Caution: AI ahead!

If you're self-employed and work by yourself then you'll know that the phrase 'time is money' really is true. To that end, if I'm going to take a day out of my business for some self-reflection or personal development then I have to be confident that I'll get something out of that time away.

When I take the time to visit Expos or trade shows I'm mainly going for the seminars; I'm looking for those nuggets of information or early adoption trends that can help me get an edge, be that in in the hospitality consultancy side of the business or the hospitality recruitment side of things.

I didn't visit Recruitment Expo in 2024. After previously finding visits to the London Expo informative I looked at the 2024 line-up of speakers and topics and nothing jumped out at me. Fast forward 12-months and the 2025 line-up intrigued me - it was really AI and automation subject heavy.

I've been cautious about the adoption of AI/automation or recommending the adoption of AI/automation to clients. It feels like a massive subject matter, and one that is moving so fast that just when you feel you might be getting a handle on its potential uses and benefits, a week or so later than detail is out of date and it's back to the drawing board.

Now I know AI and automation aren't the same thing, but in most instances where I read about the two through my hospitality led lens, it is the combination of both in one form or another that lead the discussion. For the purpose of continuing, where I reference AI I'm thinking about the combination of the two.

So come Recruitment Expo London 2024 there appeared to be a lot of learning on-tap over the one-day I would visit. When I arrived and sat in the first seminar it was clear I wasn't alone in wanting to learn more; the seminar was packed! Literally not enough seats, people cramming around barriers to watch and listen. This pattern continued all day, and by mid afternoon I made my first reflective note:

"If AI frees up administrative time then what do people do with the time they have free?"

Speak to managers in a multitude of fields and they'll tell you that trying to make sure their team is efficient and effective in their use of time is almost always top of their list of things to tackle. So if we adopt AI to free up more time for our team, what exactly will they do with it? I have my thoughts on the potential pit-falls and benefits of this but that's a blog for another day.

The day progressed and the final seminar had 'Dragon's Dens' own Deborah Meaden as the key-note interview. As was the flavour of the day, the conversation turns to AI. Deborah, an experienced leader with a portfolio covering a diverse range of businesses, then dropped her thoughts on the matter that made up my second reflective note.

Deborah spoke about how one of her businesses had taken an early adoptive stance. Eighteen-months down the line she was questioning the strategy behind that stance. Post COVID AI had been used to automate functions with customers that would have previously been done through human interaction. As the post COVID economy began to struggle, business development took on a priority focus. There was just one problem:

The business had sacrificed building in-person customer relationships, replacing these interactions with AI automation. Now, when those relationships needed to be leveraged, they weren't there anymore.

I finished the day with plenty to think about on the train ride home. Within my range of businesses I have a number of AI related considerations:

1) How can I leverage AI within my consultancy to improve my service?

2) Where/when can I recommend AI services to my consultancy clients where they ask about my thoughts on the matter?

3) How can I use AI within my recruitment process without sacrificing building relationships with both candidates and clients?

A month after I returned from Expo (and with Deborah's words still at the forefront of my mind) I came across an article in The Guardian with the headline "Starbucks says cutting shop staff in favour of automation has failed" echoing Deborah's words that the lack of the face-to-face guest experience can be damaging to the long-term health of a business.

Be it machine-learning AI or agentic AI there appears to be a multitude of uses and I'm trying to stay up to speed as fast as the market is moving. Personally I'm cautiously dipping my toe in the water; but I can't shake my takeaways from Recruitment Expo.

• If I use AI to free up my time how do I use that time productively (rather than getting sucked into an afternoon scrolling TikTok)?
• If clients adopt AI to give their teams more time, what do they use that time for and how do you measure that as a success marker?
• Before you adopt AI do you have a structured business case for it? What are you trying to achieve and why? Is there a legitimate benefit to your business or are you simply keeping up with The Jones'?
• What are the potential impacts (positive and negative) 18-months down the line if you do and/or do not invest in AI?

As I write this I still don't know the answers, and I get the feeling that I'm not the only one who feels unsure, and I've decided that's OK.

A former line manager of mine once told me that one of my strengths was that I'm "...always looking for the next thing...the next big idea...how to stay ahead...". Recently I've taken to listening to podcasts on the AI matter its clear that the genie is out of the bottle and AI will indeed be the 'next thing'.

Right now though I've decided I'm going to continue to be cautious on the matter, at least until I can better respond to my own takeaways from my last 'day out' - and that probably means down the road I'll find myself in another seminar theatre somewhere in the country looking for answers. Maybe I'll see you there?