Author

Andrew Harrison-Chinn

Published

28 September 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Andrew Harrison-Chinn, CMO at Dragonpass, tells us why multinational businesses should consider regional complexity before they embark on a digital transformation programme.

Digital transformation has spent much of the past decade pursuing a familiar ideal with fewer systems, fewer seams and greater consistency across borders. Multinational businesses were encouraged to simplify technology estates and create experiences that could be replicated efficiently across markets. Cloud infrastructure promised elasticity, APIs promised interoperability, automation promised efficiency and artificial intelligence now offers something more profound; the ability to interpret vast quantities of behavioural data and respond to changes in customer need at a speed and level of granularity that would previously have been impractical.

Yet the logical conclusion of this technological convergence is beginning to look surprisingly different from the uniform digital world many businesses once imagined. As infrastructure becomes more globally connected, the customer experience sitting above it is becoming more locally specific and increasingly more personal. Scale exposes the weakness in one of digital transformation’s most persistent assumptions: connectivity may reduce technical distance between markets, but it does not eliminate differences in how people behave, or what they expect.

Global scale is revealing local complexity

A customer travelling through Dubai, São Paulo, Shanghai or London may interact with broadly similar underlying infrastructure while expecting something fundamentally different from the service built on top of it. Dragonpass serves more than 45 million members worldwide across banks, card issuers, fintechs and travel partners operating in markedly different economic, technological and cultural environments and its research across the UK, UAE, Brazil and China illustrates how pronounced those distinctions can be. In the UAE, 57% of travellers regard eSIM or mobile data packages as essential, while 61% want access to e-visas. Among Brazilian travellers, 61% prioritise availability at major airports worldwide and 59% value discounted airport dining. Fast Track leads in China at 52%, while UK travellers place greater emphasis on lounge access, disruption support and faster airport security.

Such differences extend far beyond product preference, reflecting payments infrastructure, airport maturity, banking habits, mobile connectivity, regulation and established expectations around the journey itself. Technology leaders therefore face a more sophisticated challenge than simply extending availability across more countries. The real question is whether a common technological foundation can absorb regional complexity without forcing every market into an identical experience or creating the burden of maintaining separate infrastructure everywhere.

Standardisation has reached a more complicated frontier

Early digital transformation treated standardisation as an almost unquestioned virtue. Common architecture reduces duplication, simplifies governance and allows multinational organisations to deploy new capabilities more quickly, yet problems emerge when the same principle begins to dictate the customer experience. Dragonpass’s Comfort Index demonstrates the commercial consequence and some 63% of UK consumers say they are most loyal to organisations that make their lives easier or more comfortable, while 69% believe the brands most likely to retain their loyalty are those that reduce stress, friction and inconvenience. 

The contradiction becomes even more interesting alongside Dragonpass’s wider Loyalty Index research, which found 64% of UK consumers had remained with their bank for more than a decade. Longevity can therefore coexist with considerable vulnerability, particularly when the relationship rests on familiarity rather than continuing relevance. Customer expectations are also becoming more exacting. Appreciation of long-term loyalty ranks among the three most important benefits for 62% of consumers, followed by personalised rewards at 54% and flexible benefits at 50%. Technology consequently has to do more than preserve a relationship; it needs to recognise its context and continually justify its value. A more sophisticated model standardises the parts of the system customers never need to see while allowing the visible experience to respond intelligently to circumstance, behaviour and market conditions.

AI changes the economics of localisation

Artificial intelligence changes the economic relationship between global scale and local relevance. Historically, localisation carried a structural cost because businesses could either create one proposition designed for maximum scalability or invest heavily in separate market-specific versions. AI begins to weaken that trade-off by allowing organisations to interpret behavioural variation at a scale that would have been extraordinarily difficult to manage manually. The most significant application of AI in loyalty may therefore have relatively little to do with generating more promotions. Its deeper value lies in interpreting context with far greater precision and answering a more valuable question: which benefit is genuinely relevant to this customer, in this market, at this point in their journey?

The edge increasingly defines credibility

Global technology businesses also need to reconsider where resilience is measured. Prestige markets and major metropolitan hubs naturally attract investment and engineering attention, yet customers do not experience a service as a collection of primary and secondary markets; they experience a promise made by the organisation providing it. An application that performs flawlessly at Heathrow or Changi but becomes unreliable at a smaller regional airport does not feel partially global to the person attempting to use it. It simply feels inconsistent.

Dragonpass operates across more than 200 partnerships and relationships spanning 35 of the world’s 50 largest banks, alongside travel infrastructure extending beyond the most obvious international hubs. Operating at that scale exposes a fundamental distinction between reach and capability. Entering a market is comparatively straightforward; functioning convincingly within its technical constraints and customer expectations is considerably harder. Regional infrastructure, local engineering knowledge, regulatory understanding and real-time monitoring therefore become strategically important. 

Technology is moving from distribution towards interpretation

The first era of global digital infrastructure was largely concerned with distribution: could a product or service be made available everywhere with sufficient consistency and efficiency? The next era will be shaped much more heavily by interpretation: can the infrastructure understand what useful, relevant and valuable actually mean in each place where it operates?

The strongest digital platforms will reconcile those two realities by combining common architecture with much greater sensitivity to context. Scale no longer needs to mean imposing sameness across markets. Increasingly, it will mean building technology sophisticated enough to accommodate difference without sacrificing resilience, efficiency or coherence.

By Andrew Harrison-Chinn, CMO at Dragonpass. 

  • Data & AI
  • Infrastructure & Cloud
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

21 September 2026

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine! Click here to read the latest edition! Castorama Poland: Reinventing Technology for…

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

Castorama Poland: Reinventing Technology for the Future

This month’s cover story is made in Poland where Castorama, part of the Kingfisher group that also owns B&Q, Screwfix and Brico Dépôt, is one of Europe’s leading home improvement retailers. Chief Product & Technology Officer, Michal Zych, explains why culture, not technology, is the real catalyst for its digital transformation. “The culture I want to sustain is very simple. Make an impact. Stay together. Ask the right questions. Be curious. And have fun. We’ve been putting the basics of omnichannel ecommerce in place. Now we can focus and make greater impact on the customer.”

OSPI: Building the Technology Foundations for the Future of Education in Washington State

Ted Loran, CIO at Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), reveals how his team’s approach to technology is safeguarding public K–12 education and putting the people first. “As much as we like the idea of a teacher in a classroom with worksheets and books, technology is now a critical part of education. Those that don’t have equal access to it are often at a disadvantage. And that’s something this agency is very keenly interested in helping alleviate.”

Standard Bank: From Digital to Intelligent Transformation

Sibusiso (Sibu) Ngubeni, Executive Head for Data & Analytics, reveals how Standard Bank is building a data-led future to support colleagues and customers in 21 countries of operation across sub-Saharan Africa. “You can have an outstanding data platform or the right quality data, but you cannot get that done without driving the culture. The question is no longer simply do we have the data? We must now ask, is the data trusted? Is it accessible? Is it sufficiently contextualised? Then the bank can truly aspire to be a trusted advisor.”

Also in this issue, we hear from Confluent on why AI in financial services is only as strong as the data behind it; learn from Skillsoft about why skills visibility is the missing key to a successful AI strategy; and Saviynt argue that the Wild West period of agentic AI needs to be controlled to bring security and order from chaos.

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Cybersecurity
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • Fintech & Insurtech
  • People & Culture

Author

Nell Walker

Published

10 September 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Ivalua’s Gold Medal score has been driven by its progress across environmental, social, and governance areas

Ivalua, the enterprise AI platform for procurement, is proud to announce that it has earned the prestigious EcoVadis Gold Medal for the second year in a row, further improving its score from 79 to 85 out of 100. Only 2% of businesses assessed by EcoVadis achieved this level over the previous 12 months.

EcoVadis is the world’s largest provider of business sustainability ratings. It evaluates over 175,000 companies globally on how they integrate ESG across criteria including environmental impact, labor & human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.

The score increase was driven by progress across environmental, social, and governance areas. Ivalua streamlined global recycling and reuse processes, partnered with Climeworks to remove 600 tonnes of CO2 using Direct Air Capture technology and nature-based solutions, launched an employee-led volunteering program across five countries, and recently published its new Corporate Sustainability Report in accordance with GRI Standards, achieving the highest levels of reporting compliance and transparency.

Furthermore, Ivalua continued parallel investments in Green IT and internal sustainable procurement processes to advance sustainability with partners, suppliers and customers. For example, a major global retailer leverages Ivalua as its global platform to quantitatively assess 100% of their supply chain against their broad set of sustainability criteria.

“As we partner with leading organisations worldwide to build sustainable and efficient supply chains, we are committed to holding ourselves to those same rigorous standards. Earning the EcoVadis Gold Medal for the second consecutive year, with a further score improvement, is proof of our collective efforts and the momentum we keep building,” said Franck Lheureux, CEO of Ivalua.

  • People & Culture

Author

Anne Lielahti

Published

8 September 2026

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Anne Lielahti, VP Customer Experience at Transporeon, digs into the benefits of upskilling for the sake of a more stable supply chain

The UK’s driver shortage continues to place a significant strain on the logistics sector, reflecting a global challenge that is driving up costs and constraining growth. In the US, freight operators are losing an estimated $95.5 million every week due to unfilled driving roles, while in Europe the International Road Transport Union (IRU) also highlights the scale of the problem. It estimates that Europe is short of nearly 500,000 drivers, with fewer than 5% under the age of 25.

The UK is no exception. Despite short-term interventions over recent years, the underlying structural issues remain unresolved as the industry looks towards 2026. Conventional hiring strategies are no longer keeping pace with demand, particularly in a sector long characterised by high churn, rising operational complexity and tight margins. Increasingly, logistics leaders are recognising that the solution does not lie in recruiting harder, but in retaining smarter.

Analysis from the Logistics UK’s Compliance Report 2025 highlights the UK HGV sector in 2025 finds itself “at a crossroads” and “a renewed investment in targeted training and recruitment is needed to help address continued labour shortages and potential supply chain disruption”. By focusing on developing existing teams, companies can build loyalty, capability and resilience, while creating a more attractive proposition for new recruits entering the sector.

In a sector where margins are tight and global disruption is constant, upskilling isn’t a perk, it’s the most cost-effective strategy to stabilise the driver workforce, protect capacity and future-proof the UK’s supply chain, as Anne Lielahti, VP Customer Experience at Transporeon explains.

Why “moving from A to B” no longer defines the modern driver

This shift towards upskilling is becoming essential as the nature of logistics roles evolves. According to the World Economic Forum, 44% of worker skills are expected to be disrupted within the next five years, and more than half of the global workforce will require retraining by 2027. For logistics operators, these changes are being driven by digitalisation, modern technology, automation and increasing customer expectations around speed, transparency and reliability.

As a result, the industry must build a pipeline of multi-skilled drivers and depot staff who can adapt quickly to new technologies and more complex operational demands. Drivers are no longer just responsible for moving goods from A to B; they are increasingly interacting with new technology,  managing data and AI-powered workflows, and contributing to real-time operational decision-making on the road. Without targeted training and support, these changes risk adding friction and frustration to already stretched roles.

This is where the link between upskilling and digitalisation becomes critical. When implemented effectively, technology has the potential to remove inefficiencies, reduce administrative burden, increase road safety and make logistics roles more attractive. However, the benefits of digital tools can only be fully realised if drivers and operational teams are included as confident and capable users of those systems.

For example, the digitisation of the electronic consignment note (eCMR) can dramatically improve planning accuracy and end-to-end visibility across the supply chain. By replacing manual paperwork, eCMR reduces errors, speeds up processes and saves drivers valuable time at collection and delivery points. When integrated with live mapping and route guidance tools, it also helps drivers navigate more safely and efficiently, reducing the risk of wrong turns, unsuitable roads and last-minute manoeuvres that can compromise road safety. Yet to unlock these gains, drivers must be trained to use digital documentation tools efficiently and understand how the data they capture supports wider operational performance.

Efficiency and flow 

Dynamic time-slot scheduling alongside real-time dock and yard management tools can significantly minimise congestion, reduce waiting times and improve overall yard flow. By using real-time data to refine ETAs and ETDs, prioritise resources and accelerate turnaround times, these solutions help ensure drivers spend less time queuing and more time on the road, boosting productivity, job satisfaction and asset utilisation. However, to avoid new bottlenecks and ensure real-time insights deliver on their promise, it’s essential to upskill operational teams so they can confidently interpret and act on the data.

Advanced market analytics and real-time operational insights allow organisations to uncover patterns and hidden inefficiencies, optimise routes and improve overall utilisation. In a market where finding additional drivers is increasingly difficult, the ability to do more with the capacity already available is a powerful competitive advantage. Upskilled teams are better positioned to leverage these insights, supporting smarter decision-making across the network.

And finally…

In a sector where margins are tight and global disruption is constant, upskilling is no longer a “nice to have”. It is the most cost-effective strategy available to stabilise the driver workforce, protect operational capacity and future-proof the UK’s supply chain. As industry experts are saying now more than ever, organisations that align workforce development with digital transformation will be best placed to navigate ongoing labour shortages and emerge stronger in the years ahead.

  • People & Culture

Author

Sara Sullivan

Published

1 September 2026

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Sara Sullivan, SVP of Solution Engineering, explains how to avoid getting caught up in the ‘workslop economy’.

Have you ever read a piece of work, suspected generative AI was involved, and thought the result felt… sloppy? The term “workslop”, used to describe low-quality, AI-generated content that lacks substance, has quickly entered the lexicon. Many teams are now navigating unnecessarily convoluted emails, low-context reports, inaccurate summaries and surface-level content, to name a few. But a bigger challenge emerges when this same low-quality AI-generated content is published externally. Over time, it erodes brand voice and creates a sea of sameness.

But the issue is that core content doesn’t necessarily mean better content. Generative AI has made production effortless, but without discipline and human creativity guiding it, scale can come at the expense of clarity and differentiation.

And this is more than just a quality-control problem. It’s often a signal that organisations are adopting AI tools faster than they are adapting the culture, governance and working practices around them. It’s not the technology itself, but how it is being operationalised. What’s often missing is a shared understanding of how AI should fit into everyday workflows and expectations.

A closer look at marketing

Marketing teams are on the front line of this shift. They’re under constant pressure to increase output, with more channels, more formats and more personalisation, so it’s no surprise AI adoption is accelerating here.

But without disciplined content architecture and governance, AI risks creating what some are calling a ‘workslop economy’; more output, but less value. Organisations also need shared norms around how AI-generated work should be questioned, refined and improved before it reaches customers or colleagues.

Teams want to move fast (40% of marketers say ‘fast and efficient execution’ defines success) while also delivering quality content (42% say it is ‘high content quality and consistency’). These stats from a global report conducted by Contentful and Atlantic Insights, also found that nearly half (48%) of marketers are looking to AI-powered content tools to help them find the middle ground.

The tension is understandable. Marketing has always been a function under pressure to do more with less and AI appears to offer a release valve, promising speed and scale.

As AI tools become faster and more capable, the value of human judgement, context and editorial discipline only increases. The ability to combine human creativity with AI-driven insights is becoming essential to producing and scaling ideas with measurable impact. The marketing skills that matter most today are data analysis and interpretation (46%) and digital experience design (40%), followed by personalisation strategy (37%) and writing for AI tools (37%).

This shift requires a reframing of what good work looks like. It is no longer about who can generate the most content the fastest, but who can apply judgement, context and relevance to ensure that every piece of output serves a clear strategic purpose. Otherwise, the risk is that teams become curators of AI-generated drafts rather than creators of differentiated ideas.

The organisational cost of ‘workslop’

Beyond marketing, the ‘workslop economy’ carries wider organisational implications. Leaders may assume productivity is increasing because there is more visible output. In reality, this is often a cultural signal. When organisations reward visible activity rather than thoughtful outcomes, AI simply amplifies the behaviour already present. Meanwhile, employees quietly absorb the hidden tax of reviewing, editing, clarifying and sense-checking AI-generated material, in addition to maintaining a new set of tools that require continuous inputs. If not managed thoughtfully, this can erode both efficiency and morale.

There is also a reputational risk. Sloppy AI-assisted content can introduce factual inaccuracies, generic phrasing, or inconsistent messaging that chips away at brand credibility. Customers and stakeholders may not always detect the use of AI, but they can detect when something feels off, such as language that’s overly verbose yet oddly vague, polished yet impersonal, confident yet lacking depth.

Crucially, the proliferation of ‘workslop’ can mask deeper strategic gaps. If teams rely on AI to fill in thinking that has not yet been done, the technology amplifies ambiguity rather than resolving it. In this sense, AI becomes a mirror, reflecting the clarity (or lack thereof) within an organisation’s strategy and decision-making processes.

Key steps to pivot away from the “workslop” trap

AI’s real enterprise advantage lies in both acceleration and augmentation. Structured content, clear operating models and strong data foundations are what separate meaningful transformation from short-term experimentation. To avoid the ‘workslop’ trap, organisations need to move beyond ad hoc usage and towards intentional operations.

First, establish clear content architecture. AI performs best when it operates within well-defined frameworks, which includes brand guidelines, tone-of-voice principles, audience personas and approved messaging pillars. Without this scaffolding, outputs will default to generic patterns drawn from the broadest possible training data. With it, AI can become a powerful assistant that reinforces, rather than dilutes, brand distinctiveness.

Second, embed human-in-the-loop workflows. Rather than relying on individuals to apply judgement inconsistently, organisations should design automated workflows that define exactly when and where human review is required. This ensures that AI-generated outputs are systematically validated before reaching customers or stakeholders, particularly for high-impact or high-risk content. Making human oversight a built-in step helps maintain quality at scale.

Third, implement auditability by default. Organisations need visibility into how AI is being used across the content lifecycle: who generated content, where AI was applied, what changes were made and who approved the final output. This level of transparency is critical for accountability, compliance and continuous improvement. It also enables senior leaders to move beyond assumptions and understand how AI is actually being operationalised across teams.

Fourth, invest in AI literacy, as well as AI tools. Employees need to understand how generative models work, where they are strong and where they are prone to hallucination. Training should focus on prompt design, critical evaluation of outputs and ethical considerations. Building literacy also builds confidence, allowing teams to challenge AI outputs rather than accept them at face value. When people feel confident challenging AI-generated suggestions, they are more likely to use the technology as a collaborator rather than a crutch.

Fifth, align incentives with impact. Incentives shape behaviour and behaviour ultimately shapes culture. If performance metrics reward speed and volume alone, ‘workslop’ will inevitably proliferate. Instead, organisations should measure success through outcomes such as engagement quality, customer relevance, strategic clarity and measurable business impact. This encourages teams to use AI selectively and thoughtfully, rather than indiscriminately.

Finally, organisations must be explicit about how AI is expected to reshape each role. More senior leaders, for instance, may need to spend more time critically evaluating AI-assisted outputs, while junior team members may take greater responsibility for drafting and iterating with these tools. Clearly defined, AI-related responsibilities help distribute accountability across the team and ensure that low-quality outputs do not slip through the cracks.

Reclaiming substance in an AI-boosted workplace

The rise of the ‘workslop economy’ is not inevitable, but it is a real risk if organisations conflate technological adoption with meaningful transformation. Ultimately, the organisations that benefit most from AI will be those that double down on the uniquely human strengths of good judgement, curiosity, creativity and contextual understanding.

They will treat AI as a partner that enhances thinking. And they will recognise that the true competitive advantage lies not in producing more content, but in producing better, clearer and more purposeful work.

By Sara Sullivan, SVP of Solution Engineering

  • People & Culture

Author

Nathan Peacey and Tamzin Robson

Published

20 August 2026

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Nathan Peacey, Head of Retail and Consumer, and Tamzin Robson, Associate, at Foot Anstey, explore where the UK is falling behind on human rights in the supply chain, and how we can do better

A decade after the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA), the UK’s once-leading framework sits at a crossroads. The Independent Anti‑Slavery Commissioner’s recent report finds that the UK transparency-based model is now viewed as fragmented and operating without meaningful enforcement. Under the current regime, businesses can legally comply by submitting a statement saying they have taken no steps to address modern slavery, and the consequences for failing to publish a statement at all are minimal in practice. 

As a result, the UK is now significantly outpaced by international developments. The report concludes that a full legislative refresh, centred on mandatory, enforceable human rights due diligence (HRDD) and stronger trade enforcement, is essential to protect workers and ensure responsible businesses are not undercut. For supply‑chain‑intensive businesses reliant on stable, resilient and ethically sound sourcing, this gap poses both operational and reputational risks.

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner warns that without reforms aligned to global standards, the UK risks becoming “a dumping ground” for goods made with forced labour once the EU’s import ban takes effect. Leading businesses and investors share this concern. From major UK retailers to international consumer brands, the consensus is that robust, mandatory HRDD is critical to protect workers, safeguard the UK’s credibility and to protect UK supply chains from structural risk and reputational exposure.

Current state of play: Why the UK needs to strengthen its framework

Voluntary transparency is no longer enough. Section 54 of the MSA catalysed reporting, but it does not require companies to prevent harm, and penalties for poor or absent statements are weak. The result has been inconsistent quality and limited impact for exploited workers. In addition, fragmented domestic rules are adding cost and confusion. Sector‑specific legislation such as due‑diligence‑style obligations in NHS procurement and the Great British Energy Act 2025 has created duplication and conflicting expectations for supply chain operators trying to maintain coherent compliance systems across multiple regimes.

The scale and economics of harm are compelling. The UK faces significant recurring costs from modern slavery (estimated at around £60bn annually), while importing approximately £20bn of goods each year at risk of being produced through forced labour. With the EU’s forced‑labour product ban applying from 2027, the UK risks becoming an outlet for blocked goods unless it aligns its own regime. For supply chain leaders, this introduces a clear operational risk: diversion of non-compliant goods into the UK market could disrupt procurement, create customs delays, and expose businesses to unexpected enforcement.

A broad societal consensus supports change too. Survivors, businesses, investors and the public are all calling for mandatory, enforceable standards.

International developments – and how the UK is falling behind

Over the past decade, many of the UK’s major trading partners have moved from voluntary transparency to mandatory human rights due diligence (MHRDD) and enforceable import controls. The EU has led this shift through the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which from 2027 will impose binding HRDD duties and civil liability across global value chains, and the 2024 Forced Labour Regulation, which bans forced-labour-linked products from entering or leaving the EU. France, Germany and Norway have also enacted due diligence laws requiring structured risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, grievance mechanisms and meaningful sanctions.

Beyond Europe, the United States has tightened border enforcement through the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which presumes goods from Xinjiang are made with forced labour unless proven otherwise. Canada, South Korea, Brazil, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand are likewise moving toward due-diligence-based regimes and stricter trade controls.

This global shift reflects a clear consensus: voluntary reporting does not prevent harm, and mandatory, enforceable due diligence is now the international norm. Without comparable reforms, the UK risks becoming an outlier, and potentially a “dumping ground” for goods barred from stronger jurisdictions, undermining responsible businesses and its credibility as an ethical trading partner. For supply chain executives, this means misalignment between regulatory regimes will increase operational complexity and create trade-flow friction unless the UK modernises.

What changes to the UK’s Forced Labour and Human Rights Legislative Framework is the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner proposing? 

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s draft Forced Labour and Human Rights Bill 2026 sets out wide-ranging reforms to bring the UK in line with international best practice. The rules would apply to large organisations with a global turnover of £36 million or more, whether UK-based or overseas but operating in the UK, as well as public undertakings engaged in commercial activity. Financial services providers are expressly included. SMEs fall outside direct regulation but will be affected as part of larger companies’ value chains. 

Key proposals include: 

  • A statutory “failure to prevent” duty

Organisations would be legally liable where they cause, contribute to, or are directly linked to serious human rights harms anywhere in their value chain. This shifts the UK from voluntary transparency to mandatory accountability, mirroring the Bribery Act and aligning with global HRDD laws such as those in France, Germany and the CSDDD. Applying the duty to global operations reduces incentives to offshore exploitation and provides clearer expectations for supply chain oversight at every tier.

  • A “reasonable human rights due diligence” defence

Companies may avoid liability by demonstrating reasonable, proportionate, risk-based due diligence consistent with the UNGPs and OECD Guidelines. This balances firm duties with flexibility, allowing expectations to scale by size, resources and risk, and encouraging continuous improvement rather than tick-box compliance.

  • Strengthened civil enforcement

A new Office for Responsible Business Conduct would be able to issue public censures, compliance, compensation, costs and restoration notices, a penalty notice of up to 5% of global turnover, and exclusions from public procurement. 

These sanctions introduce meaningful commercial consequences, reflecting EU-style enforcement and posing particular implications for public-contract-reliant sectors and for supply chain-heavy industries with complex multi-jurisdictional sourcing models.

Criminal liability for serious abuses

For offences such as slavery, trafficking, GBH or corporate manslaughter, both organisations and consenting/conniving senior officers could face criminal prosecution. This elevates human rights from a compliance issue to a criminal risk, driving greater board-level oversight.

  • A UK-wide forced labour product ban

The Bill would ban the import, export and sale of goods made or transported with forced labour, including presumptive bans for high-risk regions or products and a public risk database. This aligns the UK with EU, US and Canadian regimes and closes a major gap in current law by stopping forced-labour goods at the border rather than merely requiring reporting. For supply‑chain leaders, this would materially alter customs screening, supplier onboarding, and product‑traceability expectations.

  • A mandatory annual Human Rights Statement

In the place of the Modern Slavery Statement, a mandatory annual Human Rights Statement would create enforceable disclosure obligations. Organisations above the threshold would be required to publish a board-approved, evidence-based statement setting out any serious human rights harms for which they may be responsible; an explanation where no such harms are identified; a forward-looking plan for prevention and mitigation; and an assessment of the effectiveness of actions taken. The statement would be uploaded to a central public registry, and failure to comply could result in financial penalties, closing the long-criticised enforcement gap in the MSA. This shifts the current voluntary model into a substantive, outcome‑focused reporting requirement.

Next steps and timescales

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner urges the Government to adopt the Bill in the next King’s Speech. The legislation is designed to come into force two years after enactment, giving organisations time to embed human rights due diligence. Within six months of commencement, the Office for Responsible Business Conduct must be fully operational, and within six months of passage the forced-labour database and enforcement regulations must be established. Guidance on reasonable due diligence and other key concepts must be issued within one year.

What should your business do? 

Given the practical difficulties in achieving full supply‑chain visibility, together with the direction of travel indicated by key trading partners and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s recent recommendations, there is value in forward‑looking businesses taking early steps to prepare for potential legislative change.

This should include measures such as mapping value chains beyond Tier 1 and identifying structural risks and visibility gaps, as well as investing in evidence systems for future human rights disclosures such as traceability tools. Reviewing trade compliance is especially vital for high-risk products and regions, and supply chain leaders should also consider strengthening governance structures and ensuring board-level oversight and integration into procurement processes. The value of fostering a culture which encourages employees to speak up should also not be overlooked.

Supply chain leaders who act early will be best positioned to manage risk, assure continuity and maintain competitive advantage.

  • People & Culture
  • Risk & Resilience

Author

Callum Pennington

Published

31 July 2026

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Callum Pennington, CEO & Co-founder of HBHR, tells us why HR teams that don’t embrace AI risk being left behind.

Across Europe, AI used in hiring, promotion, workforce management and performance evaluation, is being formally classified as ‘high-risk’ under the recent EU AI Act. HR is now on the regulatory front line. This year, most of the core rules for those systems will begin to apply, with further obligations phasing in through 2027.

That label is supposed to be a safeguard, but inside many HR teams it often lands more like a warning: if something is ‘high-risk’, it is safer to keep your hands off it altogether. Faced with new regulation, loud debate and limited capacity, many business leaders are quietly concluding that the safest option is to delay, restrict or avoid AI in HR altogether.

In my view, that instinct, however understandable, is now one of the biggest risks HR faces. Over-caution does not freeze risk, it freezes progress. The real choice for HR leaders is no longer ‘AI or no AI’. It is what kind of AI they use, under what controls, and with whom in charge.

High risk doesn’t mean ‘don’t touch‘

The EU AI Act organises systems by risk. At the top are prohibited practices, such as emotion recognition in workplaces or social scoring, which are simply banned. Below that sit the ‘high-risk’ systems, including many HR and people management tools, where stricter rules apply. These include documentation, human oversight, transparency and robust data governance.

On paper, that is a familiar pattern. Medical devices, credit scoring and critical infrastructure controls are all treated as high-risk too. The message isn’t ‘never use them’, it’s ‘treat them as important, design them carefully, and put them under proper governance’.

In HR, though, ‘high-risk’ can sound scary. If something goes wrong in a recruitment algorithm or workforce-planning tool, it is not hard to imagine the headlines. That fear is pushing some organisations towards a defensive posture, to park AI projects, ban tools outright, and stay in the comfort zone of manual decisions.

The problem is that ‘going manual’ isn’t the same as ‘being safe’. It simply hides risk better. Spreadsheets do not come with model cards or audit logs, but they can still embed bias, errors and inconsistency.

In many ways, this moment mirrors the shift from paper records to spreadsheets. At the time, some organisations worried that digital tools would introduce new risks. In reality, spreadsheets improved accuracy, visibility and accountability. AI represents a similar shift today — the difference being that well-designed systems can now surface risks earlier rather than burying them inside manual processes.

According to HBHRʼs own research drawing on a survey of 2,000 UK employees, ongoing manual payroll errors are already having an immense impact on the workforce. Twenty percent of workers say a single payslip error has caused them to miss a bill, while 18% report having to borrow money because of payroll mistakes.

A well designed, well documented AI system with human oversight is not the opposite of compliance. Increasingly, it is exactly how compliance will be demonstrated.

The hidden cost of over-caution

When organisations freeze on AI, they push more strain onto already stretched HR teams juggling legacy systems and manual workarounds. Modern tools are simply an expectation, with HBHRʼs research demonstrating that 85% of employees expect their employers to use up-to-date technology to minimise mistakes, with 72% saying that the technology their employer uses directly correlates to the confidence they feel in their pay being accurate and on time. Outdated legacy tools not only contribute to a lack of trust among employees, but create extra work and pain for employers.

You see it most clearly in high-volume processes, where recruiters spend days sifting through CVs, whilst payroll teams are forced to manually reconcile inputs, hoping nothing has been mistyped along the way. At the same time, boardrooms are being told that AI is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and that countries like the UK face a huge economic gap if they fail to develop the right skills and adopt the right tools. HR simply cannot sit that conversation out and still claim to be a strategic partner.

Over-caution creates its own risk: higher error rates in core people processes, slower responses to regulatory change, and HR teams so buried in admin that they have no capacity left for culture, capability or workforce planning. These errors and barriers are not without consequence – 61% of employees surveyed by HBHR would look for a new job after six months of repeated payroll errors and delays.

Moving beyond ‘AI vs humans‘

Public debate often frames AI as a direct threat to HR roles, as algorithms that replace recruiters and chatbots that replace HR advisers. This narrative is just not true. Most HR teams I meet are not short of work, rather theyʼre short of capacity. The opportunity is a symbiotic HR function, where each does what it is best at.

In practical terms, AI is very good at repetitive, pattern-recognition tasks at scale. It can scan thousands of CVs for clearly defined, job-relevant criteria and hand recruiters a shortlist that is actually manageable. It can monitor payroll and pension data for anomalies, payments that do not match any live employee, or contributions that look out of line with policy, and flag them long before they become front-page stories. It can power assistants, like our own HRGenie at HBHR, that answers routine questions about holiday, pay and policies on demand, instead of sending employees into ticket queues.

People, by contrast, are good at context, empathy and ethical judgement. They are the ones who should decide whether a flagged pattern is a genuine risk or a perfectly reasonable exception, whether a candidate is the right fit for a team, whether a performance signal points to misconduct, burnout or a problem with the role itself.

The most effective HR functions I see are not those that automate everything they can, nor those that reject automation outright. They are the ones that deliberately design people-led, AI-supported processes, with humans making the calls that actually affect jobs, pay and progression.

From admin to engine

Across organisations, three clear camps are emerging in the approach to AI: those that use it with clear intent by starting with real operational problems, those that experiment widely but lack a coherent strategy and those that reject it outright as too risky. The third, overly cautious group is already beginning to fall behind, not because they lack talent, but because they lack the tools to scale it.

Everyone talks about wanting ‘strategic HR’. But strategy requires headroom and trustworthy data. If HR leaders are still spending most of their week reconciling numbers between three systems, or chasing down the source of basic discrepancies, it is almost impossible to play that strategic role.

The combination of the EU AI Act and accelerating workplace change makes this an inflection point. HR can either retreat into manual, reactive processes in the name of caution, or step forward and shape a people-led, AI-enabled function that is more resilient, more compliant and more human than what came before.

That does not mean turning HR into a testing ground for experimental tools. It means getting the foundations right: unified HR and payroll systems rather than fragmented stacks of disconnected tools, clear governance for AI, and HR leaders who are confident asking hard questions about how technology works, not just what the sales slide promises.

Handled thoughtfully, AI will not replace the ‘people’ side of HR. If anything, it will finally give HR teams the time, visibility and capacity to focus on it properly.

In an era where regulations are tightening, skills are shifting and expectations are rising, an overly cautious approach to AI in HR is no longer the safest option. Standing still may ultimately prove far riskier than moving forward thoughtfully.

By Callum Pennington, CEO & Co-founder, HBHR

  • Data & AI
  • People & Culture

Author

Nell Walker

Published

29 July 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

The Founder of KŌSE Advisory has joined the World Economic Forum Expert Network

Koray Kӧse, Founder and Chief Analyst at KŌSE Advisory, has become a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network.

Kӧse announced the news on LinkedIn this week. His work with organisations like Hope for Justice and Slave-Free Alliance, and the Exiger Executive Forum, has helped put KŌSE Advisory in a position where Kӧse can now contribute his perspectives directly to the World Economic Forum’s policy conversations. 

Kӧse said: “We are entering a period where geopolitics, AI, industrial policy, and supply chain risk can no longer be discussed in isolation, because they are colliding and reshaping how companies compete, how governments act, and how value chains are designed, with consequences measured in trillions and in lives.”

Kӧse’s intent is to contribute actionable, tangible insights to the World Economic Forum Expert Network. These insights will be grounded in data, foresight, and human intelligence. This also includes “understanding that stability and security are the foundation from which prosperity is possible, and that the harder questions about who actually controls the AI supply chain”, he said.

“That means challenging bias and prejudice where it exists, and driving intelligence and security-informed thinking into the policy rooms that need it most.”

  • People & Culture
  • Risk & Resilience

Author

Sean Evers

Published

15 July 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Sean Evers, VP of Sales & Partner at Pipedrive explains why using AI effectively involves redesigning workflows around business problems, whilst maintaining a focus on the human experience.

AI appears to be everywhere, but clear results and a quantifiable ROI are not so common.

Many businesses are learning that simply adopting the latest tools doesn’t guarantee efficiency, innovation or growth. It’s a lesson that must be re-learned from time to time as the latest new tech paradigm comes upon the business world faster than the wisdom to make best use of them. And to be fair, faster than new technology itself becomes mature.

Too often in the past two years AI initiatives have been slower than desired in showing value because they’ve been treated as backend tech upgrades rather than strategic, human-centred transformations. An organisation is not a server rack, able to work at double the output when a new blade is inserted. Working with the grain of the business will always lead to better outcomes as the people and processes mix better with the changing variables being introduced.

Businesses can move beyond reflexive actions brought on by AI hype by embedding new technologies into problem-shaped workflows, creating meaningful impact through strategy, culture and human-centred implementation. AI tools are designed to solve specific challenges, not every challenge. We’re not at AGI yet (artificial general intelligence). Use tools wisely in limited areas, train teams well, and ensure a clearly communicated strategy supports team efforts. Then, all of a sudden, those investments in new tech will really move the needle on what’s been carefully defined as critically important.

Redesigning workflows

There is no best-in-class AI ‘Swiss army knife’. Even the most cutting-edge tech can’t deliver value unless workflows are redesigned around real business problems. AI succeeds when aligned to clear strategy, not when applied to broken processes like a sticking plaster. Firms positioning AI purely as an IT project will often encounter resistance, poor uptake and disappointing outcomes. The tech cycle has been this way forever, likely since fire and the wheel. Success always depends on employee understanding, willingness and trust in both their leadership and the ability of the tech to deliver on vendors’ promises.

Pipedrive’s ‘The evolving role of AI in sales workload management report’, highlighted how artificial intelligence has been reshaping sales roles and optimising workload distribution. In some areas, like in the sales function, the findings reveal that AI has become a co-pilot for professionals, enhancing efficiency and helping them focus on high-value activities:

  • One takeaway from the report was that AI users spend more time on strategic activities compared to non-users.
  • AI usage was still higher among sales managers (41%) than among salespeople (31%), indicating a need for more accessible AI tools and tailored training programmes.

Focus on what matters

AI centred on the human experience and business problems is what delivers real results. Thus, so-called soft skills and processes like corporate transparency, workplace empathy and ethical AI governance in practice are not really ‘soft’ considerations. Only a hard-headed, machine-minded person would fail to consider them as the essential enablers of organisational uptake and progress.

When employees are informed participants in change, AI becomes empowering rather than disruptive. That shift does not happen by accident. It requires leaders to articulate what problem AI is solving, for whom, and how success will be measured. Now, in many SMEs, the temptation is to deploy AI features because competitors are doing so, or because vendors promise transformational gains. But transformation without direction is simply noise.

Take a typical sales team in a growing business. Introducing AI-driven forecasting or automated lead scoring will not improve performance if the underlying pipeline stages are unclear or data hygiene is poor. In that scenario, AI merely accelerates existing inefficiencies. However, when leadership first defines what a qualified lead actually looks like, standardises processes and sets clear accountability, AI can enhance decision-making and free up time for higher-value conversations and really make a difference.

This is where cautiously redesigning workflows becomes critical. AI should be introduced at friction points like repetitive admin, inconsistent reporting, or slow handovers between teams. This is better than when added as a layer across every function. A targeted deployment creates quick wins, builds confidence and demonstrates measurable returns. Over time, those incremental gains compound and any cultural and technological lessons can be carefully applied in a virtuous cycle.

Managing the transition

The role of leadership is equally important. When AI is positioned as a cost-cutting mechanism employees will view it with suspicion. When it is brought in as a productivity partner to reduce manual tasks and allow individuals to focus on creative, relational or strategic work then adoption improves. Communication must be clear about what will change and what will not. Ambiguity will always breed a very understandable resistance.

Ethical considerations also need to move from policy into well-understood daily practice. For SMEs in particular, governance can feel like a burden reserved for larger enterprises who can ‘do it properly’. In reality, lightweight but explicit guardrails are often enough. Define what data AI tools can access. Establish human review points for high-impact decisions. Be transparent with customers about how AI is being used in interactions. These measures build trust internally and externally, which protects the long-term value of relationships and contracts.

There is also a mindset shift required. AI is not a one-off implementation. At the current rate of change it appears that it will be an evolving capability for many years. Teams will need space to repeatedly test, refine and learn. That may mean starting with a single department, gathering feedback and iterating before scaling. It may mean accepting that some pilots will fail. The objective is not perfection at launch, but steady alignment between technology and business requirements.

Being an SME can be advantageous

For SMEs, this disciplined approach can actually be a competitive advantage. Larger organisations often struggle with legacy systems and complex approval chains. Smaller businesses can be more agile, provided they resist the urge to chase every new feature release. Clarity of purpose becomes their differentiator.

Ultimately, fitting AI to the problem is about respecting the fundamentals of good management. Define the objective. Align people and process. Introduce technology where it adds measurable value. Review and refine. The companies seeing real returns from AI in 2026 are not those with the most tools, but those with the clearest strategy.

AI will continue to evolve rapidly. New capabilities will emerge, and expectations will rise. But the principle remains constant: technology works best when it amplifies well-designed human systems. Organisations that remember this will find AI soon stops being overwhelming when enabled as a controlled, practical tool for growth.

Learn more at pipedrive.com

  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

23 June 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read in brochure format

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine! Click here to read the latest edition! U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board:…

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board: Driving Operational Exellence

Interface revisits the important work of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board – an independent, quasi-judicial agency in the Executive branch that serves as the guardian of Federal merit systems. CIO Craig Thomas, explains the strategy behind the completion of Phase II of its case management journey, application stabilisation challenges and the deliberate rollout of secure artificial intelligence tools.

“At MSPB we field IT that is necessary, useful, cost-effective, manageable and scalable. If the technology doesn’t add value, doesn’t help us meet our mandate, I don’t want it… We see the active deployment phase as an incubator for support methodology, data and reporting strategy, and road-mapping the next five years of your application – use the active deployment phase, don’t just firefight.”

Morgan Street Holdings: Cybersecurity for Strategic Operations

Morgan Street Holdings is a privately owned investment and operating company whose portfolio includes global supply chain specialist HAVI, marketing and sourcing firm tms, consumer products brand Stanley, and hospitality and vending business Continental Services. Collectively, the organisation employs more 10,000+ people globally across more than 50 countries. Business Information Security Officer, Douglas Darden, talks building cyber resilience to enable the business and deliver cybersecurity for strategic operations.

“It’s not in us as a cyber team to just say no. Give us the opportunity to conduct a risk assessment and the cybersecurity function can become a business enabler.”

Also in this issue, we hear from Confluent on why AI is changing what data privacy means; learn from Kore.ai on how unmonitored AI agents are becoming enterprise AI’s biggest risk; and Xsolla explain why the real AI debate in video games isn’t about jobs, it’s about creativity.

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Cybersecurity
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • Infrastructure & Cloud
  • People & Culture

Author

Nell Walker

Published

17 June 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

We chatted with Emilie Genin about why having women leaders across procurement is so important

The atmosphere was electric at this year’s Ivalua NOW event. Deep technical conversations, connections, and a human-centric focus shaped the event. Part of this discussion about humanity revolves around ensuring everybody has a voice. And as the number of women in procurement grows, this is more important than ever. 

At the event, we sat down with Emilie Genin, Divisional Procurement Manager for Elkem. She began as a Chemical Process Engineer, leading an engineering department. While in that role, she quickly realised that many operational frustrations didn’t relate to the technical side, but were about procurement: what they needed to buy and how they prioritised. So, she thought she could use her technical background to improve buying habits and specifications by moving into procurement.

During Genin’s time with Elkem, her goal has been to standardise procurement. Thanks to Ivalua’s procurement platform, the business now has the tools it needs. “Processes were in place on paper, but Ivalua gave us the tools we needed to follow this up,” she explains. Now Elkem is in a position where it has the visibility it needs through a daily sanctioned screen check. The data is clear and robust.

Being part of the conversation

As a procurement leader herself, Genin is passionate about women in leadership. During Ivalua NOW 2026, she was part of a Women & Procurement – Women Leading Change in Procurement panel with Pauline François, Group Indirect Purchasing Manager at Trèves Group; Danielly Lima, CPO at RINA; and Arianna Vetrugno, Procurement Excellence Senior Manager at Bulgari Spa. Interestingly, all the women on the panel bar one came from non-procurement backgrounds, and Genin believes those backgrounds shaped how their careers evolved.

“I have a technical background and I think it shaped the way I lead today,” she explains. “I was used to running a plant safely and efficiently, so I always keep that in mind now. Also, when I do a procurement transformation project, I keep in mind what people really want and need. Elkem is a company that is spread across different countries, so there are different cultures to consider. It’s really important to understand how they work locally.”

Having this empathy for the way other people work informed the overall conversation Genin had with her peers during their Ivalua NOW panel. During the discussion, the group discussed the ways in which their varying backgrounds affected how they approach supply chain leadership now, and what specific impact being women has on their roles.

“We also talked about how being a woman leader is not about having soft skills, but about how we perform,” she explains. “There’s an experience that happened outside of work that really shaped me. I’m a triathlete and I took part in this women-only adventure with multi-sports challenges over several days. I was really amazed to see no negative competitiveness at all. All the ladies were there to push themselves, of course, but also lift up others. And when someone succeeded, the whole group was uplifted. 

“I really try to keep that in mind when I lead a project, especially when things are tough, complex, or uncomfortable. I feel like I’ve implemented a value of collective energy at Elkem. During a transformation project, when there are women involved, there’s a collective energy of caring and listening to each other. It makes a big difference.”

An identity shift

This support is extremely meaningful to Genin. Her previous boss was a particular inspiration to her as a supportive person who believed in her and her vision. She found this particularly vital as she has progressed through her career, since moving from engineering to procurement management required an identity shift.

“You really have to rebuild your education in that situation,” Genin explains. “In France, we love a diploma. Certification is important. I had to go back to university to get a certificate and say, ‘I am legitimate’.”

Genin draws inspiration from other women in similar or senior roles to her, and while she’s too humble to believe that she’s that person for others, she does work hard to make people feel comfortable and confident. “I especially try to take care of the younger ones when I see them in uncomfortable situations. I’m in a program in France that helps students who are a bit lost and need a sense of direction, and helping them is my way of sharing what I know. I’ve been through that, so now I get to guide someone else.”

Genin believes firmly in the impact of strong leadership across the supply chain. The “collective energy of caring” she mentioned earlier is a powerful thing, and proves that leadership isn’t a solo performance. “My personal vision is that when I succeed when I see others succeed,” she states. “I grow around that and I’m fed by all this success. But I don’t feel comfortable being in front. I prefer that others say ‘Emilie, help us to arrive there’.”

Read more about Ivalua NOW 2026 in the latest issue of SupplyChain Strategy.

  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

28 May 2026

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Read in brochure format

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine! Click here to read the latest edition! Precisely: Reframing Cybersecurity for the…

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

Precisely: Reframing Cybersecurity for the AI Era

This month’s cover star, Marcus Johnston, deploys a leadership philosophy that blends empathy, operational discipline and pragmatic innovation as Precisely scales cyber solutions to meet the demands of regulation and accelerating digital risk. Learn how this CISO is reframing Cybersecurity for the AI era. “I view the role of InfoSec as a trusted partner advisor in the goals of the company to innovate, to introduce new technology, new platforms, to constantly be on the watch for changes in the threat environment.”

Ireland Department of Agriculture: Growing a Culture of IT Transformation

Louise McKeever, former Chief Information Officer and Head of Operations at Ireland Department of Agriculture, discusses the changes she drove at the agency and how a culture of IT transformation has gone on to thrive. ““My vision is that the Department’s data has consistency, is securely accessible, understood, and trusted… We have modernised our technology landscape, strengthened our capabilities, and most importantly, made a real difference in how we serve the Department and the sector.”

Washington State Dept of Natural Resources: Building Trust & Enabling Transformation

Washington State’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has been on a journey of building trust to enable transformation. We go inside that technology journey with CIO Liz Lewis-Lee on a mission to deliver reliable, effective technology. “At the DNR, all of our technology has to work to support all of the people all of the time, both in the office and out in the field.”

Virginia SCC: Building a New Cybersecurity Landscape

Glendon Schmitz, Chief Information Security and Privacy Officer at Virginia State Corporate Commission (SCC), discusses the exciting challenges of building a successful cybersecurity function. ““If everything’s a priority, nothing is. So understanding one’s lack of resources from a funding perspective and also the human side is important.”

Redefining Technology Leadership Through People, Culture and Business Outcomes

From the Music Industry to the Boardroom, IT leader Angie Fyke has blazed a trail for women in tech – she tells Interface her story of redefining technology leadership through people, culture and business outcomes from telcos to retail and today at Ontario Medical Supply. “The feedback I value most is when teams say they’re clearer, more confident, and able to move faster – that’s when you know change is working.”

Also in this issue, we learn from Claroty why critical infrastructure can’t afford to bolt on resilience; hear from NetApp on why defending against AI-powered cyberattacks requires AI-powered defence; and OVHcloud explain why Blockchain is crucial for the future of trust in AI.

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Cybersecurity
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • Infrastructure & Cloud
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

7 May 2026

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine! Click here to read the latest edition! Appian: Why AI is Putting…

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

Appian: Why AI is Putting Better Business Within Every Organisation’s Reach

Our cover story highlights how AI is putting better business within everyone’s reach. Mark Talbot, Director – CS AI Initiatives at Appian, reasons that as organisations grow more capable with AI, the challenge shifts from proving its value to expanding access to it. “Instead of concentrating control and decision rights in a small, central group, modern AI tools give more agency to the people closest to the work. They can see what is not working, imagine better approaches, and use AI to help redesign and improve the processes they rely on every day.”

CPL Aromas: How a Leading Fragrance House is Using AI to Amplify Creativity

In the world of retail, a leading fragrance house uses AI to amplify creativity. Alfred Muthunathan, CIO at CPL Aromas, explains how the family-owned business is using AI as a strategic capability to support creativity and accelerate innovation. “We didn’t bolt AI onto our systems; we redesigned the organisation, so AI is native to how we operate… Our new system takes away the workload from perfumers and has allowed us to create something that always keeps the nuances of our industry at its core.”

Vibrant Capital: Scaling AI on Main Street

Shadman Zafar, Founder & CEO of Vibrant Capital, is building a CIO-led model for enterprise transformation. Vibrant Capital is an operator-led investment and company-building platform focused on scaling AI in the real economy. “We don’t spray investments across hundreds of AI startups. We curate a portfolio with purpose – selecting companies that solve the real mission-critical problems CIOs face in scaling AI adoption.”

Also in this issue, we learn about the supply chain transformation journey at Swiss sportswear brand On, unpack the latest AI readiness research from Snowflake and hear from Hitachi Vantara about the importance of strong data foundations for the best utilisation of AI.

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Cybersecurity
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Mark Talbot

Published

22 April 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Mark Talbot, Director, CS AI Initiatives at Appian, reasons that as organisations grow more capable with AI, the challenge shifts from proving its value to expanding access to it

Many organisations have long treated improvement as something that arrives as a top-down effort, not something built with the people doing the work. Specialists designed new processes, discussed them in formal forums, and introduced them through large change programmes that often felt detached from daily work. For most employees, ‘transformation’ meant being asked to follow new rules, rather than designing better ways of working.

AI is starting to reverse that pattern. Instead of concentrating control and decision rights in a small, central group, modern AI tools give more agency to the people closest to the work. They can see what is not working, imagine better approaches, and use AI to help redesign and improve the processes they rely on every day. This shift – which can be described as the democratisation of AI – changes who participates in improving the business. However, it is worth remembering that this shift only works at scale when AI is embedded within a platform that maintains governance, visibility and control. 

Process Improvement in the Hands of Many

Until recently, fixing a broken process often meant filing tickets, waiting for a slot on an IT roadmap, or hoping that a specialist team would eventually address the issue. Creating applications, building automations or redesigning workflows were seen as highly technical tasks. For most employees, waste and inefficiency were things to work around, not things they had the tools or authority to change.

That obstacle is now deteriorating, as long as organizations don’t lose sight of the fact that governance remains essential, particularly in highly regulated environments

AI agents, generative AI and conversational interfaces allow people across the business to shape how work is structured. Within this model, someone in operations can describe an outcome in plain language and have an AI system propose and embed the steps within existing processes. Within a governed platform, non-technical users can adapt existing solutions and automate repetitive tasks without waiting months for central support. At the same time, process insights give developers visibility into what is being built, enabling them to refine, standardise and scale applications more quickly across the organisation.

Data is opening up as well. Data fabrics and related architectures connect scattered information sources into governed layers that a wider audience can access safely. Instead of waiting on static reports, people can access relevant, trusted data when they need it, and use AI to interpret and apply it to their decisions.

When process insight and data access reach this level, best practices move beyond documentation or occasional training. Tools and workflows embed them into daily work, improving performance across the organisation.

Scaling Improvement Across the Organisation

As more individuals understand how their work connects to broader outcomes, organisations unlock a powerful driver of change. Process improvement no longer depends only on a small group of specialists. Employees can recognise when processes are inefficient or risky and have the means to address them at scale, inside an AI platform.

By encoding domain knowledge into AI assistants and digital coworkers within an enterprise-grade AI platform, organisations can share expertise across roles and levels. These AI-powered helpers do not replace professional judgment. They strengthen it. They surface options, highlight inconsistencies and provide context, while humans make the final decision. Over time, each interaction becomes both a learning moment and a new piece of institutional knowledge that organisations can capture and reuse.

In this model, process improvement is no longer episodic or confined to formal transformation projects. It becomes part of everyday work, inside a platform with AI tools that provide real-time feedback and recommendations.

AI, Noise Reduction, and Better Oversight

This shift raises a key question: if AI platforms make analysis, decision support, and process design more accessible, what happens to deep expertise?

There is a concern that easy access to AI advice might weaken people’s understanding. If answers are always a prompt away, will teams still develop the knowledge that comes from working through complexity? If people follow AI suggestions without grasping the logic, how meaningful can human oversight really be?

Over-reliance on instant guidance can create only surface-level competence. People may treat AI outputs as instructions rather than as inputs to their own reasoning.

On the other hand, used well, AI can create more room for expertise, not less.

By handling repetitive tasks and routine decisions, AI reduces the volume of low-value work that consumes people’s time. Teams can then focus on exceptions and refine how they make decisions. Instead of dealing with every routine request themselves, they can focus on work where context and experience matter most.

When AI removes more of the routine burden, teams have more capacity to focus on judgement, process design and oversight. That helps build expertise while keeping improvement connected to the wider goals and governance of the business.

Shaping AI, Not Just Living With It

As organisations grow more capable with AI, the challenge shifts from proving its value to expanding access to it. AI is moving from something that happens to the workforce to AI being something that is built and refined with the workforce.

Organisations should treat people as partners in shaping AI, rather than as operators of automated systems. When AI platforms can be combined with process visibility and human judgement, employees can have an outsized effect on the systems around them. They can influence how work is structured and how decisions are made. In that sense, AI redistributes who participates in designing better ways of working, and creates an opportunity to anchor that shift in thoughtful design and human expertise.

Learn more at appian.com

  • Artificial Intelligence in FinTech
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • Fintech & Insurtech
  • People & Culture

Author

Andrew McLernon

Published

15 April 2026

Estimated Read time

6Mins

Andrew McLernon, CEO and co-founder at Interlink, on why culture is the real disruptor

For much of modern business history, disruption has been framed as something external. An emerging technology or a competitor rewriting the rules. Often, markets shift faster than organisations can respond and leaders are told to move quicker, work harder and implement more systems to keep up.

Today, AI has become the latest catalyst for this narrative, with every week seeming to bring another promise of productivity gains or automation breakthroughs. Yet as AI accelerates, many organisations are responding in surprisingly familiar ways: longer hours, stricter oversight, everyone back to the office mandates and layers of new processes built on outdated foundations.

In my experience, this is the wrong response. The real disruption of the AI era isn’t technological. It’s cultural. And leaders who fail to recognise that, risk solving tomorrow’s challenges with yesterday’s assumptions.

The Illusion of Productivity

When economic pressure rises, organisations often default to visibility as a proxy for performance. Leaders want to see people working, whether that means more time in the office, more meetings or more activity. But activity isn’t the same as effectiveness.

AI is already capable of performing many routine tasks faster than humans, a fact that should lead us to rethink how work is structured. Instead, many businesses are doubling down on models that were designed for a different era, treating time spent on tasks as the primary measure of contribution, rather than outcomes achieved.

The irony is that this approach undermines the very productivity gains leaders say they want. People become busier but not necessarily more effective. Creativity declines, decision-making slows and, ultimately, innovation suffers because teams are exhausted rather than energised.

True productivity in an AI-enabled world comes from clarity and focus, not from squeezing more hours out of people.

Culture Before Performance

At Interlink, we’ve learned that performance rarely improves by targeting performance alone. It improves when culture enables people to do their best work.

Culture isn’t slogans or perks; it’s the operating system behind every decision. It determines whether people feel trusted or controlled, whether ideas are encouraged or suppressed and whether change is embraced or resisted.

As we scaled a profitable, AI-powered business across multiple continents, we discovered that culture has to scale before performance can. If it doesn’t, growth amplifies dysfunction. That realisation changed how we approached leadership. Instead of asking, “How do we get more output?” we began asking, “What conditions allow people to produce their best work consistently?”

The answers were not technological; they were human.

Redesigning Work Rather Than Reinforcing Old Models

One of the biggest leadership mistakes I see today is adding complexity to existing systems instead of redesigning them. Organisations introduce new tools without changing behaviours. They add layers of management without simplifying decision-making. They enforce policies intended to restore control rather than building trust.

For us, introducing a four-day working week was not about doing less; it was about focusing on what truly matters. Compressing time sharpened our priorities, improved decision-making and encouraged greater ownership of outcomes by everyone across the business. The result was counterintuitive for some observers: productivity rose, retention strengthened and creative thinking accelerated. When time had clearer boundaries, focus sharpened and accountability deepened.

Flexible and hybrid working emerged from the same philosophy. Instead of designing work around physical presence, we designed it around contribution and trust replaced oversight as the foundation of accountability.

These changes weren’t always comfortable and they absolutely required leaders to relinquish some traditional forms of control. But they reinforced a principle that has become increasingly clear: autonomy drives engagement and engagement drives performance.

The Tension Between ‘Back to the Office’ and the Future of Work

The current push for universal office returns reflects a deeper anxiety about how work is evolving. For some leaders, visibility feels like certainty. If people are physically present, it feels easier to manage performance. But this perspective risks confusing familiarity with effectiveness.

The future of work is unlikely to be defined by a single model. People’s roles, responsibilities and life circumstances vary too widely for one-size-fits-all solutions. Organisations that impose rigid structures in pursuit of control may find themselves losing talented individuals who value flexibility and trust.

That doesn’t mean offices are irrelevant. Physical spaces remain powerful for collaboration, learning and connection. The challenge is not choosing between remote or office-based work but designing environments that genuinely enhance productivity rather than simply recreating old habits.

The businesses that succeed will be those that treat flexibility as a strategic tool rather than a concession.

AI as an Amplifier of Leadership, not a Replacement

Because our business operates in AI-powered demand generation, we spend a great deal of time thinking about the relationship between automation and human expertise. AI excels at pattern recognition, scale and speed but what it lacks is context, empathy and strategic judgement.

The danger for leaders is assuming that technology alone can drive transformation. AI amplifies whatever culture already exists. In organisations built on trust and curiosity, it accelerates innovation; in environments dominated by fear or rigidity, it often automates inefficiency.

Technology should create space for humans to think more deeply, collaborate more creatively and make better decisions. If AI adoption results only in faster outputs without improved thinking, we’ve missed the opportunity.

The competitive advantage lies not in whether a company uses AI (most soon will) but in how leaders integrate it into a culture that values learning and experimentation.

Simplicity as a Leadership Discipline

Another lesson from scaling is that complexity grows naturally. As businesses expand, processes multiply; communication becomes fragmented, and decision-making slows because too many layers intervene between ideas and action.

We’ve learned to treat simplicity as a leadership discipline. That means regularly rebuilding systems that no longer serve us, even when they once worked well. It also means resisting the temptation to add new structures simply because growth makes things feel messy. As well, simplicity requires intentional effort. Leaders must continually ask which processes genuinely add value and which exist only because they always have.

Leadership for an Uncertain Future

Perhaps the most important shift leaders must make is moving from control to clarity. In a world where technology evolves faster than organisational structures, certainty is increasingly rare. What teams need is not rigid instruction but clear purpose, shared values and the autonomy to adapt.

Leadership becomes less about directing tasks and more about shaping environments where people can thrive. That includes prioritising wellbeing not as a perk but as a strategic requirement. Burnout may produce short-term output, but it erodes long-term capability and the organisations that will define the next era of business are unlikely to be those that simply adopt the latest technology fastest. They will be the ones that rethink how work itself is designed, aligning technology with human potential rather than attempting to replace it.

Culture as the Ultimate Competitive Advantage

As AI becomes ubiquitous, technological differentiation will narrow. Tools that once seemed revolutionary will become standard. But what will remain distinctive is culture.

Culture determines how quickly teams learn, how openly they challenge assumptions and how resilient they are during uncertainty. It shapes whether innovation is encouraged or quietly resisted. And, in that sense, culture is not a soft concept; it is a strategic asset.

The real disruption of the AI age is not automation, it’s the opportunity to redesign leadership around trust, simplicity and human potential. Leaders who embrace that shift will find that technology accelerates their progress. Those who cling to outdated models may discover that even the most advanced tools cannot compensate for disengaged people.

Disruption isn’t about changing the industry first; it’s about changing how we lead.

Learn more at weareinterlink.com

  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Tom Lanaway

Published

2 March 2026

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Tom Lanaway is Head of Innovation at Connective3, a global brand & performance marketing agency. He leads a team building AI-powered marketing measurement and marketing intelligence tools.

Most businesses are asking the wrong question about AI. They’re asking, ‘Which AI tool should we use?’ They should be asking: ‘Can our people actually think with AI?’ 

I run an innovation team at a marketing agency. We’ve spent the last two years building AI into everything we do, including measurement, content, strategy, and automation. We’ve got lots of tools, 18 different products to be precise. 

Below is what I’ve learned. But the tools aren’t always the bottleneck; sometimes the skills are. 

The Tennis Racket Problem 

A colleague put it perfectly recently: “AI is a tool. Think of it as if you’ve got a smart assistant sat there. But it’s saying, I’m going to give you the best tennis racket, now go and play in a Grand Slam.” 

That metaphor stuck with me because it captures something the artificial intelligence hype cycle keeps missing. We’ve convinced ourselves it democratises everything. That anyone can now do anything. That the barrier to entry has collapsed. And there’s truth in that, but it’s incomplete. The barrier to access has collapsed, but the barrier to effectiveness hasn’t. Give someone GPT-4, and they can generate text. Give them the best tennis racket, and they can hit a ball. But the gap between hitting a ball and playing at Wimbledon is still vast. Most organisations are stuck in that gap, wondering why their AI investments aren’t transforming anything. 

Three Skills That Aren’t Always Present 

When I look at where teams struggle and where I see the same patterns across other businesses, three specific competencies keep showing up as gaps: 

1. Problem Decomposition 

Not everyone knows how to break down complex work into chunks that AI can help with. This sounds simple, but it isn’t. Most people approach AI with whole tasks such as ‘Write me a marketing strategy’, ‘Analyse this data’ Or ‘Create a campaign’. AI will then produce something, but it’s usually mediocre, because the person hasn’t done the harder work of understanding which specific parts of that task AI is good at, and which parts need human judgment. The skill isn’t using AI; it’s knowing what to give it. Someone who is brilliant at their job but can’t decompose problems will get worse results from AI than someone more junior who understands how to break work into the right pieces.  

2. Output Assessment 

How do you know if what AI gives you is good? This is where intuition becomes essential and it’s also where the ‘AI replaces expertise’ narrative falls apart. You need domain knowledge to evaluate AI output. You need enough experience to feel when something’s off, even if you can’t immediately articulate why. You need the pattern recognition that comes from years of doing the actual work. Artificial Intelligence doesn’t replace that intuition; it requires it. The best AI users I’ve observed aren’t the most technical; they’re the ones who’ve built up enough expertise in their field to quickly assess whether AI output is useful, directionally correct, or completely off base. They know what good looks like, so they can recognise it when they see it, or notice when it’s missing.

3. Articulation 

Can you clearly express what you really want? This is the unglamorous core of the whole thing. Some people struggle to articulate their requirements to other humans, let alone to AI. We’ve all sat in meetings where someone spends 20 minutes explaining what they need, and you’re still not sure what they want. AI makes that problem worse. The skill isn’t ‘prompt engineering’ in the technical sense; it’s the much older skill of clear thinking and clear communication. If you can’t articulate what you want specifically, precisely, with the right context and constraints, you won’t get useful output from AI or from anyone else. 

The Uncomfortable Implication 

Here’s what this means for how businesses should think about AI investment: 

Stop leading with tools: Most organisations have tool fatigue already. Another platform, another integration, another training session on which buttons to click. It’s not working. 

Start with the human work: Before asking ‘What AI should we use?’, ask ‘Can our people break down problems, assess output, and articulate requirements?’ If they can’t do those things well without AI, they won’t do them well with AI either. 

Invest in the skills, not just the access: This doesn’t mean AI prompt engineering courses; it means developing clearer thinking, better problem decomposition, and sharper articulation. These are old skills, applied to new tools. 

Accept that expertise still matters: The people who’ll use AI best are the ones who already know their domain deeply. AI amplifies competence; it doesn’t create it.

Connected Intelligence Isn’t About Connected Systems 

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how different marketing channels and data sources connect and how you build intelligence across systems rather than in silos.

But I’ve come to think the more important connection isn’t between systems, it’s between human judgment and AI capability. The integration layer that matters most is the one between the person and the tool. 

Get that wrong, and it doesn’t matter how sophisticated your AI stack is. Get it right, and even basic tools become powerful. 

Learn more at connective3.com

  • AI in Procurement
  • Artificial Intelligence in FinTech
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

25 February 2026

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 spotlights the theme ‘This is My Place’. Tech charity founder James Tweed is calling on…

Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 spotlights the theme ‘This is My Place’. Tech charity founder James Tweed is calling on the UK’s IT departments to donate surplus laptops and devices to help some of the country’s most overlooked vulnerable children.

Rebooted

Tweed founded Rebooted to support the children of prisoners and provides laptops so they can learn at home.

“Having a parent in prison can be traumatic and often leads to a child struggling at school,” says Tweed. “If that child then falls behind digitally or is excluded from education, their long-term prospects narrow dramatically. It’s a vicious circle and we need to break it early.

“For many of these children, school is already unstable. If they also lack access to reliable technology at home, they’re starting from behind. In 2026, digital access isn’t a luxury, it’s foundational.”

A Practical Solution

With businesses refreshing hardware on regular cycles, Tweed believes IT leaders are sitting on a practical solution.

“Across the UK, thousands of perfectly usable laptops are sitting in storage cupboards or heading for recycling. Those devices could transform a child’s ability to learn, revise and stay connected to school.”

Crucially for IT heads, data security is central to the model. All donated devices are securely wiped and processed by Rebooted’s technology partner, GeTech, using certified data erasure procedures.

“Security is non-negotiable,” assures Tweed. “Every device is professionally wiped to recognised standards before it’s redeployed. IT teams can donate with complete confidence.”

Children’s Mental Health Week

Children’s Mental Health Week, launched in 2015, focuses this year on belonging and ensuring young people feel they have a place in their communities. Tweed argues that digital access plays a direct role in that sense of inclusion.

“We talk a lot about wellbeing and belonging,” he says. “But if a child can’t access homework platforms, revision tools or basic digital resources, they quickly feel excluded. Technology can either widen the gap — or help close it.”

Rebooted is now urging CIOs, IT directors and managed service providers to review surplus stock and consider structured donation programmes as part of their ESG and sustainability strategies.

“This is practical, measurable impact,” Tweed adds. “Instead of gathering dust, those devices can help ensure a vulnerable child can genuinely say, ‘This is my place.’”

IT leaders interested in donating surplus equipment can find more information at: rebooted.me

  • Cybersecurity
  • Digital Strategy
  • Infrastructure & Cloud
  • People & Culture

Author

Kevin Janzen

Published

12 February 2026

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Kevin Janzen, CEO of Gaming & EdTech AI Studio at Globant, on how AI will change the way games are made and expand the market

Every major games studio is now experimenting with artificial intelligence. From generating NPC dialogue to automating animation and video assets. AI is promising to speed up production and lower costs for developers.

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the gaming industry finds itself at a crossroads…. Looking to gain the momentum it felt between 2017 and 2021, where revenue surged from $131 billion to $211 billion. And AI could be at the forefront of this pivotal moment. 

But as AI becomes central to how games are built, studios face a major challenge. Adopting automation without losing authenticity. For developers and retailers alike, this becomes a business concern that deserves close attention. Creativity sits at the heart of gaming, and the choices studios make today will influence what reaches players tomorrow. For the technology channel, this transformation means faster release cycles, broader product diversity, and a need for sharper forecasting.

A New Phase in Gaming’s Evolution

For most of gaming’s history, every era has been defined through visuals. Each generation has delivered stylistic, immersive worlds, such as the blocky charm of Minecraft to the cinematic realism of Red Dead Redemption 2. 

Now, the real change is happening behind the scenes. AI is reshaping how games are built and experienced. Development teams are using AI to handle time-consuming tasks such as vast world-building creation and animation. This frees artists to focus on what players remember – the design and storytelling.

Players are already seeing the benefits in their gameplay. AI lets games adapt or adjust difficulty based on players’ skill levels, or change dialogue based on a player’s choices. This makes gaming worlds feel realistic, responsive and more personal.

With budgets continuing to climb for gaming studios, these new features matter. AI gives studios breathing room to experiment. Smaller teams can take creative risks, and established developers can experiment and test new ideas without derailing production. However, efficiency and costs aren’t the only gains as AI is creating space for developers to be more ambitious than ever before.

Automation and Artistry

For all its promise, AI also brings creative risk. Gamers notice when a quest feels repetitive or when dialogue sounds mechanical. And if AI is used carelessly, developers risk losing authenticity.

That sense of care is what keeps players invested. Whether it’s hand drawn detail, or play-driven choices. Games like this show what happens when technology supports vision rather than replacing it.

That’s why the industry’s embrace of AI is such a gamble. Used well, AI can help developers create richer, more personalised worlds. But used carelessly, it risks stripping away the artistry that makes games memorable.

The Ripple Effect Across the Supply Chain

As AI becomes a standard tool, development processes are speeding up and opening new creative possibilities. Independent studios now have access to the kind of production power once limited to major developers. That shift means faster pipelines and ultimately, more games reaching the market.

For retailers and resellers, this brings both opportunity and pressure. A consistent stream of releases can guarantee sales across the year, while lower production costs encourage more niche or experimental games that appeal to new audiences. Greater variety and volume benefits the market, but it also makes it harder to predict which games will break through.

Players are becoming more aware of how games are made and AI’s role in development. They’re starting to ask not only how a game plays, but also how it was built. Understanding the intent behind a studio’s use of AI – one that uses AI as a genuine creative tool and those that rely on it as a shortcut – will help retailers anticipate demand and spot the games with long-term potential.

The Right Way to Play the AI Game

The studios using AI most effectively have a few things in common. They keep AI in the background, using it to manage routine work, such as generating textures and landscapes, so creative teams can focus on narrative and emotional tone.

They also use AI to make experiences more personal. Thoughtful application of adaptive systems allows games to respond to individual play styles, adjusting difficulty and pacing to keep players engaged. This level of design deepens engagement and gives players a sense that the world responds to them personally.

Another area where AI is also making an impact is making games more inclusive. More than 400 million people around the world play with a disability, and new tools are expanding access – from adaptive controls to real-time translation that lets players connect across languages. As gaming becomes more diverse, the audience grows for everyone, including retailers, who can reach a larger, more engaged customer base.

When automation complements gaming artistry, it strengthens the relationship and trust between the developer and the player. Creativity becomes the main focus again, and that’s what keeps players loyal.

Balancing Innovation and Trust

AI is fast becoming integral to how games are conceived, built, and experienced — and that shift will reshape the entire value chain. For developers, success will come from balancing automation with artistry, ensuring that AI enhances creativity rather than replaces it.

For retailers, distributors, and partners, this transformation offers both opportunity and responsibility. A faster, more diverse release pipeline will bring fresh sales potential, but also greater complexity in forecasting and curation. The winners in this new phase of gaming will be those who can spot titles where AI adds genuine depth, inclusivity, and player connection — not just production speed.

Handled thoughtfully, AI won’t just change how games are made, it will expand the market for everyone involved in bringing those experiences to players. That’s a game worth playing for the entire tech channel.

Learn more at globant.com/studio/games

  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

2 February 2026

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Interface issue 69 is live featuring Haleon, State of Montana, Techcombank, Publicis Sapient, Oakland County, Snowflake and much more

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

Haleon: A Bold Business Evolution

Digital & Tech Head Soumya Mishra reveals how the group behind power brands like Sensodyne, Panadol and Centrum, broke away from GSK and transformed so successfully. Haleon is itself a large organisation so separating from a huge parent company was a big challenge… “It was the biggest deal of its kind and the first to happen in this industry,” Mishra adds. “We were separating to create simplification, but we had to work hard to achieve that. There were a lot of processes and policies that didn’t make sense and needed an overhaul. This had to be backed by a culture shift that was properly communicated.”

State of Montana: Cybersecurity Through A New Lens

State of Montana CISO, Chris Santucci, explains the organisation’s drastic shift towards security, and how his team has become a shining example within the wider IT centralisation sphere… “Fixing security vulnerabilities came down to having built enough social capital and trust to correct. I like to stay slightly uncomfortable as a CISO and as a human, to keep challenging myself to deliver better services and greater value. The mission is to ensure Montana citizens get the support they need while keeping services secure and protecting data.”

Publicis Sapient: Driving Banking Transformations with AI

Financial Services Director Arunkumar Gopalakrishnan reveals how Publicis Sapient is developing the playbook for delivering successful AI-led digital transformations across the financial services landscape. “Working with Generative AI today feels like standing on a new frontier. It keeps us on our toes, but it’s also what drives us – to stay relevant, deliver outcomes and connect both worlds of business and technology.”

Techcombank:

Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, PC Chakravarti explores the operating model, Data & AI foundations, culture and talent playbook, and the partnerships turning ambition into market leading outcomes at Techcombank in Asia. “Tech is not the limiting factor – it’s about supporting people and talent to leverage capabilities to enhance business models.”

Oakland County:

Sunil Asija, Director of Human Resources at Oakland County, talks building trust with collaboration and becoming employer of choice. “To build trust the culture needs to change from top to bottom, and it needs everyone to join in that good fight.”

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • Fintech & Insurtech
  • Infrastructure & Cloud
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

16 December 2025

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Interface issue 68 is live featuring Microsoft, Virgin Media O2, CIBC Caribbean, Telkom, Zoom, ServiceNow, Snowflake and more

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

Driving Business Transformation Through Cloud & AI

Microsoft’s Shruti Harish, Head of Solution Engineering for Cloud and AI Platforms across the tech giant’s Manufacturing and Mobility vertical, talks to Interface about how to achieve successful AI implementations augmented by Cloud. Our future focused fireside chat covered everything from driving value through cloud modernisation to responsible AI.

“Leaders should align AI initiatives with clear business outcomes and foster a culture that embraces change. The focus is shifting toward AI-operated, human-led models where intelligent agents handle tasks and humans guide strategy.”

Virgin Media O2: Democratising Data as a Cultural Movement

Mauro Flores, EVP for Data Democratisation at Virgin Media O2, talks to Interface about the leading telco’s data journey and how it is supporting colleagues to innovate faster, make smarter decisions and deliver brilliant customer experiences.

“Data-driven insights are essential. They’re helping power our decisions like optimising our network performance, anticipating outages before they happen, identifying and preventing fraud, personalising offers and pricing to build customer loyalty, and forecasting demand so we invest in the right things.”

CIBC Caribbean: Shaping the future of Banking in the Caribbean

Deputy CIO Trevor Wood explains how CIBC Caribbean is blending technology, culture, and customer-centricity to deliver seamless digital experiences across the region with a ‘Future Faster’ strategy.

“We want to lead in every market we operate, build maturity across our practices and be architects of a smarter financial future for all.”

And read on for deep AI insights from ANS’s CIO on why AI isn’t just for big business, Emergn’s CTO on how your business can get AI-ready and Kore.ai’s Chief Strategy Officer on taming AI-sprawl with governance-first platforms.

We also hear from Celonis, Snowflake, ServiceNow, Make and Zoom with their tech predictions for 2026 and chart the key dates for your diary with global networking opportunities at the latest tech events and conferences across the globe.

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Artificial Intelligence in FinTech
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Payments
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

5 November 2025

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine! Click here to read the latest edition! USDA: A Fresh Perspective on…

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

USDA: A Fresh Perspective on Digital Service

This month’s cover story focuses on the digital transformation journey continuing at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In conversation with Fátima Terry, USDA’s former Digital Service Deputy Director, we revisit the sterling work being carried out and find out how technology is being humanised to deliver value to the American people this organisation serves.

“One of the things we did was partner with multiple USDA teams that focused on customer experience and digital service delivery for their programs,” she explains. “We also partnered with other federal-wide agencies and departments to move forward and evaluate the progress of digital transformation by cross-pollinating success models to everyone connected.”

Ayoba: A Super-App for Africa

Ayoba, part of the MTN telco group, is a super-app platform built in Africa, for Africa. Esat Belhan, Chief Technology & Product Officer, reveals how it is bringing more people to digital so they can be tech-savvy and educated on digital capabilities…

“In order to do that, one thing you could do is give away free data, but that data could be easily wasted on another data-heavy app, like TikTok, in just a couple of hours. So, the real solution is that the valuable and insightful content Ayoba provides should be provided for free, and that we provide instant messaging and short video content, to keep people using our platform for their communication and entertainment needs.”

Kraft Kennedy: Supporting MSPs with People and Processes

Nett Lynch, CISO at Kraft Kennedy, explains how the company’s new division, Legion, solves cyber pain-points for MSPs with a collaborative, business-centred approach.

“A lot of MSPs struggle with client strategy, they’re talking tech instead of business. We’re nerds – we love the tech, we love the features. But we need to admit clients aren’t focused on those things. They don’t necessarily care how or why it works. They just want it to work and align to their business goals.”

And read on to hear from FICO’s CIO on using AI to transform technical operations; learn from KnowBe4 how AI Agents will be a game changer for tackling cybercrime; and discover how data centres are meeting the demands of the AI boom with Vertiv.

Click here to read the latest edition!

  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • Infrastructure & Cloud
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Interface hears from Emergn CTO Fredrik Hagstroem on approaches to AI best practice that can drive positive business transformations

What does it actually mean for an organisation to be AI-ready, beyond having the right tools and data

“Being AI-ready is fundamentally about openness to learning and the ability to react quickly. While having the right tools and well-managed data is essential, true readiness is defined by an organisation’s capacity to operate, monitor, and measure the effectiveness of AI solutions.

We often see organisations invest heavily in implementation and tooling, only to realise that no one is prepared to take responsibility for running, monitoring, and improving AI systems.

AI-savvy organisations design solutions differently depending on the type of work, operational versus knowledge work, and, for knowledge work, focus on measuring effectiveness rather than just productivity.”

Where do most companies go wrong when trying to embed AI into their operations?

“Many companies treat AI solutions like traditional IT projects, using user acceptance as a checkpoint between development and handover to IT operations. This approach often fails before it even begins.

AI performs tasks that typically require human intelligence, perception, reasoning, and decision-making. While AI can execute these tasks with far greater precision and consistency than humans, someone within the organisation remains ultimately accountable for the results.

The most common misstep is underestimating the need to provide users with the right level of oversight and control so they can accept accountability for AI-driven decisions.

For example, explaining how AI decisions are made and demonstrating that they are ethical and fair depends not only on transparency and traceability but also on maintaining control and proper training data records.”

How can leaders prevent transformation fatigue during AI-driven change initiatives?

“Change is inevitable, so responding to it is part of effective leadership. AI will transform how businesses operate, but transformation fatigue arises when people feel constantly subject to change rather than in control of it.

Deliberate planning and thoughtful communication help, but the most effective approach is to empower people to feel more in control. This often involves organising teams around value streams that cut across business, technology, and operations.

Leaders can ensure teams have the skills and information necessary to take ownership of outcomes and make adjustments based on real results. This is especially important with AI solutions, which should be structured to provide continuous feedback, allowing teams to monitor performance, improve models, and refine processes based on learning.”

What kind of mindset and cultural shift is required for AI to deliver long-term value?

“Delivering long-term value from AI requires a shift from control to collaboration, and from predictability to adaptability. Organisations focused on individual targets and siloed accountability often struggle to realise AI’s full potential.

Value emerges when teams adopt a collective mindset, defining success by shared outcomes, whether customer experience, business impact, or strategic growth. Individual productivity only matters when it benefits the whole system.

Another critical shift is embracing uncertainty. Traditional corporate cultures often reward certainty and fixed plans. Cultures that support experimentation, feedback loops, and incremental change are more likely to see lasting benefits from AI.

This cultural evolution isn’t just about tools; it’s about how work is structured, how teams interact, and how decisions are made. Empowering teams to act fast, learn fast, and improve fast is central to sustaining AI-driven value.”

How can organisations balance AI experimentation with maintaining trust, transparency, and alignment with business goals?

“Each AI initiative should be evaluated based on the type of work and value it aims to deliver, whether efficiency, experience, or innovation. Different goals require different levels of oversight and distinct success metrics, making a portfolio approach to investment essential. Maintaining alignment with business goals means focusing on outcomes rather than outputs.

This requires systems where feedback, transparency, and learning are built in from the start, allowing initiatives to fail gracefully. Trust begins with a clear governance framework, as AI, like any transformative technology, can have unintended consequences. Transparency is not just audit trails; it’s about inviting dialogue, sharing lessons learned, and adapting as standards and regulations evolve.

Experimentation and learning go hand in hand. Delivering incremental value early builds credibility and transparency, helping teams understand what works and what doesn’t. Ultimately, AI is only valuable to the extent that it drives the business toward its strategic goals.”

How do organisations deal with some of the risks associated with AI – hallucinations, privacy issues, etc. – and how do they go about both securing essential data and overcoming employee resistance to the technology?

“Treating AI adoption as an iterative, feedback-driven process is key to managing risks. Success is less about getting everything perfect from the start and more about structuring work to minimise unintended consequences and adapt quickly.

“Hallucinations” is a misleading term. Today’s AI doesn’t imagine things; it follows programmed rules based on probabilities and patterns. Like any software, AI carries risks of errors or mismanaged data.

What is new is how AI uses data, to train models that imitate human decision-making. Without careful management, models can produce biased or unethical outcomes. Technology does not remove employee accountability. Recognising this allows organisations to design AI solutions with lower risk.

Designing solutions with humans in the loop is critical. It promotes transparency and explainability and is the most effective way to overcome resistance while maintaining control over outcomes.”

Find out more from Emergn

  • Data & AI
  • People & Culture

Author

Lucy Harding

Published

7 October 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

The Global Head of Odgers’ Procurement and Supply Chain Practice explains why key leadership hires are critical

Global supply chains are no longer frictionless. Protectionism, tariffs, and trade disputes are now embedded features of the operating environment rather than temporary shocks. The “just-in-time” era, once celebrated for efficiency, has given way to “just-in-case” strategies that prioritise resilience.

This shift presents a fundamental dilemma. How can supply chain leaders fortify networks against disruption without pricing themselves out of competitive markets? The answer lies not only in process or technology but in leadership. Talent and leadership decisions increasingly determine whether organisations navigate this landscape with agility or stumble under the weight of volatility.

Tariff volatility: The practitioner’s challenge

Tariffs and trade barriers move with the tides of politics, national security, and global disputes. Their unpredictability complicates forecasting, procurement, and strategic planning. Traditional risk models, built around stability, are no longer adequate. Supply chain leaders must now integrate geopolitical awareness and scenario planning into their daily operating models.

US-China tariff escalations reshaped sourcing strategies across electronics, apparel, and consumer goods. Meanwhile, the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism is redefining competitiveness in carbon-intensive industries, and in response to EU tariffs raised on Chinese electric vehicles, China has just imposed 62% retaliatory duties on EU pork imports.

Such examples demonstrate that tariffs are not only a financial cost but a strategic disruptor that requires continuous vigilance.

Parallel supply chains: The costs of duplication

To mitigate these risks, many organisations are reshoring, nearshoring, or creating entirely new parallel supply chains. While such moves reduce reliance on single geographies, they come at considerable cost. Duplicating factories, logistics networks, and supplier bases is expensive and operationally complex.

The challenge is not purely financial. Parallel supply chains require duplicating talent, governance structures, and culture. The strain on leadership pipelines is significant, as demand for skilled local leaders in multiple regions often outpaces supply.

The most sought-after leaders are those who combine cross-border agility with the ability to build operations from the ground up. These individuals are rare, and the competition for their expertise is fierce. Boards and CEOs must therefore think carefully about where to deploy such talent and how to retain it.

Resilience vs. affordability: Walking the tightrope

Not every supply chain needs to be duplicated. The art of leadership lies in knowing where resilience is essential and where efficiency can still prevail. Some companies overbuild redundant networks, adding unnecessary costs. Others fail to act until disruption strikes, leaving them scrambling to catch up.

Effective supply chain leadership is about defining resilience thresholds. Where is duplication non-negotiable, and where is flexibility sufficient? What risks justify investment, and what risks can be tolerated? This balance demands both financial discipline and strategic foresight.

“Smart resilience” means making selective, data-driven decisions: when to invest, when to hold back, and when to exit markets or partnerships. Leaders who master this judgement avoid both complacency and overreaction.

The end customer: Who pays for resilience?

Resilient supply chains are not cost-free, and the question of who ultimately pays is critical. While some consumers accept higher prices for security, sustainability, or ethical sourcing, others are unwilling or unable to absorb the costs.

This makes consumer sentiment a central factor in supply chain leadership. Leaders must anticipate how different markets will react and develop transparent narratives that justify pricing. Those who fail to communicate risk appearing opportunistic or disconnected from customer realities. Those who succeed position resilience not as a hidden cost but as a value proposition tied to trust, sustainability, and reliability.

The leadership imperative

The skill set required to lead supply chains is evolving rapidly. Operational excellence remains essential, but it is no longer sufficient on its own. Leaders must combine geopolitical literacy with scenario-based decision-making and cultural adaptability. They must be comfortable operating amid uncertainty and skilled in building flexible networks across borders.

The talent pool for such leaders is limited, and demand is intense. I see boards increasingly seeking individuals who are both strategists and operators, capable of managing daily complexities while positioning supply chains as competitive assets. The ability to unite tactical execution with strategic foresight is becoming the defining trait of modern supply chain leadership.

From defensive to strategic resilience

Resilience is more than a defensive posture. For those who approach it strategically, it becomes a source of competitive advantage. Leaders who embrace resilience with clarity, discipline, and courage are not merely safeguarding their organisations but redefining the future of global supply chains.

The question for boards and CEOs is not whether resilience is affordable but whether fragility is sustainable. In a fractured world, can your supply chain afford not to lead?

  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

28 August 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Read in brochure format

This month’s cover star, Dr. Noxolo Kubheka-Dlamini – Chief Digital and Information Officer at Telkom Consumer & Small Business, speaks to the process of leading an ongoing digital transformation

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Click here to read the latest edition!

Telkom: More Than a Telco

Our cover star talks us through the process of leading an ongoing digital transformation that is pragmatic, strategic and embedded in business goals at South Africa’s largest telecommunications platform provider. “By the time we entered the mobile space in 2010, the market was already saturated,” explains Dr. Noxolo Kubheka-Dlamini, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Telkom Consumer & Small Business. “Our ambitions were constrained by limited capital, inherited legacy systems, regulatory shackles, and the sheer inertia of being a former state-run monopoly.” However, Telkom’s “willpower and commitment never faded” resulting in “notable and consistent performance against all odds”. Today, Telkom is playing a pivotal role in ensuring access to meaningful connectivity, driven by the company’s vision to become South Africa’s digital backbone: bridging the digital divide and enabling inclusive participation in its digital economy.

Kynegos: Shining a Spotlight on Transformation, Innovation and Sustainability

Kynegos, a spin-off from Capital Energy, is a business built on strategy. It exists to develop technological solutions for strategic industries. Capital Energy needed an independent platform that could scale digital solutions beyond the energy sector, and foster collaboration with startups and technology centres. Kynegos has filled this gap, and is being leveraged to create co-innovation ecosystems. This allows Capital Energy to develop digital tools that address current and future industrial challenges, keeping the company’s finger on the pulse. We spoke to CEO Victor Gimeno Granda, about its backstory, its values, and the road ahead. “Not only do we develop digital assets for the renewable sector, but for green data centres as well. My perspective is that sustainability is going to be more relevant than ever in the next 18 months.”

York County: The Human Side of AI

York County’s IT team has spent the past decade redefining what local government tech can and should be. From pioneering community cybersecurity workshops to forging statewide collaboration through ValGITE, the county has systematically brought innovation into its operations. This broad portfolio of initiatives has strengthened infrastructure and elevated service delivery. And also earned York County the number one spot in the Digital Counties Survey for jurisdictions under 150,000 population.

“Since I became deputy director eight years ago, this has been one of my goals,” reflects Tim Wyatt, director of information technology at York County. “And over the last eight years, we’ve been in the top 10, but we finally landed that number one place. I think it’s a great reflection for my team, the county, and all the dedication to try to do what’s right by the citizens. It’s just something I’m incredibly proud of. I think it accurately reflects the hard work of my team.”

Wade Trim: Bridging the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Wade Trim provides consulting engineering, planning, surveying, landscape architecture and environmental science services to meet the infrastructure needs of government and private corporations. With a cybersecurity skills gap leaving vacancies unfilled, Wade Trim’s Senior Manager of Information Security, Eric Miller, spoke with Interface about how stepping away from education-focused rigidity could unlock swathes of latent talent. “Our industry puts emphasis on certifications. However, being passed over for jobs because you don’t have a particular certification or degree in favour of someone fresh out of college has shown me that the best candidates are those that can tell me their story. What brings them to this point in their career? Tell me what qualifies you for this role. That’s how I interview.”

York Catholic District School Board: York Catholic District School Board: Community and Communication at the Heart of IT Strategy

The challenges facing an IT leader in 2025 call for a new kind of approach. One that favours partnerships over transactions, collaboration over competition, and centres people rather than technology for technology’s sake. These perspectives ring especially true in an organisation like the York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB). It emphasises values like “service, community, collaboration, and fait rather than academic excellence alone,” explains Scott Morrow, YCDSB’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). “It’s not actually about the technology; it’s about enablement.”

We spoke with Morrow to learn more about his approach to IT leadership. From building and maintaining a team amid the IT talent crisis, to driving digital transformation initiatives across the organisation. And broader strategic objectives across a changing technology landscape increasingly defined by cybersecurity and the rise of AI.   

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  • Cybersecurity
  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Nell Walker

Published

29 July 2025

Estimated Read time

4Mins

A survey reveals that specific delivery slots and real-time tracking are now consumer expectations, with many willing to pay for predictability.

A shift is underway in e-commerce delivery expectations with new research confirming a clear trend: consumers no longer tolerate uncertainty. Four-in-ten (40%) consumers now demand non-food home deliveries to arrive within a specific time slot. This is typically a two to three-hour window. This expectation climbs higher in key markets, reaching 44% in the UK and 43% in the US. The findings signal a clear power shift towards consumers seeking unprecedented control and transparency in their online shopping experience, forcing retailers and parcel carriers to adapt or risk falling behind.

The research, commissioned by Avery Dennison, a global materials science and digital identification solutions company, surveyed 5,000 consumers across the US, UK, France, and Germany. Findings from the survey — one of the largest of its kind — underscore a growing demand not only for on-time deliveries, but also for precise control over when, and how, parcels arrive.

A shift toward greater control

Although consumers today are more sensitive to cost than ever, six-in-ten (61%) shoppers are willing to pay a premium for more detailed insight into order tracking.

When asked what would justify payment for a premium delivery service (and invited to select ‘all that apply’), 47% stated faster delivery, making this the top overall choice, followed by 31% who said ‘accurate estimated delivery times.’

The survey also reveals that tracking expectations vary depending on the type of purchase. For example, 60% of respondents say parcel tracking is ‘very important’ when ordering electronics, 43% for fashion, and 38% for health and beauty.

Personal convenience is at stake. When asked to select up to three main benefits, the top reasons respondents gave for wanting enhanced tracking are:

  • Flexibility to leave the house without missing deliveries (54%)
  • Peace of mind knowing where the parcel is (54%)
  • Ensuring timely arrivals for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries (44%)

To meet these exacting consumer demands, retailers and their logistics partners must act now or be left behind.  Technology can assist in the drive to provide enhanced real-time visibility in the parcel delivery process.

Opportunity for elevated consumer satisfaction

For international e-commerce, real-time tracking has become even more critical as recent tariff changes disrupt cross-border shipping, causing extended delays and price increases.

Yet at the same time, cost remains a factor. According to McKinsey, 90% of consumers are willing to wait an extra two to three days if it means avoiding high shipping fees, highlighting a growing preference for flexible delivery options that balance speed with affordability.

“The message from consumers is loud and clear: they expect precision and control over their deliveries,” says Julie Vargas, Vice President and General Manager of Identification Solutions at Avery Dennison. “Customers may tolerate delays — but only if they’re kept in the loop. Real-time visibility shouldn’t be considered a luxury anymore; it’s the price of staying competitive. Retailers and carriers who embrace transparency will not only ease frustrations around shipping delays and rising costs, they’ll earn lasting customer trust in a tough logistics climate.”

Vargas adds: “There is a natural eagerness from retailers and carriers to cut down on expensive WISMO (where is my order) inquiries and manage costs more effectively. They recognise the benefits of providing self-service parcel tracking apps and tools powered by GPS and RFID technology, which ultimately help keep shipping rates affordable. Offering real-time updates on a package’s whereabouts is now a key foundation of this trust.”

Winning the parcel shipping game

Avery Dennison’s research also reveals that consumers find current tracking systems unreliable and insufficient. The most-cited frustrations are inaccurate notifications, inability to change delivery time or location, and premature ‘delivered’ status updates. Deploying intelligent labels at package-level helps vendors and distributors overcome these shortfalls in service.

Vargas concludes: “As the research highlights, to remain competitive in today’s e-commerce landscape, retailers and carriers must prioritise transparency and innovation in their delivery process. With almost two-thirds of shoppers willing to pay more for tracking and notifications, leveraging advanced technologies and offering real-time visibility is crucial. The pressure is very much on to address consumer needs, and turn frustrations into trust.”

Download The Consumer Verdict whitepaper here.

  • People & Culture

Author

BWS

Published

21 July 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

When putting together a bid strategy or business proposal, it’s crucial to showcase value that extends beyond simply offering the lowest price.

Winning new business proposals is no easy feat. And writing them is unfortunately no easier. For new or small businesses, the process of bidding for contracts can be overwhelming, and leave you feeling unsure on what you truly bring to the table, especially in the face of stiff competition. 

If you’re left wondering what you can really offer a potential customer, the obvious choice might be to undercut on price. After all, better ROI and a lower price tag should tip the scales in your favour, right? But relying on a low price point not only risks damaging your credibility, but it also overlooks one key opportunity; showcasing your strengths, and positioning your business as the better choice. 

The key ingredient to successfully winning new business is to accentuate your value. The experts at BWS demonstrate how to go beyond cost and demonstrate why your business is the right choice.

Why price alone doesn’t define value

Whether drafting contracts or mapping out business proposals, focusing on lower prices can hinder success, even if the tender is evaluated on Quality vs. Cost. While of course it’s important to offer a competitive price, demonstrating tangible value, expertise, and aligning with your potential client’s needs, will produce far better results. 

How to position your business as the ‘best choice’

  • 1. Prove you meet (and exceed) the requirements

The very first step in positioning your business as the obvious choice, is to establish how you meet, and exceed their requirements. You’ll want to demonstrate that you meet every specification set out by the client, and how exactly you meet them. How do you meet the technical, commercial, and qualitative criteria set out – but more importantly, how can you go above and beyond and quantify how you will add extra value – as this will set you apart from the competition.

  • 2. Define your core messaging

While you should always start a proposal by catering to the client’s specified criteria, your business’s core needs to speak loudly too. Why should they choose YOU? What makes you a better fit? But most importantly – what is the real value you can bring to the table? Once you have determined your core messaging, and found your overarching concept or promise your brand stands behind, it will be much easier to ensure you are conveying this throughout the entire proposal. 

  • 3. Demonstrate expertise and evidence of success 

Words are words until they become facts when backed up with evidence of success. Which is why it’s important to showcase relevant experience, and know-how. You can do this by offering examples of completed projects that relate to your client’s ambitions and the positive outcomes. If you are in the early stages of your business, concentrate on showcasing relevant expertise such as team experience, credentials, past roles, and case studies – that way you can showcase credibility and capability without relying solely on a long track record. 

  • 4. Offer unique solutions 

Focus on how your work will benefit the client, and offer unique solutions tailored to their pain points. Demonstrate how your approach addresses their specific circumstances, avoiding vague or generic claims. Ensure you reference their industry, location, size, or operating environment, and personalise your language and tone to mirror the terminology of the client. By aligning your specific solutions – tailored to their specific needs – you will demonstrate that your proposal is custom-fit to their criteria. 

  • 5. Present as the risk-free offer 

At times, when starting out as a small business, it can be tricky to avoid being seen as a higher-risk offer. Longstanding companies have larger amounts of testimonials, case studies, and project stats – which can make it difficult to compete with. But don’t let this stop you. When bidding for new tenders as an SME, ensure you present yourself as a risk-free offer by including quality assurance measures, any accreditations or insurances for peace of mind, along with contingency plans to show buyers that you are prepared, and resilient in the face of any unexpected challenges.

  • 6. Provide value other than cost

As mentioned above, it can be easy to fall into the cost trap when starting out. But besides the fact that offering lower than market average costs can be damaging, it can erode trust and credibility in the eyes of the client. In this stage, focus on value for money rather than low-cost services. And ask yourself; do you have strong innovation plans? Are your projects injected with social value measures? And are you able to work more efficiently than other competitors? Not only does value build trust, loyalty, clients also want assurance that their investment delivers real benefits, not just savings – the key to repeat business. 

Michael Baron, Managing Director at BWS weighs in:

“When reviewing business proposals, clients aren’t just buying a product or service; they’re buying partnership, trust, and the strongest indicators of a positive outcome. It’s essential to demonstrate that you understand the client’s world, and that you’re not just going to answer questions correctly, but instead anticipate their needs. Instead of solely offering value for money, consider offering a unique approach to reducing their risk, strategies that support their long-term business goals, and ways to deliver intrinsic value throughout their project lifecycle. That way, you instantly become more than a supplier – you become a strategic asset.”

  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

30 April 2025

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read in brochure format

This month’s cover story explores the innovation programme bringing everyone at the National Grid on its transformation journey Welcome to…

This month’s cover story explores the innovation programme bringing everyone at the National Grid on its transformation journey

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Read the latest issue here!

National Grid: A data story driven by innovation

Transformational success with technology is about more than just ‘keeping the lights on’. Our cover story this month spotlights National Grid with the story of an innovation programme empowering everyone across the organisation on a shared transformation journey. Global Head of Data Strategy, Andrew Burns, tells Interface how connections like these are driven by data.

“We have new energy sources, greater demand and an opportunity to gather more data than ever before. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) are revolutionising how we use that data. Today, data and these technologies are combining to increase our ability to deliver value to our customers, and society.”

Asian Hospital and Medical Center: Leading the technology revolution in healthcare

Asian Hospital and Medical Center, one of the largest and fastest growing premiere hospitals among the close to 30 hospitals in the Metro Pacific Health Group, is the pioneer of an integrated healthcare network in the Philippines. Frank Vibar, CITO at Asian Hospital and the former Group CIO of the MPH Group, reveals the IT strategic roadmap that will deliver a true regional hospital.

“AHMC’s vision is to become the centre of global expertise in caring for the unique needs of our patients and the communities we serve.”

Also in this issue of Interface…

We hear from Tecnotree on the year ahead for the Telco industry; get the lowdown on meeting the challenges of integrating Agentic AI from Confluent; learn about the importance of Cybersecurity investment in OT (Operational Technology) from Claroty; and discover how IoT-enabled digital customers are reshaping customer experiences with Content Guru.

Read the latest issue here!

  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Read in brochure format

Deepak Parameswaran, Sector Head – Energy, Manufacturing & Resources at Wipro, talks innovation with National Grid’s Global Head of Data Strategy Andrew Burns

Partners for over 25 years, Wipro and National Grid have been laying the foundation for progress… By taking data to the cloud, creating value and leveraging their common work to deliver advanced, data-driven innovations across the National Grid enterprise.

Meeting the transformation challenge

As a utility, National Grid seeks to provide safe, affordable, and reliable electric and natural gas service for its customers. As such, the company is hyper-focused on natural gas, electricity grid modernisation, customer satisfaction and the integration of business and technology processes across the entire business as gas and electricity demand increases across the markets. Wipro offers actionable solutions, providing the innovative technology and domain expertise necessary for organisations like National Grid to transform and become leaders in sustainability within their respective industries.

Delivering bespoke solutions for Innovation

Traditional utility technologies can pose challenges in terms of complexity and capital investment. With Cloud and AI technologies emerging as game changers, Wipro delivers a proven ecosystem, incorporating analytics, IoT, Generative AI, and Augmented Reality, tailored to meet the needs of customers, assets, and grid management. This makes for easier, scalable, and faster to market solutions that allow National Grid to quickly realise the benefits.
Wipro’s Utility Enterprise solutions have delivered on key elements of the digital transformation journey at National Grid. This allows for a constant data presence across the globe, creating a common, secure cloud environment.

Wipro’s partnership with National Grid

Wipro’s collaboration with National Grid continues to be built on a foundation of continuous innovation, with a commitment to:

  • Staying ahead of utility business trends
  • Supporting National Grid’s clean energy transition
  • Developing sophisticated data and AI solutions for enhanced customer service
  • Maintaining agility to address emerging challenges

“Wipro has been our biggest partner in executing use cases through the Innovation Lab, enabling us to be agile and deliver multiple projects with direct, tangible business benefits. Their support has been vital in ensuring a clear, efficient process and rapid execution, making them key to our success.”

Andrew Burns, Global Head of Data Strategy, National Grid

Click here to read more about National Grid’s Innovation story

  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

20 November 2024

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Read in brochure format

This month’s cover story throws the spotlight on the ground-up technology transformation journey at Lanes Group – a leading water…

This month’s cover story throws the spotlight on the ground-up technology transformation journey at Lanes Group – a leading water and wastewater solutions and services provider in the UK.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Read the latest issue here!

Lanes Group: A Ground-Up Tech Transformation

In a world driven by transformation, it’s rare a leader gets the opportunity to deliver organisational change in its purest form… Lanes Group – the leading water and wastewater solutions services provider – has started again from the ground up with IT Director Mo Dawood at the helm.

“I’ve always focused on transformation,” he reflects. “Particularly around how we make things better, more efficient, or more effective for the business and its people. The end-user journey is crucial. So many times you see organisations thinking they can buy the best tech and systems, plug them in, and they’ve solved the problem. You have to understand the business, the technology side, and the people in equal measure. It’s core to any transformation.”

Mo’s roadmap for transformation centred on four key areas: HR and payroll, management of the group’s vehicle fleet, migrating to a new ERP system, and health and safety. “People were first,” he comments. “Getting everyone on the same HR and payroll system would enable the HR department to transition, helping us have a greater understanding of where we were as a business and providing a single point of information for who we employ and how we need to grow.”

Schneider Electric: End-to-End Supply Chain Cybersecurity

Schneider Electric provides energy and digital automation and industrial IoT solutions for customers in homes, buildings, industries, and critical infrastructure. The company serves 16 critical sectors. It has a vast digital footprint spanning the globe, presenting a complex and ever-evolving risk landscape and attack surface. Cybersecurity, product security and data protection, and a robust and protected end-to-end supply chain for software, hardware, and firmware are fundamental to its business.

“From a critical infrastructure perspective, one of the big challenges is that the defence posture of the base can vary,” says Cassie Crossley, VP, Supply Chain Security, Cybersecurity & Product Security Office.

“We believe in something called ‘secure by operations’, which is similar to a cloud shared responsibility model. Nation state and malicious actors are looking for open and available devices on networks. Operational technology and systems that are not built with defence at the core and not normally intended to be internet facing. The fact these products are out there and not behind a DMZ network to add an extra layer of security presents a big risk. It essentially means companies are accidentally exposing their networks. To mitigate this we work with the Department of Energy, CISA, other global agencies, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Through our initiative we identify customers inadvertently doing this we inform them and provide information on the risk.”

Persimmon Homes: Digital Innovation in Construction

As an experienced FTSE100 Group CIO who has enabled transformation some of the UK’s largest organisations, Persimmon Homes‘ Paul Coby knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a successful CIO. Fifty things, to be precise. Like the importance of bridging the gap between technology and business priorities, and how all IT projects must be business projects. That IT is a team sport, that communication is essential to deliver meaningful change – and that people matter more than technology. And that if you’re not scared sometimes, you’re not really understanding what being the CIO is.

“There’s no such thing as an IT strategy; instead, IT is an integral part of the business strategy”

WCDSB: Empowering learning through technology innovation

‘Tech for good’, or ‘tech with purpose’. Both liberally used phrases across numerous industries and sectors today. But few purposes are greater than providing the tools, technology, and innovations essential for guiding children on their educational journey. Meanwhile, also supporting the many people who play a crucial role in helping learners along the way. Chris Demers and his IT Services Department team at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) have the privilege of delivering on this kind of purpose day in, day out. A mission they neatly summarise as ‘empower, innovate, and foster success’. 

“The Strategic Plan projects out five years across four areas,” Demers explains. “It addresses endpoint devices, connectivity and security as dictated by business and academic needs. We focus on infrastructure, bandwidth, backbone networks, wifi, security, network segmentation, firewall infrastructure, and cloud services. Process improvement includes areas like records retention, automated workflows, student data systems, parent portals, and administrative systems. We’re fully focused on staff development and support.”

Read the latest issue here!

  • Data & AI
  • Digital Strategy
  • People & Culture

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

6 March 2024

Estimated Read time

3Mins

Read in brochure format

Our cover story this month focuses on the work of Arianne Gallagher-Welcher. As the Executive Director for the USDA Digital…

Our cover story this month focuses on the work of Arianne Gallagher-Welcher. As the Executive Director for the USDA Digital Service, in the Office of the OCIO, her team’s mission is to drive a tech transformation at the USDA. The goal is to better serve the American people across all of its 50 states.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Welcome to a new year of possibility where technology meets business at the interface of change…

Read the latest issue here!

USDA: The People’s Agency

“We knew that in order for us to deliver what we needed for our stakeholders, we needed to be flexible – and that has trickled down from our senior leaders.” Arianne Gallagher-Welcher, Executive Director for the USDA Digital Service reveals the strategic plan’s first goal. Above all, the aim is to deliver customer-centric IT so farmers, producers, and families can find dealing with USDA as easy as using an ATM.

BCX: Delivering insights & intelligence across the Data & AI value chain

We also sat down with Stefan Steffen, Executive Leader for Data Insights & Intelligence at BCX. He revealed how BCX is leveraging AI to strategically transform businesses and drive their growth. “Our commitment to leveraging data and AI to drive innovation harnesses the power of technology to unlock new opportunities, drive efficiency, and enhance competitiveness for our clients.”

Momentum Multiply: A culture-driven digital transformation for wellness

Multiply Inspire & Engage is a new offering from leading South African insurance provider Momentum Health Solutions. Furthermore, it is the first digital wellness rewards program in South Africa to balance mental health and physical health in pursuing holistic wellness. CIO, Ndibulele Mqoboli, discusses re-platforming, cloud migrations, and building a culture of ownership, responsibility, and continuous improvement.

Clark County: Creating collaboration for the benefit of residents

Navigating the world of local government can be a minefield of red tape, both for citizens and those working within it. Al Pitts, Deputy CIO of Clark County, talks to us about the organisation’s IT transformation. He explains why collaboration is key to support residents. “We have found our new Clark County – ‘Together for Better’ – is a great way to collaborate on new solutions.”

Also in this issue, we hear from Alibaba’s European GM Jijay Shen on why digitalisation can be a driving force for SMEs. We learn how businesses can get cybersecurity right with KnowBe4 and analyse the rise of ‘The Mobility Society’.

Enjoy the issue!

Dan Brightmore, Editor

  • People & Culture