EVENTS
TEESSIDE BOARDROOM ATTENDEES:
Candid- Casper’ s Nikki Sayer( top left), Daniel Smith( razorblue), Tees Businesswoman of the Year Rachel Burke( Tracerco) and Robert Tindle( Robson Laidler) said“ real value” and“ strategy” were key to deciding which AI was genuinely transformational.
Daniel Smith: The most frustrating conversation we have is,‘ We want to buy some AI.’ That’ s the end of their side of the pitch and we’ re left trying to prise out of them what they need. We’ re trying to build the narrative around being problem-oriented. It’ s really difficult because everybody wants some of it. It’ s everywhere – but we have the complex challenge of trying to guide people to the right place.
Peter Snaith: You need strict rules around using people’ s data, copyright and checking everything you use.
Matthew Ord: They say Google now is about 70 % down on searches for young people- they’ re all using Chat GPT and Copilot.
Andrew Rowe: If it’ s a cost-saving thing, there’ s going to be a sweet spot of saving because at some point, the customer is going to say, hold on- you’ re saving money so the price should drop.
Bob Makin: One problem with AI is getting rid of entry-level jobs. But then what happens in the future when we don’ t have people who’ ve done those jobs to step up?
Robert Tindle: There’ s concern within our profession that training staff is going to have to change dramatically. AI will change things completely in terms of process.
Q: How aware are business boards of cyber risk nowadays compared with, say, five years ago? Mark Wilkinson: When M & S, Jaguar Land Rover, Harrods and the Co-op were all attacked, it got people thinking,‘ How do we protect ourselves as a business?’ We always do an IT strategy for our clients and make sure they have baseline security – so, a decent firewall, email filtering, endpoint protection, laptops encrypted. If you were to get breached tomorrow and said to the information commissioner,‘ We’ ve got no encryption on our laptops, none of this, none of that’, the book will be thrown at you because they are simple things to fix.
Jerry Hopkinson: If you spoke to our executive committee and asked them what keeps them awake at night, number one would be somebody getting hurt in the business, but number two would be cybersecurity. We’ ve got loads of firewalls and good stuff in place, but education of people and protecting ourselves from a cyberattack is the number two key priority now.
Sharon Lane: When we decided to embark on our digital transformation, we had a significant number of people in our workforce who didn’ t use computers. They’ re very good at what they do for us, but they don’ t particularly use a smartphone or have a computer, yet they’ ve got access to our system, so it’ s about training and educating. The easiest thing in the world is to say,‘ Don’ t give them any access’ but then you’ re not really digitising the business. That’ s the real contradiction- how do you get everybody on board but keep yourselves secure at the same time?
Rachel Burke( Tracerco)
Jerry Hopkinson( PD Ports)
Sharon Lane( Tees Components)
Bob Makin( Behaviour UK)
Charlie Nettle( AV Dawson)
Matthew Ord( LV Group / Tees Valley Business Board)
John Price( Wilton Group)
Andrew Rowe( Azets)
Nikki Sayer( Casper Customs)
Daniel Smith( razorblue)
Peter Snaith( Womble Bond Dickinson)
Robert Tindle( Robson Laidler)
Mark Wilkinson( razorblue)
The voice of business in the Tees region | 21