Team. Here Are the Three Contract Clauses Most SMBs Forgot to Include.
A viral video of Indian factory workers wearing head cameras to train AI made the training-data pipeline visible. Most SMB AI vendor contracts are silent on what their tools learn from your team. Three redlines a practitioner asks for on every renewal, plus a fifteen-minute audit you can run this week.
Automation29 Apr 20269 min read
65% of Your Team Is More Productive With AI. Your Business Hasn’t Changed. The 98.7x Manager Gap Gallup Just Exposed.
Gallup's 2026 workplace report found that 65% of employees at AI-adopting firms are personally more productive, but only 12% strongly agree the business has actually changed. The bottleneck is your managers. Here is what supportive ones do differently and the four-step playbook for closing the gap inside ninety days.
AI strategy27 Apr 20269 min read
Google Just Handed McKinsey $750M to Sell You AI. The Practitioner’s View on What That Means for Your Business.
Google has set up a $750M fund to push AI agents through McKinsey, Accenture and Deloitte. OpenAI is now selling Codex through PwC. The big consultancies are circling. Here's what an actual practitioner thinks you should do this week.
Automation27 Apr 20269 min read
AI for Accounting: Why Your Accountant Isn’t Using It Yet (And What To Do About That)
Most SMBs think their accountants are already using AI. They're not. Here's what actually works, what doesn't, and the three workflows that move the needle for a 20-person finance team.
