Who's Really Running Your Business — You or Your AI?
- Melanie Marshall
- Jul 29
- 4 min read
If you've been putting off "doing something with AI" because you're not sure where to start, you're not alone.
Yesterday I joined an FSB webinar, Making AI Work for Your Small Business: Turning Opportunity into Action, chaired by FSB Executive Director Craig Beaumont OBE alongside Iliana Pearce, FSB's policy lead for technology and AI, with Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP leading the discussion on technology and growth.
The session brought together FSB members to talk honestly about how they've actually used AI in their businesses — what worked, what didn't, and what still worries them.
I found it genuinely useful, not because it offered a magic formula, but because it was refreshingly grounded. No hype, no "AI will transform everything overnight." Just small business owners talking about real tools, real time saved, and real caution.
So I wanted to share the key themes with you, because whichever camp you fall into — overwhelmed, growing but messy, or plateaued — there's something here worth thinking about.
AI as breathing room
If you're the person doing the selling, the invoicing, the social media and the school run, the idea of "adding AI to your workload" probably sounds exhausting. But that's not really what came out of the discussion. The businesses seeing the most benefit weren't using AI to do more — they were using it to do less, specifically less of the repetitive, low-value stuff that eats your evenings.
Task automation came up repeatedly as one of the clearest wins: emails drafted, meeting notes summarised, admin templated, first drafts produced. Nobody was claiming it does the job perfectly first time. But it gets you 70% of the way there, and 70% of the way there at 9pm is a lot better than starting from a blank page.
If you're stretched thin, this is probably the most sensible entry point — not a grand AI strategy, just picking one repetitive task off your plate this month.
AI as a mirror for your data
For businesses that have outgrown the "just me and a spreadsheet" stage but haven't quite got their systems in order, one theme should give you pause before you dive in: AI is genuinely powerful for analysing trends — spotting patterns in sales, customer behaviour, or operations that you'd never catch by eye.
But the group was clear that the quality of what comes out is entirely dependent on the quality of what goes in.
If your data is scattered across various systems, half-updated spreadsheets, and someone's memory, AI won't fix that — it'll just help you produce confident-sounding conclusions from unreliable information, faster.
For this small business, the real opportunity isn't to "add AI" — it's to "tidy the data, then add AI."
It's a less glamorous first step, but it's the one that actually pays off.
AI as a nudge, not a saviour
If growth has stalled and you're looking for a spark, two of the use cases discussed are worth your attention: ideation and social media creation.
Several members talked about using AI to get unstuck — generating angles for a campaign, drafting content options, or simply having something to react to when the page is blank.
It won't invent your strategy for you, but it's a genuinely good thinking partner when you've run out of your own ideas.
The caution here is the same one that applies everywhere: AI can help you produce more content, but more isn't automatically better.
If your plateau is really about positioning, offer, or market fit, no amount of AI-generated social posts will fix that.
Use it to move faster on the right things, not to disguise the wrong ones.
The one thing everyone agreed on
Across every use case — trend analysis, automation, ideation, content — the discussion kept circling back to one message: there needs to be a human in control.
It's an easy line to nod along to and then forget. AI can feel like your most reliable colleague — always available, never grumpy, always has an answer. But it isn't your business partner, and it doesn't carry accountability for the decisions it helps you make.
The founders in the session weren't anti-AI — quite the opposite, several had seen real efficiency gains — but every one of them still checked, edited, and owned the output before it went anywhere near a customer, a spreadsheet, or a decision.
That's really the question worth sitting with: who runs your business — you, or your AI?
The tool should be extending your judgement, not replacing it.
Where to start
None of this requires you to become a technology expert overnight. Start small: pick one task that drains your time, try automating it, and see what you learn.
Have a proper look at your data before you ask AI to draw conclusions from it. Use it to get unstuck, not to make decisions for you.
If you'd like a more structured way in, FSB is running a free workshop, The Basics of AI, on 20th August 2026 — a good, low-pressure starting point if you're still finding your feet.
You can find out more and register here - https://events.fsb.org.uk/en/8d2bI2X7/g/fJqTd8nh8e/fsb-webinar-the-basics-of-ai-3aJ8PzYzN/overview
Whichever stage your business is at right now, the businesses getting the most from AI aren't the ones who've handed over the keys — they're the ones using it deliberately, checking its work, and staying firmly in the driving seat.
Need a human in your corner too?
AI can help with the doing, but it can't replace a second pair of eyes on your strategy, your priorities, or the decisions that actually move your business forward.
That's where we come in.
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