THE BIG DEBATE
THE BIG DEBATE: LYNDA BRADBURY’ S TAKE
LYNDA BRADBURY
AI: A competitive advantage- if we focus on saving time
TAFCO director Lynda Bradbury approaches AI as an SME owner rather than a technology specialist. Writing before of Staffordshire Chambers’ AI Show & Tell last month and drawing on her experience developing AI-powered tools and voice agents for her own businesses, she argues that its most useful role is not replacing people, but releasing their time. This is her take on how smaller firms can adopt it practically and responsibly.
For small businesses, AI should not simply be viewed as a way of replacing people. Its greatest value is in supporting people— taking care of repetitive, timeconsuming tasks and giving business owners and their teams more time for customers, relationships and growth.
I am not a coder or an IT specialist. I am an SME business owner who began exploring AI because I could see how much time businesses were losing through administration, missed enquiries and manual follow-up. That journey led me to develop AI-powered tools and voice agents for our own businesses and to share my experience at the Google and NatWest AI Works for Business roadshow.
It showed me that AI is not reserved for large companies with enormous technology budgets. Used well, it can help smaller Staffordshire businesses compete on a much more level playing field.
A small business may not be able to employ someone to answer enquiries around the clock, but an AI receptionist can respond when the owner is unavailable, gather the right information and ensure the enquiry is followed up. It does not need to replace an employee. It can prevent opportunities from being lost and allow people to concentrate on conversations where their experience, judgement and empathy are most valuable.
One builder I have spoken to spends much of his day on-site. He misses calls and then faces a backlog of enquiries, quotations and administration in the evening. A simple digital process could allow a prospective customer to describe the work required, upload photographs and measurements, and receive an initial budget estimate. The builder would still check the information, visit the property and prepare the final quotation, but AI could reduce the initial administration and give the customer a much faster response.
This is particularly valuable while businesses face skills shortages. AI cannot recreate years of trade or industry experience, but it can help skilled people use their time more effectively. It can assist with drafting communications, organising information, recording enquiries and automating routine follow-up. A small team can manage more activity without losing the personal service that customers value.
However, embracing AI responsibly is essential. Businesses need to understand where it is being used, what information is being collected and when a human must make the final decision. They must protect customer data, check AI-generated information for accuracy and avoid relying on automation where human judgement or sensitivity is required.
In regulated industries such as finance, this is especially important. AI can support lead capture, identify missing information and improve the audit trail, but it should not make unchecked decisions about a customer’ s circumstances. Responsibility must remain with the business.
An AI strategy does not need to begin with a huge transformation project. Businesses can start by asking: Where are we losing the most time? Where are customers experiencing delays? Which repetitive tasks could technology support without weakening the customer relationship?
They can then choose one manageable process, test it, measure the result and involve employees in shaping how it works.
This practical approach is at the heart of my work with Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and the forthcoming AI Show & Tell event. The aim is to move beyond theory and demonstrate what ordinary business owners can achieve, including those without technical backgrounds.
AI will continue to develop whether individual businesses engage with it or not. The greater threat may be failing to understand it while competitors become faster, more responsive and more productive.
The opportunity is not to remove the human element. It is to use AI to protect it— freeing people from unnecessary administration so they can concentrate on the skills, creativity and relationships that make a business successful.
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