The real AI opportunity lies in the gaps between systems

Few will have missed the uproar coming out of Silicon Valley's AI industry this week. Researchers quitting. America's Big Tech in chaos. So, here's my response to all this: I'm going to tell you what I know for sure.

I am a technology entrepreneur working at the intersection of AI and human beings, that is my whole world. Whatever the fears up high in those ivory towers, I see what people are buying and how they are using it. AI could never replace people. It's a tool to augment and assist, and that is all.

Let me tell you how I know this.

This week, I saw the real power of AI. It didn't replace anyone, it just slotted into the gaps between systems. The gaps where data could easily get lost. Where errors creep in.

We started working with a fast-growing hire business to help join up its systems: we overlaid Build Concierge on top of its existing hire-management platform, automating orders, off-hires, quotations, stock availability, customer records and pricing.

This wasn't about firing someone or buying in a new system to phase out a team, it was about helping existing systems and the people who operate them to work together more easily and efficiently.

A hire business like this already has more technology than you could shake a stick at: specialist software tracking rental contracts, equipment availability, deliveries and off-hires, and also an accounting system, CRM, customer portals, telephony, email, stock management and other applications.

This kind of software density isn't exclusive to hire companies. Most modern businesses will have a job-management system, or Xero or Sage Intacct for accounting. At Build Concierge, we have APIs that connect to parts and stock platforms, asset-management software, time-and-attendance systems. I could go on.

Here's the problem. There are still too many manual touchpoints. What's the point of having software when a human being is still wasting valuable hours inputting data?

Someone receives an email and creates a job manually. A quotation is copied from one platform into another. Parts are ordered by email and chased through several separate messages. Engineers' hours are checked against job sheets before being entered into payroll. Completed work is manually transferred into the accounting system so that an invoice can be raised. The inefficiencies just mount up and up.

And then there's the overwhelm. How many of your people are desperately trying to keep on top of little details, at a cost to their mental health? Individually, these considerations are minor but when forgotten, the cost mounts up. If a part is delayed, should the job be rescheduled? Should the engineer and customer be notified? Should the expected completion date change? Should the system prevent an appointment confirmation from being sent?

The traditional answer has often been to replace several systems with one large platform, which means months of migration, restructuring and retraining. It can also force people to give up specialist software that works well for their particular industry.

Build Concierge is the AI platform that takes on the work between your systems: no replacements or compromises, just plug in and go. Build Concierge is the intelligent integration and automation layer that integrates, streamlines and supercharges existing systems.

This isn't scary stuff, it's the stuff that allows employers to move to four-day weeks on full pay. The stuff that gives colleagues more time to chat to their customer and find out what other solutions that might need.

This is the true power of AI transformation.