AI adoption essential to boosting your workforce – tech entrepreneurs

Businesses who aren’t adopting AI to boost their existing workforce run the risk of falling behind, according to two high-profile tech entrepreneurs. 

Former Dragons’ Den star Piers Linney (pictured) and Implement AI co-founder Dr Aalok Shukla were speaking at the inaugural event of The Business Growth Studio, a new programme for Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce members.

Addressing members at the Chamber’s 54 Hagley Road headquarters, Mr Linney and Dr Shukla spoke how the use of AI is essential to unlocking business growth.

“We’re going into an AI-first era,” said Mr Linney, an entrepreneur, investor, and former Dragon on the prime-time BBC show Dragons’ Den.

Emphasising the pace of change with AI technology, he added: “If you look at the past, it is flat. The future’s vertical. We’re going from a railway track to an elevator at pace.

“Whether you are a politician, whether you’re in education, we're all going to have to change the way we operate very, very quickly.

“So, the point is to get ahead of that inflection point.”

The duo demonstrated how businesses can use AI agents to “augment” their existing workforce by carrying out tasks such as out-of-hours support, compliance and providing more accurate, detailed client support.

“The point is making sure that you can identify areas that you're already doing where team members can understand how they can be helped further,” said Dr Shukla, a healthtech entrepreneur and expert in AI-driven business transformation.

“The main opportunities are four. One of them is growing revenue and optimising costs.

“The second one is transforming customer experiences. What you want to be able to do is leverage technology so that you can be more connected to people.

“The third one is unlocking new market opportunities. Are there new market segments there, new verticals, new languages that could be unlocked from what you're looking at?

“And then the last one is building a lean and more profitable operating system model.”

During the workshop, ‘Grow Your Workforce, Not Your Payroll’, the duo provided examples of how Implement AI’s managed AI agent platform can help businesses save time, boost productivity and scale faster without the need to increase headcount.

Dr Shukla added: “Most people type at 35 to 40 words a minute. When people are speaking, they're typically at 50.

“You get a lot more information from people in that context [using AI agents]. That means you can personalise much better - what someone really meant about something, how serious or interested they are.

“So, the point here is to think in two dimensions. Augment your existing team, so your team wants to do a good job.

“But if you've got AI, in which you actually bring to them the right people to talk to, the right things to focus on, the right things to operationalise, they can do a better job. They can be more successful and more productive.”

The AI workshop was part of the GBCC’s Business Growth Studio, a new programme for Chamber members aimed at giving small businesses the essential tools to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

The Business Growth Studio features digital resources and practical workshops tailored for small businesses.