What does an AI consultant actually do for a small business?

Three things, usually. Works out which jobs in your business are worth handing to AI and which are not. Builds the tools into your existing systems so they get used rather than trialled. Trains your people to run them without needing to call anyone. Beyond Touch does all three, and plenty of clients only want one.

How long does digital transformation typically take?

Digital transformation is an ongoing journey rather than a project with a fixed endpoint. Initial pilot programmes typically run 8-12 weeks, delivering quick wins and building confidence. Broader organisational transformation unfolds over 18-36 months, with different departments adopting digital tools at varying paces. The most digitally mature organisations view transformation as continuous, constantly exploring emerging technologies and optimising existing systems rather than declaring transformation complete.

How much AI do we need before this is worth it?

None. Most of the businesses we work with have a Microsoft or Google subscription that already includes AI tools nobody has opened. The first job is usually to find the value in what you are already paying for, before anyone buys anything new.

We are a ten-person business. Is this for companies our size?

Yes, and it is arguably more useful at that size. A ten-person business feels the time saved immediately, because there is nobody spare. The work looks different from an enterprise programme: shorter, narrower, and aimed at one job at a time.

Do you work with businesses outside Lincolnshire?

Yes. Roughly half the client list is elsewhere in the UK and those sessions run online. If you are in Lincoln, Boston, Skegness or anywhere else in the county we will usually come to you, because being in the room is better when a team is learning something new.

What if AI turns out not to be the answer?

Then we say so. It happens, and it happens most often when the underlying problem is a process problem rather than a technology one. That case usually routes to process improvement instead, and nobody has spent money on tools they did not need.

How long does this take?

A readiness session is half a day. A first pilot is typically four to eight weeks from start to a result you can measure. Training runs from a single workshop to a programme spread across several months, depending on how many people need it and how deep it goes.

AI strategy and readiness assessment for SMEs, Lincolnshire and East Midlands

Knowing what to do and doing it are different jobs

Plenty of businesses have a strategy sitting in a document somewhere. We build the thing the document describes, with your team, inside your systems.

We work in what you already use

No rip-and-replace, no new platform to learn from scratch. The automation sits inside the tools your team already opens every day.

You'll notice it by what disappears

Not a dashboard nobody checks. The task that used to take an afternoon takes ten minutes, or stops needing a person at all.

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AI implementation and integration for UK SMEs

There is a gap between knowing AI would help and having it running. Most businesses fall into it. The tool gets bought, somebody has a go, it works impressively once in a demo and then nothing changes, because it was never connected to anything and nobody was responsible for it.

This is the work that closes that gap. We build AI into your existing systems, with your team, on your data. Not a parallel process somebody has to remember to use. Something that sits inside the way the work already happens.

Most of it is unglamorous. Connecting a tool to the place your records actually live. Automating a handover that currently happens by email. Writing down what the thing is allowed to do. That is what makes the difference between a pilot and a change.

What this actually involves

Integration with what you already have. Most SMEs are running Microsoft or Google, a finance package, and something industry-specific. The value is usually in connecting those rather than adding a fifth thing. Plenty of it is already paid for and switched off.

Automating the jobs that eat the week. Quoting, chasing, rekeying, summarising, drafting the same email for the four hundredth time. None of it is interesting and all of it is expensive when you total up the hours.

Building it small first. A narrow version running on real work with a number attached to it. If it does not earn its keep you have lost weeks, not a year and a budget. This is the step that stops an AI project becoming a write-off.

Handing it over properly. Somebody in your business owns it, understands it, and can change it when the work changes. If the only person who can maintain it is us, we have built you a dependency rather than a capability.

Deciding what it is allowed to touch. Which data it sees, what it can act on by itself, what needs a human to approve, and what happens when it gets something wrong. This takes an afternoon and it is the thing nobody does.

When AI is not the fix

A fair number of the problems that arrive here labelled as AI problems are not. If the same job is being done three different ways by three people, automating it just means you now have three automated versions of a mess.

Where the underlying issue is how the work flows rather than how fast it goes, the right answer is process improvement first. Map it, take the snags out, then decide what to automate. It is cheaper in that order and it works.

If you are not sure which of the two you are looking at, that is exactly what strategy and readiness is for.

Three that got built

A robotics engineering firm was paying for subscriptions nobody had audited. We worked through what the software was actually doing, integrated AI into the jobs that justified it, and rebuilt the operating model around what remained. Read the full study.

A community organisation was spending thousands on translation. Free AI tools, properly set up and with someone trained to run them, replaced most of that cost. No new licences. Read the full study.

A solar installer needed market intelligence it could not afford to hire. We built the analysis into their own routine so they could see where the national firms were weak, repeatedly, without a research budget. Read the full study.

AI training across Lincolnshire and the East Midlands

We are based near Spilsby and most of our in-person work happens within an hour or so of it. Lincoln, Boston, Grantham, Newark, and across into Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.

That is where we turn up in person. Plenty of what we do is online, and it works just as well, so we train teams from Cornwall to Cumbria without anyone getting in a car. If you want somebody in the room, ask, and we will tell you honestly whether the travel is worth it for what you need.

If you want the market picture, we wrote it up separately: what business training costs in the UK, and what it returns. Short version, UK employers are spending less on training than at any point on record, at exactly the moment AI arrived and made half of what people know out of date. AI now sits alongside that work as standard, not as an add-on.

"Many business owners see training as a cost when it should be viewed as the most predictable investment you can make. Get your people skilled properly and the returns show up in weeks, not years."
Grae Laws, MD at Beyond Touch Ltd

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Questions we get asked about AI

The questions we get asked most often about AI training and implementation. If yours is not here, ask us directly.

Rarely, and only when nothing off the shelf will do the job. Most SME implementation is configuration and connection rather than development: getting tools you can already buy to work together on your data. Custom builds are expensive to maintain and the maintenance usually outlives the enthusiasm.

Where does AI fit in your business?

If you have a job in mind, bring it to a thirty minute call and we will tell you whether it is a sensible first move or whether something else should go first.

Call: 01790 751238
Email: info@beyondtouch.co.uk

Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, and remotely across the UK

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Over 180 reviews rated 5.0 on Google

What customers say on our Google Business Profile

"They embedded themselves within our team and implemented ongoing process improvement solutions. They are reliable, trustworthy and highly dependable. I look forward to working with them on the next project."

- Melford Technologies

"They provide a professional service that is effective and will leave a lasting impact on the business. I would have no hesitation in recommending their services. Excellent value for money."

- Allglass Facades Ltd

"I found their style to be relaxed, informative, and very constructive. We have an action plan and a great list of contacts and suggestions to take our business forward into a new era."

- Dan Medical

"This was really useful and has made me look at rationalising my range to a more realistic level. I have also benefited from the learning on supply chain strategy. I would recommend anyone taking time out of their business to look at changes that can be made."

- Mia Tui Ltd

"We had an enjoyable and productive planning session attended by our management team. As a result we have a number of production improvements and a sales plan in place. The strategic session focussed on the direction of the business, giving a much clearer vision of how to take it forward."

- Custom Cookie Company

"The strategy workshops were extremely helpful and thought provoking exercise. It has caused us to rethink a number of the ways that we are working. Discussing issues with such a knowledgeable and helpful group of business people helped not only to identify problems but to see solutions to them."

- Auberge du Chocolat

"Working with the team on project management and sales strategy has changed our business model entirely."

- EZ-Charge

"Outstanding content and structure to the session. Creative ideas and relevant experience helped move the day along. A really helpful session. Would recommend."

- Dom Reilly

"Beyond has helped Evoke develop a structure that delivers substantial improvements in production efficiency. Beyond continues to offer excellent support."

- Evoke Interactive