Do we need to have chosen a tool first?

No, and choosing one first is the most common mistake. The tool follows the job. Deciding you are going to use a particular platform and then hunting for something to point it at is how businesses end up paying for licences nobody opens.

What if we already started and it went badly?

That is a fairly common starting point and it makes the work easier rather than harder, because a failed attempt tells you something real about your data, your people and your appetite. We would rather see the wreckage than a blank sheet.

Who needs to be in the room?

Whoever does the work, plus whoever can say yes. Those are often different people and both are necessary. A readiness session with only the leadership team produces a plan that the people doing the job know will not work.

How long does a typical training programme run?

Anything from half a day to a structured programme over three to six months. We do not push longer programmes for the sake of it. If one focused day does the job, that is what we will recommend, and we will say so before you have paid for anything.

Is this the same as an AI strategy?

It is the part of one that is worth doing for a business of this size. A full AI strategy document is a large-company artefact. What an SME needs is a ranked list of jobs and a first move, which is what this produces.

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

Most businesses start in the wrong order

They buy a tool, then work out what it's for. We start with what's actually slowing you down, then work out whether AI is even the right answer to it.

Readiness is a checklist, not a feeling

Your data, your team, your existing systems. We look at what's actually there before we suggest anything, so the plan fits the business you have rather than the one in a case study.

You leave with a plan, not a pitch

Priorities ranked by what pays off first and what can wait. Nothing sold to you on the way out.

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Where does AI actually fit in your business?

Most owners we meet are not sceptical about AI. They are stuck. The tools obviously do something useful, the case studies are all about companies ten times their size, and nobody has told them which of their own jobs is the one to start with.

That is what this work is for. We look at how your business actually runs, find the places where AI would earn its keep, and give you an order to do things in. Sometimes the output is a six month plan. Sometimes it is one sentence telling you to fix a process before you go anywhere near a tool.

Beyond Touch has delivered 200+ workshops and 26,000+ participant hours of direct support since 2013, to 4,400+ people. We work with SMEs across the UK, and being an AI strategy consultant based in Lincolnshire means the local work in Lincoln, Boston and Skegness is usually face to face.

What we mean by ready

Readiness is not a score out of ten and it is not a maturity model. It is four practical questions, and most businesses fail at least one of them on the first pass.

Is there a job worth doing? Something that happens often, takes real time, and has a measurable before and after. If the only candidate is a task somebody does twice a year, the return will not cover the effort of changing it.

Is the data in a state the tools can use? This is where most projects come unstuck. Not because the data is bad, but because it lives in four places and nobody agrees which one is right.

Will anyone actually run it? A tool with no owner goes unused within a month. Somebody has to be responsible for it, and they have to have time.

Does anyone senior want this? Not enthusiasm, permission. If the person who signs things off thinks AI is a fad, the pilot will die quietly whatever the numbers say.

We answer those four questions with you, usually in a half day session with the people who do the work rather than only the people who manage it.

What you walk away with

A written readiness assessment covering the four questions above, in plain language rather than consultant language.

A shortlist of candidate jobs, ranked by how much they would return against how hard they would be to change. Usually between three and six of them.

A recommended first move, with a rough time and cost envelope so you can decide whether to proceed without another meeting.

An honest read on what is not worth doing. This part is often the most useful, because the loudest AI opportunity in a business is rarely the best one.

If the answer is that you are ready, the next step is implementation. If the answer is that your people need to understand the tools before anyone commits to anything, it is training. If the answer is that the underlying process is the problem, it is process improvement, and no AI required.

Three businesses that started here

An HR consultancy went from civil service to trading in eight weeks. AI-powered strategy work compressed what would normally be months of research and positioning into something a single founder could act on. Read the full study.

A sports rehabilitation clinic came in sceptical and left with a roadmap. The scepticism was the useful part, because it forced every proposed use to justify itself. Read the full study.

A software company built its first corporate strategy with AI-assisted analysis. They had grown on instinct and needed something the board could read. 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.

Scale and honesty about it. A digital transformation programme tends to touch every system in the business and run for a year or more. This looks at one question, which is where AI would pay for itself first, and answers it in weeks. It may lead to a larger programme. It does not assume one.

Where does AI fit in your business?

A readiness session is half a day and it will tell you whether there is anything here worth doing. If there is not, we will say so and you will have spent half a day rather than a budget.

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

Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, and remotely across the UK

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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."

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"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."

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